Early warning system for Cern collider before next switch-on

An early warning system to prevent another massive liquid helium leak after one shut down the Large Hadron Collider at Cern, near Geneva, will be installed as part of repairs to the colossal underground machine. That is the recommendation of a report into the incident on September 19, nine days after the collider was switched on to great international fanfare.Repairing the damage done by the high pressure leak will take until next May, and the device, which recreates conditions not seen since the big bang, will not be switched on again until next June. In the meantime, physicists have a maddening wait before they can begin testing their theories about the fundamental nature of matter and searching for exotic new sub-atomic particles such as the Higgs boson.The early warning system is designed to prevent further helium leaks, but the report also recommends increasing the cross-section of pressure release valves by...

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