Initial Tests a Success, World Lives to See Another Day

If you haven’t heard already, the 3.8 billion dollar particle collider in Geneva, Switzerland was revved up for the first time this morning, and two beams of protons were successfully sent around the seventeen-mile-long underground ring:

The world’s largest particle collider passed its first major tests by firing two beams of protons in opposite directions around a 17-mile (27-kilometer) underground ring Wednesday in what scientists hope is the next great step to understanding the makeup of the universe.

After a series of trial runs, two white dots flashed on a computer screen at 10:26 a.m. (0826 GMT) indicating that the protons had traveled clockwise along the full length of the 4 billion Swiss franc (US$3.8 billion) Large Hadron Collider — described as the biggest physics experiment in history.

The project has received much attention of late, most notably for a recent lawsuit alleging that the huge collider could form black holes and bring about the destruction of the world. Professor Otto Rössler, a chemist at Eberhard Karls University in Tübingen, Germany who helped bring the complaint to court, argues that the mini black holes created when particles collide could literally turn the earth inside out.

Having spent a year in the picturesque town of Tübingen myself, I can certainly relate to the professor’s concern. I too would hate to see the destruction of Tübingen’s wonderful Weinstuben .