All I can say is, Well Said.

According to my rough calculation, the collision of two protons will release about 3 x 10^-3 ergs of energy. Hardly something to get concerned about, certainly not enough to cause the destruction of anything.

David

Please Brian can I have 'woomf' and 'plungg' to add to my collection? Is that the sound of smashing subatomic particles? As good as any I think.

Let's face it, the Large Hadron Collider has a fancy name but to Joe and Joanne Public it is just not sexy - even though the term 'big bang' might attract some interest. The expenditure of 3 x 10^-3 ergs (thanks David) in this endeavour would be disappointing. The speculation around the end of large and useful objects like universes at least got some publicity for the billions spent on a drag strip for very small things.

I have a theory: like Londoners in the Blitz, people actually feel happier when they have a doomsday theory to worry about. We can add to your examples the Y2K bug, SARS and bird flu (remember them?), which also evoked dire predictions of doom and sent the more nervous scurrying for the hills. Unfortunately all this millennial hysteria has a less funny side -- in Jonestown, Waco and the Auran cult, for instance. One deluded Indian girl has already committed suicide because she believed the Hadron Collider would destroy the earth.

As you can probably guess from my username I enjoyed the last paragraph of your article.

But I'm more convinced that the inclination to doomsday prophesy is a product of nurture not nature.

It's been the trump card for religions and dictators forever. Keep em scared and they'll obey.

Are these the same people who created the global warming crisis theory?

Ah, no, Brian, the LHC is about looking for the Higgs bosun and other particles.

It is apparent you get your scientific learning from those funny little 2-minute segments that follow the weather.

No, runner; these are the people that continue to contend that the earth has been cooling since 1998.

"The Large Hadron Collider is the 21st century's way of pursuing the age-old question of where we came from and why we are here,"

Sounds like a religious cult to me.

Anyhow, the particle collider malfunctioned within hours of its launch to great fanfare, but its operator didn't report the problem for a week.

What odds did our geeks place on a malfunction?

And being a "hignant" primitive and all that, how will this project benefit mankind in the long term?

Of course I seem to recall the last time humans meddled with atoms they came up with the atom bomb.

Anyway as someone said: "Who cares about the 9 billion dollars? I want the universe to be destroyed in fire and brimstone. It'd be great, I'd enjoy telling my grandchildren how I was there at the end of the universe, circa 2008AD."

You are jumping the gun a bit. They are running tests sending protons in a single direction around the device. They haven't started smashing particles together yet, so we are going to have to wait a little longer to see whether Switzerland is going to disappear into a black hole. Since they (the Swiss) have a reputation as being the most cautious nation on earth, I agree that we probably don't have much to worry about.

Your survey of doomsday cults has a few gaps, one being - well, doomsday cults. I'm also surprised that you haven't mentioned the largest and most influential of current doomsday cults, the environmental movement.

Great article, good to see someone not afraid of challenging or making light of the doomsayers. Lots of folks will be unhappy with you now though, those that have signed up to whatever end of the world scenario they enjoy most will not like it being laughed at.

Whether it's man made global warming, cooling, polar bear infestation, cats, computer viruses, giant oranges or comets, a lot of folks like to live on the edge with their beliefs - but laugh at other people's "stupid behaviour".

I guess some folks feel those people more or less deserve some sort of punishment, and if you belong to the group that looks like being "right" about the rest suffering for not believing, or believing the wrong way,it's a lot of fun.

In the end, it's all about belonging to a group and being happy about that, isn't it?

Religion's got nothing to do with it. Whatever the LHC throws up will be documented and can be proven to have occurred, which is the antithesis of religion.

The designers hope to pinpoint the god particle within a year of commissioning. The beauty of this kind of endeavour is if you don't believe what the boffins say you can always put your own collider together & find out for yourself!

Woomf! plunggg! The atom basher's sprung a "leak!"

Back to the drawing board geeks!

http://www.news.com.au/perthnow/story/0,21598,24378565-5005361,00.html

Ah well...........we still have the HAARP toy - that ionospheric heater - manipulating the weather!

check out the big brain on bennie!

aww you've made me all bashful now. Hard to have an intelligent conversation ain't it?