Weasel halts most powerful machine on Earth

The largest scientific experiment went offline because of a foreign intruder, reports CNN.

CERN's Large Hadron Collider, the world's biggest particle accelerator located near Geneva, Switzerland, lost power on Friday. Engineers investigating the outage made a grisly discovery -- the charred remains of a weasel, reports CNN quoting CERN spokesman Arnaud Marsollier.

The little critter gnawed through a 66-kilovolt transformer inside an electrical facility outside the main building. Just for perspective, one kilovolt is 1,000 volts of energy.

Chewing the wiring ended up frying the creature into oblivion and causing a wide power outage around CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research.

The unexpected power loss has shut down the Large Hadron Collider for at least a week as engineers work to make repairs and address other issues, Marsollier said.

The weasel's unfortunate demise is not the first time CERN has faced technical issues due to animals. The facility is in the countryside, sitting between the French and Swiss border.

In 2009, a bird had a case of talons -- when it dropped onto the electrical system. The toasty loaf caused a short circuit, sidelining work at the facility for a short time. Unlike the weasel, the bird survived.

Source: CNN