Awkward. (Picture: BBC News/YouTube)

It seems two letters really can make all the difference.

While the Large Hadron Collider is the most complicated machines ever built, responsible for proving the existence of the Higgs boson particle in one of the most significant scientific experiments of recent times, for many of us it’s just one typo away from being a complete joke.

This weekend the particle collider was restarted for the first time in two years after a huge upgrade, but unfortunately BBC News made the unfortunate mistake of switching the ‘r’ and the ‘d’ to form a very different piece of machinery.

While the poor person responsible for the slip of the hand would probably have hoped the mistake would go unnoticed, they weren’t in luck…


#bbcnews I definitely think you didn't mean to write Hardon in your headline about the restart of the Hadron collider pic.twitter.com/F9hR9RmkZ9 — Bruce Robert (@brucerobertuk) April 4, 2015

Just saw @BBCNews news runner read 'Hardon Collider to restart' – that ought to get a rise out of people… — Wendy Morrison (@OxonArchaeol) April 4, 2015

Well, the "large hardon collider" just made its appearance on @BBCNews. Not even kidding. Pretty sure the sport lady noticed, huge grin. — Valtteri Bottas #77 (@FakeBottas) April 4, 2015

BBC News! They just had a massive caption of the "HARDON COLLIDER"! I'm not even joking! @justmalissa can confirm! — Gordon Menzies (@mighty_GOR) April 4, 2015

Couldn't screengrab in time but no @BBCNews that aston on the news channel did NOT say Hardon Collider did it..? — Louise Pepper (@loupepper) April 4, 2015

Thankfully for us, somebody managed to capture the moment for posterity and stick it on to YouTube.



We’re sure the BBC ticker person is very grateful.

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