im completely for this experiment. it would be nice to know how the universe came into existence. its only natural for the human mind to seek answers to its questons. why is it that people are afraid of the dark? scary movies? no. its lack of information. you use your eyes to asses your saroundings for information. lack of information iritates the mind. trying to explore the unknown is a worthy endevour for the sake of knowledge. and honestly, how freakin cool would it be to read a chapter on the beginning of time itself in a high school text book. having all the answers right infront of you.

gonzlamm, houston,

Relax guys... It's just another accelerator... It's like saying I have a 100 Watt bulb, let's build a 120 Watt bulb. There is nothing dangerous or exotic. Hundreds of such experiments have gone just fine. The mounting problem occurred because of the belief of the physicists that they can do everything better from project management to software and of course... mechanics. No matter what, they will never learn so just relax and enjoy it. As for the instant solution to the poverty issues, the point is that EU and the rest establish such experiments for their co-products like better super-conductors, software (GRID), electronics etc. Not because they are interested in the Higgs boson or all these non-sense. So relax… everything is… as it always is.

Dimitrios Kouzis - Loukas, Cambridge, UK,

I find it incomprehensible that intelligent world opinion has not brought this ill conceived dangerous project to a halt long ago. Had the billions of dollars poured into this project been diverted to end world poverty this world would be a better place. To believe that you could reconstruct the original big bang even on a miniscule scale and leave the planet intact beggars belief of the thinking man. Leave well alone and do something with your intelligence that may have a much more positive real outcome to make this world safer and more peaceful. I for one am pleased for the reprieve from the November switch on. Stop this before it is too late. Either I am wrong or we wiill be here one instant and sucked into an almighty black hole the next. Or maybe a place in between that will make global warming and climate change the least of our worries. It is time the world opened its eyes to this lunacy.

Robert Baldock, Scarborough, England

The thing is isnt the only way to make a black hole is by a supernova so if this particle accelerator actually does create a black hole it would need to make a supernova which would cook the earth and the entire solar system neway and the fact tat splitting atom created a explosion which destroyed a island what is going happen when 1 ore billions of protons split the matter of the fact is these scientists are way over there heads. Plus the fact tat they can make such a easy mistake means they could av missed sumthin else out so basically if it is not stopped we r all screwed

dean, devon, england

If the scientists can make mistakes on the basic construction and securing of the main components of the hadron collider (i.e. the magnets) it does not bode well for the successful testing and running of the machine. Somebody has probably stated this before but I will say it anyway. These guys are playing at being GOD and sometimes when you think you know more than you actually do you set yourselves up for a nasty surprise. I just hope you guys really know what you are doing because smashing protons together at the speed of light sounds kind of risky, kind of like what happens inside a nuclear bomb when it is detonated.

phil, tanilba bay, australia

This experiment could possibly be the third time we have done it !

Tony, Oldham, England

What they are attempting to do is very dangerous and a threat to the world if it goes wrong - which is very likely. They (the scientists) should be stopped before it is too late!

Raymond Adams, Aberdeen, Scotland

What is the real need to find out how the world started, were fine as we are if you don't want to live anymore kill you're self not the whole human race! I THINK IT'S AN ABSALUTLY SELFISH THING TO DO. I know that it could help the human race how it began but what are you going to do after that? Are you just going to keep on doing experimants until it gose wrong.
I think you should do a big puplic vote because no one has had a say in this apart from you.

Wendy , USA,

the particle accelertor at cern is not trying to find the big bang but to create a black hole long enough to discover it's essence to perhaps to build a generator that can create black holes for the military to utilize.. guess what they want to do with it..These people are antitheticle to nature because in a way here on Earth we all are .. We are not ever all going to get along yet we need each other to survive here..WE don't really have, as a species, the ability to survive in a meaningful way in nature we don't have long enough legs we dont have wide enough jaws we don't have long enough arms no claws no sharp teeth we can't see very far hear very far smell enough or far enough.. no fur what have we got...only each other and nothin else and if we keep killing each other off becuase we are trying to make them understand" that this aggression will not stand".. then we shall all fall down for we have nothing else to fall back on...

