Pop goes the Hadron

Large Hadron Collider temporarily shut down by unauthorized weasel entry

Weasel did not survive after invading a transformer, setting off an electrical outage

The Associated Press Posted: Apr 29, 2016 1:15 PM ET Last Updated: Apr 29, 2016 1:16 PM ET

Spokesman Arnaud Marsollier says the world's largest atom smasher, the Large Hadron Collider at CERN outside of Geneva, has suspended operations because a weasel invaded a transformer that helps power the machine and set off an electrical outage on Thursday night.

It's one of the physics world's most complex machines, and it has been immobilized — temporarily — by a weasel.

Spokesman Arnaud Marsollier says the world's largest atom smasher, the Large Hadron Collider at CERN outside of Geneva, has suspended operations because a weasel invaded a transformer that helps power the machine and set off an electrical outage on Thursday night.

Authorities say the incident was one of several small glitches that will delay plans to restart the collider by a few days.

Marsollier says Friday that the weasel died — and little remains of it.

Officials of the European Organization for Nuclear Research, known by its French acronym CERN, have been gearing up for new data from the 27-kilometre (17-mile) circuit that runs underground on the Swiss-French border.

The weasel, similar to this one, died — and little remains of it, CERN said.

© The Associated Press, 2016