It's not the end of the world as we know it

While there's no doubt in my mind that the world will keep on keeping on even after they fire up the Large Hadron Collider, it's still fun to contemplate doomsday scenarios and end-of-the-world conspiracy theories. Although modern science usually functions on the "Can we?" principle (rather than the "Should we?" principle) you kind of do have to start with the assumption that scientists with the understanding to build such a machine have a pretty good idea of what it's going to do. They are hopeful that they will discover the elusive Higgs boson, the so-called "God particle" that imparts mass to the universe. (No, there's no Higgs boson in chocolate cake. They've looked there already.) Protesters seem hopeful that the CERN collider will create minuscule black holes that will compress our planet to a finite point. But the people who actually built the thing believe they are more likely to create a Higgs boson than a black hole. So, unless you've finished your doctorate in particle physics, why wouldn't you trust the experts?

To put it another way, the folks at CERN and Fermilab have been looking for Higgs boson for a while. They probably have some concept of how to go about it without ending the world.

Tomorrow, we can get back to the prevailing immediate doomsday scenario (no, not the Republican administration's foreign policy), the world-ending red letter day that comes in 2012 when the Mayan calendar ends. I'm not worried about this one either. Not because I don't believe in the Mayan gods or their cosmogony, but because the Mayan calendar is a cycle. It has come to an end before. Fortunately, the religion provides a simple way to reboot the universe. All it takes is a little human sacrifice. And just like I know the scientists at CERN are doing all they can to keep the world spinning, I know there are believers in the old ways who are doing the same.