Tech

A weasel may have just shut down the most powerful scientific machine in the world

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The world's most powerful scientific machine was shut down on Thursday... by a weasel.

The Large Hadron Collider, a 17-mile-long particle accelerator located in Switzerland, experienced technical issues after a small animal chewed through a power cable, according to NPR.

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Scientists at the facility will have to wait until mid-May to continue their research, Arnaud Marsollier, head of the press office for CERN — the organization that runs the Large Hadron Collider — told NPR.

This isn't the first animal incident that the $7 billion particle accelerator has faced in recent years. In 2009, a baguette was dropped by a bird onto critical electrical systems, Marsollier said.

Read the full report from NPR.