richard Wizard, forestville, CA. USA

I am absolutely and totally dumbfounded. How the hell is this going to aid anything ever? You want to create some kind of worm hole or antimatter device for what reason? So the world as we know it can bu sucked up its own backside? Noone has the right to take the fate of any person in theyre own hands, so the potential of destroying everything we know has definately got to be the single most selfish act ever to be discussed then to be built and not even in the country of origin is absoulutely the biggest april fools joke ever. If its not then shame on u. I'd much rather be invaded by some form of alien however evil or foul than to be wiped out by our own evil, I mean come on!! This isnt a movie we only get one shot why tempt fate? If the scientist types really want to play with fire why dont they work out a formula using time , trajectory and forces to see when they should move out of the road when a truck comes at them averaging 65mph? its just as safe after all. many thanks

Shaun, penzance, England

The only problem is that their was no Big Bang machine around when the world started. Every painting has a painter every building has a builder. Somthing NEVER comes from nothing, they would have to create an atom from nothing useing nothing to prove the big bang.

Ben, Lexington, SC

We know the universe exists and that it works. There is no real NEED to know how it started or even how it works, other than to observe what works and follow it to the food, shelter etc.....

The Indigenous peoples were relaxed enough to take on board that there are somethings you just cannot know, and the things you CAN KNOW, if you pay attention, will provide food, shelter and a pretty enjoyable life experience.

The scientists and their backers are fooling around whilst people are starving, whilst people are killed in wars and by what are essentially industrial revolution related disease states, be they cancers, degenerative diseases or psychological disease states.

Many people have died in scientific 'experiments' - wherein people were fooling around with forces they did not understand. Those deaths are not worth the effort, ever.

What is worthy of the effort is paying attention to how nature WORKS and then working WITH nature.

corneilius, London, UK

Hey Trekky, Philip Addyman, who did not say one could not 'bend' the laws of physics???

Steve Anna, Morton/Peoria, United States of America/ Illinois

Just as the 'uneducated intelligence' was 'guessing' at the 'un'evitable outcome of the detonation of the first true nuclear...OH, pardon me, atomic device, was the general constituency of this planet unaware of the risk involved. The universe is still here. That was real FISSION in its infancy. This is real FUSION in its infancy as a renewable energy source. GET IT? Fission fizzes out. Humankind has developed both the fission and fusion bombs: controlled, spontaneous reactions with a physical limit (the fuel source can only destroy a certain quantity). What is now being explored? Fusion: The New Energy. How to hold the power of a star in the womb of Gaia!

Steve Anna, Morton/Peoria, United States of America/ Illinois

i'm no sceintist.... but is this experiment worth the risk of blowing up the planet when what they are trying 2 discover is something that isn't really that important??
it may give u a better idea of how the universe started and all that but the possible disasters that can come from it seem endless! what good is it going to do??
i don't want this experiment to go ahead! and i don't think ALOT of other people do either....

tim, norfolk,

This is a horrid scientific debacle in the making...

Daniel Gray, Pittsburgh, PA.

Thousands of scientists have spent years building a magnetic ring to prove that their maths is correct!
Unfortunately the maths does not map to the reality of observation.
What a wast of intellect and money.

Fivish, London, UK

this mad project has got to be stopped for the safety of this planet

paul johansson, sheffield, england

we have to stop this it could kill the world

jonathan k, derby , england

I work in the technical field and see it often. The abandoning of science and reason in schools, work and daily life has to show up at some point and it did , at perhaps the highest level, to date.

Delmaun, San Francisco, USA, CA

People need to wake up and smell the Cosmic Rays!

To the extent that there are millions of particles with energies nearly 100 million times greater than what the LHC will be able to produce colliding with the earth every year I think it's safe to say that the fellows in Geneva aren't going to do us all in.

