The Big Bang

This may prove to be a good time to say a final 'goodbye' to all of our readers (in advance), as this week is the week of 'The Big Bang'.

'Big Bang' is an attempt to duplicate conditions that existed one-billionth of a second after the Big Bang that scientists believe created the universe.

It’s all going to happen on Wednesday, September 10 at CERN, the European Organisation for Nuclear Research and the largest centre of particle physics research in the world which is located in Switzerland.

Scientists there will switch on a 17 mile long object called the Large Hadron Collider, which will smash particles together at speeds 99.99% of the speed of light.

It’s taken 20 years of preparation, 10 billion dollars and more than 10,000 scientists from 70 countries and been described as the greatest scientific endeavour since the Apollo moon landings – and something that will herald a
new era in our understanding of the universe.

The experiment will generate 40,000 gigabytes of data each day, which will be analysed by a virtual supercomputer made up of 100,000 processors around the world linked by the internet.

Located outside of Geneva, some 300ft below the Frenco-Swiss border, the Large Hadron Collider will blast atomic particles around its 17-mile circumference approximately 11,200 times every second before then smashing them headlong into one another.

Although scientists have been utilising particle collision devices similar to the LHC for some 30 years without incident, concerns over CERN’s device have arisen due to it being the biggest and most powerful collider ever built.

Opponents fear the $10 billion Large Hadron Collider may create a mini black hole that could swallow our entire planet, us with it!

But project scientists have dismissed the fears as "absurd".

• Editor's note:
Let's all look on the bright side. Just imagine the new DX opportunities that being in sucked into a black hole might offer us (hi).

Hopefully though, we'll be back on Thursday with more amateur radio news.