In The Field
Beam 2 test delayed
A cryogenic problem at has delayed the anticlockwise beam test. The LHC’s big dipole magnets are all superconducting, and so they need to be cooled to just 1.9 K (around -271 C) in order to function. There’s apparently some minor temperature fluctuations at point 8 (see the map below), which have held things up by about an hour. I’m told that point 8 has been a little buggy over the past few nights, but it’s probably nothing too serious.