29 April? Yes, that’s right! Anniversary of the day a stone marten ran into a 66,000 volt transformer, causing a short circuit that stopped the Large Hadron Collider at CERN working for a week.
I have practiced a deception on you, though, my friends, because that is not the stone marten in question. That’s the one that got into CERN’s electricity substation on 20 November 2016, and ran into an 18,000 volt transformer.
The Large Hadron Collider went down then, too, but — in the words of the Natuurhistorisch Museum’s press release — that
did not prevent the LHC from turning in a record year, recording more data than in the previous three operating years combined.
They tried to get the first stone marten for their permanent exhibition
‘Dead-Animals-with-a-story’ … famous dead animals that show how and where humans and animals collide and what the dramatic consequences can be
…but couldn’t:
In November 2016, they were in luck, though, and gave a permanent home to what was, fact fans, the third creature to knacker the LHC. They didn’t get the first because, by merely dropping a bit of baguette on a capacitator, the bird survived the experience.
The museum is also home to a fish that employed its natural defences in its efforts not to be swallowed, almost causing the demise of its foolish owner:
…and it started this particular collection when a curator witnessed “the first case of homosexual necrophilia in the mallard”. They now celebrate Dead Duck Day on 5 June each year.
This account does, too.
…but perhaps, by now, that doesn’t altogether surprise you.