Sorry y'all
=P

je.Ci, Santa Cruz, California

There was no mathematical error, it was an engineering omission.

http://www.sciencebase.com/science-blog/large-hadron-collision-at-cern.html

David Bradley, Cambridge, UK

I have been and I am still trying to warn that the experiment with the LCH is very dangerous because the little big bang they are trying to reproduce could imply a conversion between gravity and energy according with my Global Theory of Equivalence. See my page from http://www.molwick.com/es/gravedad/154-teoria-big-bang.html, sorry is still in Spanish.
The danger comes from the quantitative relation “gr = E c/G* that could induce a sudden increase in gravity and a real blalck hole bigger than expected. The stress in magnets could mean a lucky step.
Of course is a facultative idea, but there is another intriguing experiment on gravito-magnetics, see http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/GSP/SEM0L6OVGJE_0.html
Please notice a “one hundred million trillion times larger than Einstein’s General Relativity predicts” is just around c/G predicted by my Global Theory of Equivalence and it might be one needs to multiply by *2PI*, a small error compare with…

Mª Jose, Madrid, Spain

A good many of these comments here are ridiculous. The research preformed at CERN is highly important. Also it is thanks to CERN we have the Internet they implimented it so they could share there research, so its not all been a pointless waste of cash. I had the Honour of being one of the lest groups of A-level physics students to ever visit the CERN research as was mightily impressed by what they have achieved, I think a good many of the comments made by people on this comment are of the kind which are made without prior knowledge of the actual research being preformed and are therefore sceptical.
Ian The moon is reponsible for the Weather patterns and Tides on the planet, blowing it up wouldn't achieve much.

Ben Manicom, Bradford, Yorkshire

As someone who works regularly at CERN, I find many of the comments here laughable. There was no conspiracy, and just because a mistake was made with some magnets doesn't mean we're a bunch of bungling fools that are going to blow up the planet. As someone who has stood in the LHC tunnel and seen the CMS and ATLAS detector halls, I can tell you that the LHC and associated detector experiments are truly mind-boggling in complexity. Relatively few people with relatively small amounts of money are attempting to make at least 3 of the top ten most complicated things ever created by man - it would be utterly incredible if nothing did go wrong. Also, American (inc. Fermilab) scientists are just as excited about the LHC switching on as any particle physicist - they get to study the data it produces, and have invested a hell of a lot of time and money in its creation also. The idea that this is a Fermilab spoiling action is truly preposterous.

Dr Robert Frazier, Bristol,

I totally agree with Brett from Texas. What a waste of time blowing up a cave in Switzerland (don't they all live in caves there anyway?). Time and money wasted when our patriotic American scientists could have invested that energy into a real project for the future: blowing up the moon. I mean, what good is it? Just like President Joseph Kennedy challanged those hippies back in the '60's to go play golf and leapfrog on the moon, President Bush should leave a similar legacy in our pursuit of a moon-free night. Stupid old moon.

Ian MacMiller, Aberdeen, Scotland

There was no mention wether or not the Boson escaped during the explosion, if it did, where is it now..?

Dave, Groningen, Netherlands

Other stories report that CERN had scientists from other organizations participating in the design reviews. So there is ample blame to go around.

Bill Davidsen, Schenectady, NY USA

If the calculations were wrong at such a basic level, how can we trust any calculations defining the so-called Big Bang itself, if it ever happened? Is God having a bit of a chuckle right now?

Paul, Bristol, England

This is an incredibly nastily written article. Something everyone should understand is that half the people working at Fermilab also work at CERN and the physicists at Fermilab are at least equally thrilled about CERN coming online as anyone else. And as for the implications that this is an "America vs. Europe" thing, notice the name of the director of Fermilab and also know that the Americans are the largest single contributer to CERN. Just because one lab is located in the US and one in Europe doesn't mean that they are international rivals. Science is fairly universal.

John Fleming, Anchorage, Alaska

can i use what is left to accelerate my mother-in-law to great speeds. i only need the bit of the tunnel that is still working.

Kambiz Shahri, Pretoria, South Africa, Gauteng

Im really suprised that the big bang that lifted the 20 ton magnet off its foundation didnt create some sort of perfect enviroment for these tests.

If I am following the Big Bang "scientists" logic.

Todd, New Cumberland, USA/PA

Must be them the new MBAs . They are fresh out from the secondary schools, the audit firms grabs them, gives them the slide ruler and tells to do the internal audits of the Tarmac roads. Imagine the agony. Silly aint it?

Firozali A Mulla MBA PhD, Dar-Es-Salaam, Tanzania

It would only be fair when Fermilab would interrupt their search for the Higgs for the time of delay at Cern which was caused by their own incompetence. Otherwise the thought comes up that there was a malicious intend to delay the experiment at Cern to obtain the Nobel prize for teh US. They should not be trusted anymore.

