A new dawn

I dedicate today's post to the Large Hadron Collider, which was yesterday put through its paces for the first time in Cern.

The LHC, the acronym I'm sure is on everybody's lips, is a hundred meters underground and utilises a seventeen mile tunnel.

According to chemistry professor Otto Rossler, there was a danger that the collider might cause 'mini black holes' which may 'survive and grow exponentially and eat the planet from inside'.

Normally, that sentence would be crying out for a good, humorous kicker.

The reason I have resisted an attempt at mockery is because the other possibility (according to Professor Llewellyn Smith) is that the crashing of subatomic particles will eventually lead to a 'theory of everything', which has to be good news for all, with the likely exception of Bill Bryson's publishers.

It is a stance also bolstered by David Evans, a physicist from the University of Birmingham:

'It will certainly advance the knowledge of mankind...and pushing technology to the limit always has spin offs.'

Indeed it does David, indeed it does.

I am already experiencing one.

This device could explain the forces of nature.

I feel greatly humbled and refuse to highlight my ignorance of such physics by making jokes.

Honestly.

That is why I resisted the chance of an easy dig at Otto.

Once we buy him a raincoat, a placard and boot him onto a street corner, we can start thinking about the benefits of the LHC.

Look at this way: one of the unforeseen consequences of the big bang was Gillian Mc Keith brandishing a clear plastic tube on television.

Can the LHC really not be a good thing?