Higgs Boson

UM...

So particle physicists are looking for a new particle called the Higgs Boson. This is basically because in some calculations pertaining to the weak nuclear force (W and Z bosons) there are infinities that pop up in the calculations. Physicists believe that if they find this Higgs boson it will be the final touch, the cherry on the cake, of particle physics. In fact, scientists have built the large hadron collider at the CERN laboratories in Geneva in order to find this particle.

Two problems I have with science begin to take hold.

What if they don't find this Higgs boson? Well, it is the belief of some that we may have to redo the entire standard model. That means what we know forces occurring between particles, the model scientists have been working on since 1900, will have to be redone.

This is not what worries me.

What worries me is that scientists can't assure us that colliding these particles won't lead to the apocalypse.

One thing critics worry about is the possibility of creating a black hole and I hope that this is not the case. Though scientists say that the black hole would be very small even if it was created, and would be ejected into the atmosphere. But what if it isn't? What if a black whole big enough to engulf the whole planet is made?

Another things critics worry about is the possibility of creating a strangelet. A strangelet is a particle with an up quark, a down quark, and a strange quark. If the strange matter hypothesis is correct, however, every particle that comes in contact with the particle of strange matter would become strange matter. Much like the ice nine of Kurt Vonnegut's Cats Cradle led to the apocalypse, so too would this strangelet end the real world.

Though these worries may seem paranoid, scientists haven't said that these things won't happened. When asked, in fact, one scientist said that there was a one-in-fifty million chance that an apocalyptic situation as mentioned above would occur.

I don't want to hear that there is any chance that scientists may accidentally destroy the planet.