CERN and the Mysteries of Subatomic Particle Collision!

It's a sign of our times.
I know that Britney Spears opened the VMA and that she won 3 awards.
I know that Apple has just released a new range of iPods (thinner than ever before).
I know that if you are a minister who may pontentially be cajoled to join the 'dark side' (couldn't help myself), you can find yourself wooed into trips to the Great Agricultural Country* of Taiwan

But i think it's a shame that in our obsession with popular culture, we aren't more concerned about the Large Hadron Collider. [Wired has an excellent FAQ section on it. NY Times has a longer article on it too.]

Goodness, it even looks like it's from the future. From here

So we don't normally get much say in the day-to-day running of the world, but the U.K's Astronomer Royal putting the odds of total annihilation through sudden black hole creation (leading to the universe being sucked in and therefore everything going out like a light - except the lightbulb and air and everything around would cease to exist too) at 1 in 50 million makes me think 'Well, stranger things have happened!'

I just think that maybe we should've been aware of it considering existence of the universe is a little bit of my concern too. Then again, there'd probably be a lot of ignorant protests from people who are better off sitting harmlessly at home.

In any case, Einstein's Theory of Relativity tells us it's not possible to cause destruction of the earth. [heave collective sigh of relief here]

So maybe we won't be extinguished, but the Large Hadron Collider is (i quote)

the biggest, most complex machine humans have ever built, and today they will finally get to turn it on.

~this article in The Age

Not to mention it cost $9.6 billion USD, involved 10,000 scientists and engineers and is the result of over 20 years of work. Hooray!

Some nerdy enlightenment:

• The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is an enormous long circular tunnel with lots of posh things attached that will send particles in laps around it.
• They are trying to get 2 beams of particles to smash into each other.
• This will recreate conditions immediately after the Big Bang - which could be enlightening.
• Somehow this could potentially prove/disprove the Big Bang Theory, String Theory, Multiple-Universe Theory and the existence of Dark Matter.

What the heck? You're not peeing your pants in joy/anxiety/excitement/anticipation/trepidation?

Seriously, you could find out tomorrow (or realistically in the next 20 years) that there IS a parallel universe and somewhere out there a you but not you (or as many t-shirts put it: Same same but different) is living the alternate life you could never have imagined.

This could be the culmination of every sci-fi nerds' fantasies!

And if this could be taken as concrete proof that the Big Bang did happen, would we be able to stoke up as much furore in the Church as the heretical accussations surrounding Darwin's Theory of Evolution v Creation?

Well, whatever the result, i tip my metaphorical hat off to you, scientists and engineers. For daring to dream big and for not blowing up the universe. I like the enigma of science and physics but i wonder if i really would like to know the answers.

Mystery has its own appeal.

*may not be an actual country depending on whether being pro-China is in fashion.