Blame It on the Large Hadron Collider Day

Blame It on the Large Hadron Collider Day was created in 2008 to shift blame for losing things from the people who actually lost them, to the Large Hadron Collider. "The Large Hadron Collider probably has your car keys, your missing socks, and your rent money, perhaps sucked into a black hole," one source notes. The day takes place on the anniversary of the date that the Large Hadron Collider was first fired up in 2008.

The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is the world's biggest and most powerful particle accelerator. Located just outside of Geneva, Switzerland, on the border with France, it was built by the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN). The idea for it was conceived in 1984, and the final go-ahead for its construction was given a decade later; it took $5 billion just to get it up and running. It operates as such: protons come from a tank of helium gas and are accelerated almost to the speed of light while being directed in two beams down a circular track. The track is nearly 18 miles long and is between 165 to 575 feet below ground. A great amount of energy is released when the protons collide together. One of the goals of the LHC was to test the Big Bang Theory, by creating the conditions of the beginning of the universe according to the theory. In 2012, the LHC was used to find the Higgs boson particle.

So why would the LHC be given blame? Perhaps it is because of its size—there is a lot of room for things to get lost in a machine that is 18 miles in circumference. Or perhaps blame is given because the LHC had issues just nine days after it was first used. Magnets overheated and melted and caused an explosion of helium gas. The LHC was fixed and upgraded but did not begin running again until 2009. Beginning in 2010, it had to run at half capacity to help prevent another accident from happening.

How to Observe Blame It on the Large Hadron Collider Day

Spend the day blaming the Large Hadron Collider whenever something goes wrong, particularly if you can't find one of your items. It's likely your item was stolen by the LHC and is now inside of it, or a black hole it created. In order to get your item back, perhaps you could visit the LHC, at the CERN headquarters in Switzerland. There are other ways the day could be celebrated as well. You could listen to "Large Hadron Rap," which was written by CERN employee Katherine McAlpine. You could also watch the episode of World's Toughest Fixes titled "Atom Smasher," which deals with the repair of the Large Hadron Collider in 2008; watch a 2012 horror film called Decay, which takes place at the Large Hadron Collider; or watch the documentary Particle Fever, which is about the scientists at CERN.

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