CERN delays atom-smashing over magnet fault
Plans for the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) to start smashing its first particles next week have been derailed after it developed a significant fault today.
The problem with one of the £3.6 billion accelerator's superconducting magnets means it will be impossible to stage its first trial collisions on Monday, and further delays could follow once the damage has been fully assessed.
While a faulty transformer that had hindered progress for much of the past week has now been replaced, as first reported by The Times, the magnet failure is potentially more serious. Supercooled helium that chills the LHC's magnets to 1.8C above absolute zero was released into the accelerator's 17-mile (27km) tunnel in the incident.
Engineers were still investigating the extent of the problem this afternoon, and CERN officials could not say how long it would take to fix and what impact it would have on the LHC's schedule.
Read more at Times Online.
Will the BBC's new fantasy series eclipse Dr Who?
It might take a magician to make Merlin work.
On paper, Merlin is a very good idea. It's a well-known legend of completely British origin that nobody's touched in aeons. Robin Hood did OK, but with so many other Robin Hoods clattering about in recent memory it just felt too "meh". But Young Merlin's name alone just sounds cool. And boy wizards have, apparently, been popular among kids in recent years.
This new Saturday-night reboot is basically Camelot 90210. Or Smallville with spells. Or Buffy with boys (Slayer star Anthony Head even plays nasty King Uther Pendragon). Merlin adjusts to life as a wizard with a special destiny while navigating the minefield of puberty. We know the ending to this story, but the BBC want to show us how they get there. And it just might work.
Read a review of the first episode at The Guardian.
When animators get horny
The American science-fiction author Harlan Ellison tells a cautionary tale about how not to sex up a Hollywood movie. Hired as a writer by the Disney studio, Ellison was in the studio cafeteria on his first day, regaling amused co-workers with ideas for an X-rated Disney cartoon. He was even acting out the parts of Disney characters in pornographic situations. Unluckily for Ellison, several studio executives were sitting nearby, watching his routine. Returning to work, Ellison found a pink slip on his desk: he was fired.
Moral: don't mess with the Mouse. And yet in Japan, an artist and animator as nationally beloved as Uncle Walt took time out from creating adorable family characters to make X-rated cartoons. His name was Osamu Tezuka, and his work is now having a rare English-language screening at the Barbican. And it's not just kids' stuff.
Read about what Osamu Tezuka started creating here at the Guardian online.
Stephen Hawking unveils 'strangest clock'
A 1million pound clock called the "time eater" has been unveiled at Cambridge University by Professor Stephen Hawking. The author of A Brief History of Time was guest of honour when the unique clock, which has no hands or numbers, was revealed at Corpus Christi College.
Dubbed the strangest clock in the world, it features a giant grasshopper and has 60 slits cut into its face which light up to show the time.
Its creator John Taylor said he "wanted to make timekeeping interesting".
The Corpus Clock will stand outside the college's library and will be on view to the public.
Read more about Dr Taylor here.
