*scientist enters*
Right then, the Large Hadron* Collider is a big atom smasher which will collide beams of subatomic particles at previously unattainable energies, as Kaol correctly says. They are trying to investigate, by simulation, the high energy physics which took place very shortly after the Big Bang.

By doing this, there is a finite, if very small, chance that a micro black hole will be created. However, given that the total mass-energy of the particles is about the same as a mosquito flapping its wings (albeit the energy of the individual particles is immense, but they're very, very light) then the chances of that black hole doing anything other than just disappearing again are negligible.

In fact, the earth is bombarded by cosmic rays of even greater energy all the time, and last time I looked, we're still here.

*looks again to check*

So, in short, the world won't end on Wednesday because they're switching the LHC on. In any case, it's only going to be on reduced power, and it'll be about a year until meaningful high energy results are obtained.

*careful with the spelling!
( K2k6 has a proper job these days, Mon 8 Sep 2008, 10:25, Reply)