The fact that I’m sitting here writing this and you’re sitting there reading it means that fears regarding the Large Hadron Colider (LHC) and the end of the world were a bit overblown. At 10:33 AM CET this morning, the first proton beam successfully completed a circuit of the entire LHC.
The LHC is the latest example of ‘Big Science,’ a multinational collaboration involving thousands of scientists from over 60 different nations. The largest particle accelerator ever built, scientists hope that data gathered from the LHC will nail down the existence of the elusive Higgs boson, a subatomic particle that is theorized to be responsible the existence of mass.
If you’re still worried, you can keep tabs on the LHC with the Large Hadron Collider webcams at CERN.
Or, if that’s too much trouble, just keep checking hasthelargehadroncolliderdestroyedtheworldyet.com
(Thanks to Bill Whitcomb for that last one)
September 10, 2008 at 2:04 pm
They haven’t collided any Hadrons yet.
Not that there is anything to worry about.
September 10, 2008 at 3:11 pm
ah but shouldn’t we be more worried about what it’s done to the world and left us here to deal with?
if butterflies cause tornadoes, what does the hadron collider do, i wonder?
maybe you’ll wake up one morning and your hands have swapped around. how’d you like that? prefer a bit of eskaton now don’t you, hmm?
September 10, 2008 at 3:12 pm
eskaton on thin ice, i says…
September 10, 2008 at 7:12 pm
Bummer. Although I’m still hoping for the Rapture to come and take some of these nitwits away.