The Large Hadron Collider will shut down at the end of 2011 to address design and safety issues.

Until then, it will run at a maximum of 7 trillion electron volts…instead of its designed max of 14 trillion.

The problem involves the copper sheaths around the superconducting joints in the tunnel.  The copper sheaths are a failsafe mechanism designed to take up the current if one of the magnets in the Large Hadron Collider warms up – an incident known as a … gulp…”quench”.

Apparently where Large Hadron Colliders are concerned, there’s nothing worse than hot magnets.

I can’t help but wonder if this isn’t more handiwork of  the Higgs-boson time travelers.

BBC News – LHC to shut down for a year to address safety concerns.