September 9, 2008

LHC & The End of the World

Tomorrow at 9:30 Central European Time (10:30 local), as you may know, the LHC (Large Hadron Collider) will "turn on", i.e. its main proton beam will circulate for the first time through its entire length, achieving energies far higher than any other accelerator has reached before.


It's official: there's nothing dorkier than theoretical physicist rapping

This, as well as the ultimate goal of the entire experiment (finding the elusive Higgs boson -a.k.a. "The
FSM particle"- something perceived as an act of hubris by many) has led to speculation about whether the world is about to end in a freaky high energy physics accident.

I, for one, believe that all this was prophesied a long, long time ago (1979!) by the great & late Douglas Adams:

"There is a theory which states that if ever anyone discovers exactly what the Universe is for and why it is here, it will instantly disappear and be replaced by something even more bizarre and inexplicable.

There is another theory which states that this has already happened.

There is a third theory which suggests that both of the first two theories were concocted by a wily editor of The Hitch-Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy in order to increase the universal level of uncertainty and paranoia and so boost the sales of the Guide.
This last theory is of course the most convincing as
The Hitch-Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy is the only book in the whole of the known universe to have the words DON'T PANIC inscribed in large friendly letters on the cover."

And then, of course, there's this:


How can it not go awfully wrong???


*OK, in fact the first collisions, where anything could **theoretically** go wrong are not scheduled till October 21st or so, but I will not let this mere technicality stand in the way of fear-mongering. OMG PANIC PANIC EVERYONE!!!1!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

se latreuwwwwww
N.S.K

Markos said...

Κι εγώωωωωωω (με λατρεύω) :P

Σοβαρά τώρα, τι μπορεί να πήγε στραβά? Γιατί είμαστε ακόμα εδώ? Τι κρύβεται στο
υπόστεγο 51
? Οι πύλες του ανεξήγητου άνοιξαν, κλπ κλπ κλπ