Creating the Big Bang!

Today the people in Europe, specifically at CERN, just flipped the switch on the new Large Hadron Collider.  So what exactly is this thing?  In a nutshell, go read Angels and Demon's by Dan Brown to find out... j/k.  What it really does is that its supposed to smash particles together to try and kind of re-create what happened during the big bang.  The thing is absolutely huge!  17 miles in diameter I think.  It takes two particles and starts spinning them in opposite directions, then when its at max velocity it opens a door so they can smash together and the entire scientific community takes note of what happens.

What they are trying to do is to find anti-matter and to see if matter can also be created in this fashion.  I think its pretty cool, although there are some funny rumors that it might open a mini-black hole and suck the whole planet into it causing the end of the world as we know it.  I don't think this will happen, it will just result in a really cool explosion and make some nice swirly pictures that will be posted on the internet.  They aren't scheduled to start real testing till later this fall but the concept in itself is mighty cool.

I hope they mention this sucker in the show The Big Bang Theory, that show is quite funny and it would tie in perfectly with the characters and the title of the show.