Recent rumours that the Large Hadron Collider wouldn’t be doing any colliding before 2010 were quickly quashed, although the presentation slides that triggered the rumour are still missing from the internet. Now a similar disappearing act has been pulled on the first photos of the damage that downed the particle accelerator.

Blogger and post-doc particle physicist Stephanie Majewski posted on Monday to say, “Finally, some photos of the damage to the LHC”, linking to an original post by fellow LHC blogger Seth Zenz. By yesterday morning the photos had been removed from the online version of a talk given at the LHC’s home in CERN, although you can still see them here.

As a comment on Majewski’s blog notes, “You’d think the organization that spawned the Web would do more to harness its power rather than engage in cover-up activity, especially in a time when openness would be better respected.”

In the meantime, here is a nice picture of them fixing the damage to the LHC, which are available for all to see. This is the first replacement magnet for sector 3-4.

Image: Maximilien Brice / CERN