Large Hadron Collider

by phil on Wednesday Sep 10, 2008 2:28 PM

I woke up this morning feeling like I had slipped into another dimension. Then I wondered if maybe the Large Hadron Collider shifted Planet Earth somewhere weird. I looked into the mirror and I still had two eyes, two hands. But I was up at an ungodly hour, which was weird enough for me.

Anyway, here's a picture of the beast that's creating mini-black holes in Switzerland:

I use this mainly to introduce my new favorite photoblog: The Big Picture. And also because the above image makes it seem like the LHC has a soul, or that we are staring into the Eye of an Unforgiving God that will punish us for this one time, going waay too far.

That's just what I feel, not what I believe. I believe the scientists who say that the LHC is re-creating what happens constantly by cosmic rays hitting the Earth's atmosphere. Still I was nervous about today.

This is also a good chance to learn about the History of Switzerland and how it developed its reputation as a country of neutrality. Apparently the Swiss were blockaded by both the Axis and the Allies. Also interesting is that the fragmentation of the different ethnic groups in Switzerland helped keep them from picking one side or the other during WWII.