The most audacious experiment in all of modern physics is known as the 'Large Hadron Collider' (LHC), an 18-mile diameter ring buried underneath the border between France and Switzerland. The purpose of this $9 billion behemoth, operated by the European Organization for Nuclear Research, known by the acronym CERN, is to essentially smash protons into one another at just shy of the speed of light. At certain points within the machine, the proton beams will be allowed to cross and smash into each other. Scientists hope to study the potential new particles that arise from these collisions. The most prized of these theoretical particles is called the Higgs-Boson particle, also known as the 'God Particle', which is theorized to imbue all things with mass.
Well it turns out that God doesn't want us playing with his particle. The project has been beset by various delays over the past 9 years of its construction, the most recent coming in the form of the connection between to magnets being destroyed shortly after the machine was switched on. Oh, and a French particle physicist employed by CERN was recently arrested for potential ties to the North African wing of Al-Qaeda. Nevermind that the lunatic fringe has repeatedly warned that such a colossal machine working on the edge of our scientific knowledge could inadvertently create a black hole and destroy the world.
Now, two highly-regarded physicists, Dr. Holger Bech Nielsen and Dr. Masao Ninomya have postulated that these various hurdles and delays may not simply be coincidence. Rather, they propose that the existence of a Higgs particle is so 'abhorrent' to nature, that the future may in fact be attempting correct the past and prevent a Higgs from forming.
I'll give you a moment to read that over again...
"It must be our prediction that all Higgs producing machines shall have bad luck,” Dr. Nielsen said in an e-mail message quoted in this recent NYT essay. Further evidence can be found in the fact that in 1993 the United State Superconducting Supercollider project, also designed to find the Higgs, was cancelled, even after billion of dollars had been spent, he argues. So yes, they are basically saying that the future is correcting the past.
The Times articles gives a more thorough account of the two physicists and their theories, more fully described in this publication, and followed up by this paper. As far as most others involved with the project are concerned, it will be moving forward soon, when they begin to inject particle beams into the machine in November.
Regardless of the outcome (and sure hope its not a world-ending black hole) isn't it exciting to live in a time where we can recreate the Big Bang in a hole in the ground, realistically postulate about time-travel, and have so many options on the 99-cent value menu?
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