Large Hadron Collider Magnets Fail

Large Hadron Collider Magnets Fail

On Tuesday, March 27, there was a serious failure in a high-pressure test at CERN of a Fermilab-built "inner-triplet" series of three quadrupole magnets in the tunnel of the Large Hadron Collider. The magnets focus the particle beams prior to collision at each of four interaction points around the accelerator.

Just one example of the high-stakes struggle going on to increase our understanding of the laws of the universe. Tolerance of risk, failure, and design oversight is an inevitable part of the process. But, as with the Hubble mirror and shuttle disasters, we press on.