A lot of my friends were gloating yesterday that the activation of the Large Hadron Collider yesterday did not, in fact, lead to the end of the world. This, though, turns out to be based on a misunderstanding. The machine was activated, but as of yet no particles have been collided and, naturally enough, it’s the colliding that might lead to the end of the world. Long story short, we’re not out of the woods yet. Indeed, the first high-energy particle collision won’t happen until October. And worse, my understanding is that a collision could result in something (a very small black hole, I think) that destroys the world, but doesn’t actually do the destroying until some time after the collision. So be on guard.
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