Lots of people will be hysterical when the Large Hadron Collider starts up. There will be protests (probably more than a few here in everybody's favorite city), and maybe some nut will even try to bomb one of the LHC's facilities.
I'm pretty excited about this. I don't pretend to understand much of the science involved (humanities lol) but from what I've gathered this thing has the potential to revolutionize our understanding of the universe.
I hear that during the first couple months of operation, they're mostly going to be doing test runs, just to make sure that everything is calibrated perfectly and they can actually get a beam of particles to circumnavigate a 17-mile circular tunnel at 99.99% the speed of light. That sounds like it could be tricky.
If it does reduce the Earth to a singularity, we've had a good run, and things have kind of been going downhill for a while, anyway.
We should have a really uninformed debate about what will happen when the LHC is activated.
I hear it will stop the rotation of earth's core, causing a reversal in the earth's magnetic field, from which only Hillary Swank Aaron Eckhart will be able to save us.
Pfft. Get a good night's sleep. If this thing does create a black hole, if this thing does create a tiny, stable black hole (which, again, is not theoretically possible) while you're asleep, you probably won't even know what's happening before you die.
Though I have to admit, if there's an earthquake here tonight, it'll probably be a little more unnerving than usual.
These kinds of collisions happen millions of times each second. If they were capable of destroying the universe, we'd have noticed by now (or at least, would not be able to discuss the dangers of the LHC).
It's like Christmas Eve, except there's a chance the planet will implode while I sleep. Also, instead of opening the presents when I wake up, I'll have to wait a few days/weeks for the scientists to interpret the results of the experiment.
If the LHC doesn't destroy the planet, I hope it somehow manages to kill everyone who believes in astrology, and that Nostradamus could predict the future.