Oops, I forgot this method of apocalypse

This happy looking fellow is the CERN Large Hadron Collider*, and it will soon conduct its first large scale test.

The LHC has a circumference of 17 miles, and is buried on average some 150 feet underground.

The purpose of the LHC is, according to the Wiki, to find out the following:

• Is the popular Higgs mechanism for generating elementary particle masses in the Standard Model realised in nature? If so, how many Higgs bosons are there, and what are their masses?^[10]
• Will the more precise measurements of the masses of the quarks continue to be mutually consistent within the Standard Model?
• Do particles have supersymmetric ("SUSY") partners?^[1]
• Why are there apparent violations of the symmetry between matter and antimatter?^[1] See also CP-violation.
• Are there extra dimensions indicated by theoretical gravitons, as predicted by various models inspired by string theory, and can we "see" them?
• What is the nature of dark matter and dark energy?^[1]
• Why is gravity so many orders of magnitude weaker than the other three fundamental forces?

All sounds great. But, there is the matter of "micro black holes, strangelets, vacuum bubbles and magnetic monopoles", and I can tell you from experience, all it takes is a few micro black holes and strangelets to ruin your day.


But I kid! I'm sure this science project won't destroy the earth and/or the solar system.

Fun related facts: Did you know that the scientists testing the first nuclear bombs could not be sure if the nuclear reaction they would cause would cascade into a chain-reaction, destroying all matter?

Glad that didn't turn out to be true...


*also known in other circles as the Large Hardon Collider