John, Zuerich, Switzerland

It is a scientific breakthrough, but when something breaks it is an engineereing error?

Walter E. Wallis, P.E., Palo Alto, California USA

I'm not sure explosion is the right word for what happened, correct me if I'm wrong, but these magnets are under vacuum conditions i.e. no oxygen to burn. From what I've read in other sources they were running a test on the magnets under test conditions of a potential cooling failure or heating due to beam misalignment raising the magnets temperature over the critical superconducting transition (no mention in the article).
A boson is a integer spin particle some transmit the forces of nature photons (electro-magnetic forces), W+/- Z0 (weak force), gluons (strong force) and gravitons (gravity).

Ergsun, London,

Just noting with amusement how many people from the US were complaining about wasted money, when in fact CERN is a European organization and the US is only a country with 'observer status' and the US is guilty of EXTREME wasting of capital, as is evident through the ~$9 trillion national deficit. Obviously there are better ways that the money could be spent, such as humanitarian efforts, but it is human nature to be in a never-ending quest for knowledge that I personally find quite admirable.

In regards to the experiment and the accident, I believe that the scientists behind the experiment have noble intent, and that if/when the proper precautions are taken, this could lead to discoveries that answer some of mankind's most sought-after questions.

Phil, Pittsford, New York

I'm so sick of US competitivenesss. They perfectly know how dangerous that explosion could be, and how much faith is put in LHC and now, another year delay...I hope people responsible for that pay for it very seriously, cuz they're ruining something so important for us. Yep, where science fails, corruption flourish. Shame on you so called "engineers"! That could cost human life!

denitsa, sofia, Bulgaria

Are we to stop looking inward and outward in science/music/art? We are humans and, by nature, curious about why we are/what we are/who we are. People who say there are no Mozarts are encumbered by sentimentality. Thank goodness that projects like these are funded by the government.....too bad the blunder had to occur.

fred, topeka, kansas

If they wanted answers to the mysteries of the world, then why not look in the Bible? These science boffins are so convinced it all started with a big bang - and thats why I find this incident extremely funny. They got their big bang - but not quite in the way they expected lol !!!!!

Janice, Nottingham, U.K.

Why don't they have any film of the explosion??? That would have been wikkid

Bob T., Menlo Park, USA

Some would say our world has too many protons already.

Waldo McFroog, Pretoria, SA

Scientists take chances not only with their lives, but with the lives of those arou nd them... It's often a case of " what if... and let's see ...." without knowing what the outcome is going to be .. Will they totally obliterate earth in the years to come with one of their experiments?

Linda Barrett, Cork, Ireland

I'm sure Global Warming is going to have something to do with this!

James Troscinski, Grosse Pointe Park, USA

Sometimes you hear the question why there are no Beethovens or Mozarts composing beautiful music today, as opposed to the "modern" cacophonous rubbish being composed today and in the last century. The reason for that is the government. It is financing the trash. What was once dictated by market forces or private philanthropy is now dictated by self-absorbed bureaucrats. In light of this, you might want to ask yourself why the government is pouring billions into these scientific projects which have little or no merit. The proponents like to claim they are "unlocking the secrets of the universe." With what, a glorified periodic table of subatomic particles?

R Jensen, South Bend, IN USA

This device is not 100% safe. Why are some of the science communities in such a rush to recreate the conditions of the BIG BANG? Our world has enough problems that deserve attention and funding.
Come on people, get on the good side...TEAM EARTH.

adam, hollyhood, ca

Another waste of money!

Richard James, Peoria,

Lifted a 20-ton magnet, filled a tunnel with helium, forced an evacuation AND created enough hot air to propel a moderatly-priced car: science is definitely advancing!

Yves Ferrer, Algoz, Portugal

This is science at it's best! Machines that unravel the mysteries of life exploding all over the place! Brilliant!

Rowdy Blokland, Gorinchem, Netherlands

"...scientists building it made basic errors in their mathematical calculations."

wish to see you calc in hand... ¬¬

(madrid, spain)

ivan, madrid, spain

Does this not kind of tell us that we are not qualified and shouldn't bee trying to recreate something like the big bang? Otherwise it may just be a big bang too far.

