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Bird drops baguette, halts Collider
Testing on the Large Hadron Collider is halted after a bird drops a chunk of carbohydrates into the machine, causing a power outage.
I am all for discovering the Meaning of Life. And though I was once concerned that you could never trust scientists enough to find it, many wise people persuaded me that we should still try.
However, I am concerned with the news reported by the Guardian that a hungry bird has halted testing on the Large Hadron Collider.
The Collider, positioned on the increasingly sensitive border between France and Switzerland, has been quiet for more than a year after electrical faults and helium leaks.
It is now being tested to prepare it for action and reaction. However, a de-beaked piece of bread that dropped into the machine appears to have caused a power outage.
CERN spokesperson Christine Sutton told the Guardian: "The problem related to the high voltage supply. We get mains voltage from the grid, and there was an interruption in the power supply, just like you might have a power cut at home. The person who went to investigate discovered bread and a bird eating the bread."
I know there will be some who might suggest that the bird was actually French, as the bread has been identified as being of baguette form.
However, shouldn't we be more concerned with the metaphysics of physics?
There are, according to the New York Times, some scientists who believe that this God particle experiment is being interfered with by time-traveling particles from our own future.
We need surely to be told not whether the bird was French but whether it was real, or whether it was some strange messenger from a future time, warning us not to mess with things we don't quite understand.
