Cosmic rays
are indeed much more powerful than the LHC. Well, some of them are anyway. In order to do this sort of science properly, we need energies which are 10¹⁵ times greater than those in the LHC. So we won't be doing that for a while.

In a way, LHC experiments are helping human survival. The more we know about the cosmos, the more we can use this knowledge to our advantage.

For example, you may think relativity is so far removed from everyday experience that it doesn't matter. But if corrections for relativity weren't made in your GPS sat nav device, you wouldn't be able to tell which town you were in, let alone finding your position on the planet within ±2m.
( K2k6 has a proper job these days, Mon 8 Sep 2008, 10:42, Reply)