Will particle smasher destroy the planet?

US campaigners are attempting to delay the switch on of the world’s most powerful particle smasher. They have brought a lawsuit, which claims that the machine could cause dangerous particles, or mini black holes that could destroy the entire planet.

The giant machine known as the Large Hadron Collider, LHC, is located at Geneva’s European Center for particle physics, CERN, and scientists are hoping to begin operations in July.

However, on March 21, Hawaii resident Walter Wagner and Spanish citizen Luis Sancho filed lawsuits in Hawaii’s US District Court against CERN, to stop the switch on. They are able to file the suit because the project has American contributors.

The American contributors are the Department of Energy, DoE, and the National Science Foundation. The legal action demands that the machine not be switched on until the collaborators’ prove that it is totally safe.

According to CERN spokesman James Gillies the claims are “complete nonsense”, and that “The LHC will start up this year, and it will produce all sorts of exciting new physics and knowledge about the universe,” and also: “A year from now, the world will still be here.”