Not with a bang, with a whimper...

On Wednesday it was reported that the Large Hadron Collider - the £3.6bn machine that's supposed to re-create the effects of the Big Bang - has broken down. Apparently a large amount of helium leaked into the tunnel on Friday, forcing the particle accelerator to be shut down, and, as a result, the LHC will be out of action until next year. So, it looks like we can all breathe a sigh of relief. There aren't going to be any Black Holes appearing under the Swiss Alps anytime soon.

What I want to knew is, did James Bond (or somebody like him) discover that the LHC was actually part of some insane megalomaniac billionaire's plan for world domination and shut it down falling some dramatic, and improbable, battle underground. I think the truth should be told!

This is the way the world ends
Not with a bang but a whimper.
—T.S. Eliot, The Hollow Men (1925)