Steve O'Neill, Lincoln, UK

Mankind has always done a very poor , and sometimes humorous, version of playing God. Not many years ago, I recall, one of NASA's rockets disintergrating when world leading scientists displayed a misunderstanding of kindergarten proportions and mixed up metric and imperial measurements. Why do you think every new generation, every 20 years or so, looks back at the our previous scientific beliefs and laughs at the ridiculousness of them all. Why not think 20 years ahead and have a laugh now at what masquerades as knowledge. I have articles from the 1970's which showed the scientific concensus was that the world was undergoing "Global cooling" and that an ice age was imminent. The exact opposite is now being spouted and still no one questions these high priests of politically correct pox. When scientists can cure a common cold maybe then we can suspend our disbelief that they know what happened a billion generations before a single human thought existed. Talk about a JOKE.

jason barndon, perth, west australia

Well it’s a clear set-back for the physicists involved and i sympathise. Hope they get it up and running soon :)

Ali, london, uk

That was the small bang. The big bang comes when they switch the thing on and get more than they bargained for. Let's hope the Maths is right on the main experiment and no mini-blackholes or other oddities form which swallow the planet up.

Nowt stranger than fact..

John Farthing, Colebrookdale.,

nice to know that even scientists can get their maths wrong XD!

Steph, London,

If the Tevatron is capable of doing the job, why is money being wasted on the obviously unnessary CEM project?

I'm sure there are more worthwhile uses for the funds.

Absolom, Twainharte, California

So, did any new living species come out of the explosion?

maurice, UK,

As Scotty from Star Trek used to say, "you cannot change the laws of physics, Jim".

Philip Addyman, Newcastle,

Think of all the strippers you could hire for the money they spent!
And they would knock your magnets off their mounts! Yeah BABY!

Craig, Deerfield Beach, Florida USA

From the description it appears to me that one of those supercooled magnets has desintegretated during a test run because of the pressure built up by the intense magnetic field. That's the same magnetic pressure which causes large explosions on the solar surface in protuberances and solar flares. The pressure has to be counterbalanced by sheer mechanical force, to hold the thing together. It appears someone slipped up calculating the strength required. The device goes bang and the liquid helium escapes and fills the room. But because there's no chemical reaction involved, that's all that happens.

Dr E.J.Zuiderwijk, Cambridge,

The successful operation of this colider puts the USA behind in this field of research. I smell dirty business here.

Worst thing is, you can never prove it. Pier Oddone just has to put on a show for the world and blame his staff. Don't get me wrong, it may have been a genuine mistake, but as the article points out, Fermilab gain time out of this event.

I can't belive I have to wait another year now...

Joe Frost, Sydney, Australia, NSW

I am curious, if the universe is expanding at the speed of light, then if we do manage to travel at the speed of light, and are able to reach another planet/world, and stay there for a day or so, how on do we get back to where we started, because if we do get back, every thing will have advanced or been destroyed. So why bother to start in the first place. Unless of course you expect another dimension is here.

victor arram, westclff on sea, uk

I haven't read anything in the article or these comments indicating the cause of the explosion. Underground explosions can have many causes as the history of mines, especially coal mines, shows. The author of the article implies the designers of the magnets caused the explosion, but also criticizes them for not designing the magnets to withstand the forces of the explosion. Frankly, I don't understand what the author is talking about. I doubt if the engineers designing the system contemplated an underground explosion.
So far as the other comments are concerned, many make good points about these types of esoteric experiments, which obviously no one else is able to reproduce. The money for this research in the USA is forced from citizens by a powerful government because most politicians are persuaded by fancy but unproved claims and speculations by physicists and others. But these claims have been going on for decades. Why not put up their own money for all this for a change?

Winfield J. Abbe, Athens, GA, USA

In light of the recent string of "small" mechanical failures, the good news is shortly the LHC will be operational shortly and bringing:

The creation of small stable black holes.
Strange matter more stable than normal matter.
Magenetic monopolies, that catalyze proton decay.
Transitions into a different quantum vaccum.

All of which are several theoretical disasters capable of destroying the Earth and the Universe.

However the assurances passed on to us migate any obvious reason for concern. Things are going so well so far, the Earth is still here.

