So just 3 more days until the LHC goes online this Thursday (the initial beams get injected on Thursday, the first collisions aren’t scheduled but for another 2-3 months or so).  Currently the whole thing is being frozen to 1.9 Kelvins using liquid Argon.  Can you say really cold?

Anyways the idea is that they’ll be able to recreate the big bang, but (hopefully) on a much smaller scale.  The internet is having a field day because the thing is so powerful it can create micro-black holes as well as other space-time anomalies, and the natural assumption is that we’re all going to die.  This suspicion of impending doom is further exaggerated by CERN (the orchestrating body) publishing reports stating that they "beyond reasonable doubt, heavy-ion experiments at RHIC will not endanger our planet"[src] (Murphy’s Law….) as well as the facility looking like the Black Mesa Research Facility from Half-Life.  More after the break.

Read more