Hadron Collider's Transformer Breaks

GENEVA, Switzerland (AP) -- A 30-ton transformer that cools the world's largest particle collider malfunctioned, forcing physicists to stop using the atom smasher just a day after launching it to great fanfare, the European Organization for Nuclear Research said Thursday.

The collider's ALICE experiment will look at how the universe formed by analyzing particle collisions.

The faulty transformer has been replaced and the ring in the 17-mile circular tunnel under the Swiss-French border has been cooled back down to near absolute zero -- or minus 459.67 degrees Fahrenheit -- the most efficient operating temperature, said a statement by CERN, as the organization is known.

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