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Physicists expect great things from the Large Haldron Collider (LHC) when it becomes operational at CERN near Geneva, Switzerland, this summer. The facility will simulate conditions less than a billionth of a second after the big bang and help answer questions about particle mass. Others expect bad things and seek to shut down the world's most powerful particle smasher in a U.S. District Court lawsuit contending that the LHC could create killer strangelets, affecting ordinary matter in a chain reaction leading to mini-black holes and altering life as we know it. CERN and U.S. contributors to the project intend to proceed as planned. Is there a basis for safety concern here, or just a case of massive over-reaction?
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Re: Strangelets in the Night
