What unlikely outside group forces the Large Hadron Collider to shut down for three weeks every winter?

Image by Image Editor via FlickrThe Large Hadron Collider may be the most influential scientific instrument of the early 21st century, but it still has to play ball with all the various agencies and interest groups that dominate modern life. One of these organizations holds some rather unexpected sway over the LHC -- enough to force the particle accelerator to shut down its atom-smashing for three weeks or more every winter.

Want to know who the mysterious power behind the Higgs Boson throne is? As usual, you've got two ways to found out:

• Geek Trivia: What outside group forces the Large Hadron Collider to shut down every winter? [TEXT]
• Techtalk Radio Episode 242: Every winter the LHC is forced to shut down. Why? [AUDIO]

The former includes some rather awesome counter-theories from TechRepublic's online readership. The latter includes a vivid discussion of the fallout from Google's acquisition of Zagat. Both are worth your time, despite my involvement in each venture.

Related articles

• Large Hadron Collider: There's an App for That (escapistmagazine.com)
• The Higgs boson might explain the origins of the universe and dark energy [Mad Science] (io9.com)
• Why You Shouldn't Fear Science - Even Particle Physics (livescience.com)
• What two movies created by a famous Hollywood geek pushed the PG rating so far that the MPAA created PG-13? (jaygarmon.net)
• How Do You Shut Down the Second Most Powerful Particle Accelerator? [Science] (gizmodo.com)