Because protons will start coming together in France. Or Switzerland. At high speed. Against their will.
Wouldn't this be some really bad poetic justice? After all the warmaking we've done and nukes we've produced, we snuff out the planet during a science experiment. I suppose that, if it happens and we destroy the planet, it'll probably happen so fast you won't even know it's happening. Or maybe you would be aware, but there wouldn't be much you could do about it. Conjecture, I know.
Scientists: Collider in Europe won't bring end of the Earth
...the most powerful atom-smasher ever built could make some bizarre discoveries, such as invisible matter or extra dimensions in space, after it is switched on in August.
But some critics fear the Large Hadron Collider could exceed physicists' wildest conjectures: Will it spawn a black hole that could swallow Earth? Or spit out particles that could turn the planet into a hot dead clump?
The physicist Martin Rees has estimated the chance of an accelerator producing a global catastrophe at one in 50 million — long odds, to be sure, but about the same as winning some lotteries. (Ed. note: Uh, someone wins the lottery all the time. That's supposed to calm the critics?)
The full story, sans snippage, is here. Unfortunately, it's on AP, so it's suspect.
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