Particle accelerator could blow up the world

[bounty hunter]

Fears were increasing last night that the Swiss particle accelerator could create a quantum singularity - effectively a mini big bang.  Scientists at the largest such  installation yet built are aiming to detect the Hig's Boson, the 'missing' particle in Stephen Hawking's theory of everything.  However in doing so it is possible they could collide matter and anti-matter thus creating another big bang.

Dr Felix Weinbaum of the Geneva institute for Astro physics said, 'such an event is extremely unlikely and I would urge the public to stay calm.'

[paulham]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5znEizruC5E

[chocadmin]

Go CERN!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j50ZssEojtM

[bounty hunter]

The other concern is that strange quarks could coalesce with ordinary matter to form strangelets.  This would cause the matter in the LHC to become unstable, possibly causing the current space-time continuum to wobble.  The effects of this on the world are currently speculative but objects appearing and disappearing simultaneously in different parts of the Earth are one such phenomena that could be experienced.

[oldspice]

What you mean like when you put eight pairs of socks into the washing machine and only five odd socks come out?

[bounty hunter]

YES, EXACTLY LIKE THAT!

[chocadmin]

That's a good excuse to have around - "Yes I'm sure I put matched pairs in the washing machine, the LHC must have zapped 'em away..."