BlogWonks

The Large Hadron Collider, a 17-mile long particle accellerator near Geneva, Switzerland, will be switched on in a few days. Here’s what it’s designed to do:

The device is designed to replicate conditions that existed just a fraction of a second after the **Big Bang, and its creators hope it will unlock the secrets of how the universe began.

Cool, eh?

Oh, wait:

Opponents fear the machine, which will smash pieces of atoms together at high speed and generate temperatures of more than a trillion degrees centigrade, may create a mini-black hole that could tear the earth apart.

Well yeah, there’s that. Mini black holes? The Swiss are damn determined to make the universe match their cheese.

At any rate, because “Powers’ Third Law” is inescapable (”Any action will generate an equal but opposite lawsuit”), the people with these fears are going to court to stop the project (a suit has also been filed in Hawaii’s US District Court).

In addition, the scientists have received death threats for creating a “doomsday machine.” Ironic, eh?

Some people have seen Ghostbusters and Contact way too many times.

(**Note for the MTV crowd: No, the “Big Bang” isn’t what led to the conception of Brangelina’s twins.)

Hadron Collider scientists, above, practice for the big day

(h/t SoccerDad)