Science: The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN was planned to begin circulating beams of particles the entire way around the accelerator's 27-km circumference this week. However, an electrical short discovered over the weekend has delayed the full restart while the short is repaired. That task could take as little as a few days or as long as several weeks. Shorts are not uncommon as the LHC is slowly ramped up, but the time it takes to repair them can be significantly increased if supercooled electronics first have to be warmed up. The scientists working at the accelerator plan to use x-ray imaging to examine the area to determine if they can remove the metallic source of the short by melting it or blowing it away with helium.
