the Large Hadron Collider (LHC)

Wow! What a morning.
The biggest news of the day has got to be that the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) didn't cause the end of the world.

I had shared the story about the LHC with my son several weeks ago and jokingly told him it could cause the end of the world by ripping open a giant black hole and sucking the entire earth into it. We also saw a short film about it at the Maryland Science Center just last weekend.

So, this morning when we got up, he asked if he had to go to school today.
When my wife asked why, He said, "because the world is going to end today when they collide those atoms and rip a whole in space and time. Dad said so."

I got a very stern look from my wife, which I quickly passed on to my son.

"Now, son. That's not what I said."

"Yes it was." my son quickly argued. "Remember? You had just finished your sixth can of beer and said you wished you had more because 'come Sept 10, the world was going to end."

Que stern look from the wife.

"Um," I started.

"You said they were idiots to try and smash atoms..." he began again. "And that by smashing atoms at near the speed of light those scientists would piss off God and bring about the end of the world."

Luckily my wife saved me, along with the help of Google, which (those wacky search engine engineers) had placed an Icon atop their page today with tons of quick links about the LHC. Check it out today.

As it turns out, the test was conducted at 9:30 am local Geneva time. (At my writing, it is now 6 pm there and around Noon here on the east coast.)

So my wife read on that the test was really just a preliminary, and the real atom smashing won't begin for a few more months.

Then my son asked, "So on whatever day the world ends, do I have to go to school that day?"

So after a long pause, I finally fell back on the old parent stand-by answer.

"I don't know," I said. "We'll see."