OneAndOneIs2

...but it broke itself: The Large Hadron Collider is out of action for months due to a Helium leak and some magnets heating up.

Pity, I'm at least curious to see what the LHC could tell us about the existence (or not) of the Higgs-Boson. But I can wait.

The REAL question that I'd like to see answered about the LHC, tho, is:

The fire brigade were called out after a tonne of liquid helium leaked into the tunnel at Cern, near Geneva.

Why??

Liquid HYDROGEN, I'd understand. The Hindenburg was full of Hydrogen, so a leak of that stuff, definitely have firemen on standby.

But Helium? It might only be the next element along from Hydrogen, but it's almost the most unreactive element in existence. If anything, the chances of a fire would have been REDUCED by there being Helium all over the place.

Okay, so it lead to a magnet heating up by 100 degrees. But when they're more than 200 degrees below the freezing point of water, that really doesn't sound like much of a fire hazard.

So, seriously, what did they need the fire guys there for? This is a group of people whose normal response to an emergency is to axe their way into the danger zone and blast it full of water.

When the site in question is a vacuum-filled tube 16 miles long that cost billions of Euros, is that really the type of response you want in a time of crisis?