bang bang

Wow. Apparently, they've built a "giant scientific instrument" near Geneva that will be used to recreate the Big Bang. That's right, recreate the Big Bang. That would be taking all of the abstract mathematical calculations about physics and realizing them, such as the Standard Model and the existence of things we think exist, but only because we can see their effect on something else, like dark matter or strange matter.

The Large Hadron Collider is a particle accelerator that will enable scientists to view the behavior of beams of hadrons, a type of subatomic particle. The LHC is 17 miles long and exists under a region. At first I thought this was surely the work of science fiction, but apparently this thing was tested last week. A UK newsite notes "The LHC is the world's largest cryogenic installation. In preparation for Wednesday's initiation, 37,000 tonnes of equipment had to be cooled down by 300°C to 1.9° above absolute zero (-271°C). The machine also uses the world's most advanced superconducting magnet technologies. LHC's conception and construction involved 10,000 people from 500 institutes in 50 countries."

It seems suspicious that mimicking the circumstances that began the universe might not affect the existing universe, right? Will it cause the universe to end, or create a new one on top of ours? Will it even work?

It's like living science fiction without the jetpacks or the jumpsuits.