Various: The Large Hadron Collider (LHC), based at CERN, the European Laboratory for Particle Physics in Geneva, Switzerland has suffered a serious setback with the failure of a crucial 43-foot quadrupole, focussing magnet for the machine. The magnet broke during tests last week with a large bang. Reports are available from News@Nature, Courier News, ABC Australia, BBC The magnet, developed by Fermilab failed due to a design flaw says Fermilab’s director, Pier Oddone. We “took a pratfall on the world’s stage,” he says. No one was hurt during the test, but the launch date for LHC for mid-2008 is likely to be extended.
An ultracold atomic gas can sync into a single quantum state. Researchers uncovered a speed limit for the process that has implications for quantum computing and the evolution of the early universe.
January 09, 2026 02:51 PM
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