Blake, Topeka, Kansas

Mistakes happen. Learn from them, fix the equipment and get on with the job. Such experiments will help to reveal the world as it is, not as we perceive it because our senses restrict our understanding. It this knowlegde doesn't SEEM useful at present, it may only be so because we don't know exactly WHAT is hidden from us.

Teresa Ferguson, Melbourne, Australia

I have a teori that this kind of experiment kan be very dangerous to the hole earth, I have been terrified after cern said they would built a bigger axelrator,

I think there is a danger to realeese all the energt of all the earth mass in a bad kollision with heavy partikkels

because of the near light speed of to heavy partikkels can kreate a energy that realees the energy of the near atoms and are we real lukky it can kreate a cain reaktion

It`s aktually very simpel math when you know your "einstein"

exuse my english, I`m norsk

I realy hope I`m wrong abaout this, but i prediktet this explosion to my friends and in mail to cern in 2006

ronny myrvang, namnå, norway

No higgs! This is a waste of $$ and time. See:
http://web.archive.org/web/20031121174446/http://www.nothingmatters.org/

Jim Zubrowski, San Francisco,

As a retired physicist, permanently short of funding during my career, I reckon the wole thing is an expensive waste of public money that could have been put to equally interesting and much more useful research. The curiosity to be satisfied is simply not worth the incredible cost.

J F James, Beppu, Japan

" I will look into moving to the EU where maybe I can get something done. "
My Grandfather had the same thoughts and feelings . The Reich was the place be . After all , just look at the glorious records of European Nations .
Praise Mother Russia . Hail Colonialism .

Franz, Calgary, Canada

some problems on earth are insolvable. you can't just fix the solutions to homelessness and poverty. these problems are as old as civilization, and with every new generation new problems will evolve. Its a pipe dream and very naive to just think that we can give all the money to poor people and we won't have any more poor people. It is also naive to think that this research won't somehow lead to a better life here on earth. Paolo mentions how it was a waste of money to go to space, yet think of all the technology industries that have risen from that endeavor, and made our economy stronger, and created jobs, indirectly helping people. Another point is, i love how people take the word 'scientist' for granted. They are upset that we don't have the cure for cancer so we should switch over 30% of our scientist to finding the cure like they are some kind of commodity. The reality is, these particle "scientists" probably wouldn't be very effective in finding the cure for cancer.

max powers, yuma,

I know nothing, I'm not a physicist/chemist or whatever.
However I do remember the Hubble telescope in danger of going down the pan.
Why don't you scientific people pay more attention to small detail?
It would help, and also make some of your Reports more credible.

MikeM, St. Albans, England

Higgs' bosom could be created much more easily by visiting a plastic surgeon.

Stephen, Manchester,

Responding to Nancy of Glenn Falls and Joan Camps of Barcelona:
It is the difference between funding technology and funding science. Funding technology produces 'useful' items through engineering and is a refinement of known science. If you do not fund science research and development-eventually your technology will stagnate. You can't engineer upon the unknown.

We frequently neglect the long term for the short term but as Joan points out eventually you need the long term.

Gareth, Houston, TX USA,

One may be excused for wondering just how much of the E&D was outsourced or given over to Hb-1 visa holders by Fermilab (and/or its contractors). Interesting.

Pathfinder, Denmark, USA/Wisconsin

James, St. Andrews...

What are you talking about? Gold ions are used at RHIC, yes. But RHIC and the LHC are much different experiments. At the LHC, they want to use protons whose partons (quarks, gluons) are at much higher energies than anything that RHIC can produce. RHIC's large energy merely comes from the fact that each particle that collides is actually composed of hundreds of protons/neutrons. Each individual subatomic particle, though, is very low energy.

Travis, Ottawa, Canada

Cern is not an "atomic lab". The title is confused.

Peter Wordorawski, warsaw,

I think that if they had checked there work (Major Irony) this would have never happened. I mean even algebra students check their work (Myself included) why should they stop just because they get payed millions of dollars (or pounds) a year to do math.

Matt, somewhere in ohio, US of A, OH

I doubt any active conspiracy or intent by Fermilab; the cost of the repair will surely negate any profit. The stigma alone is an incalculable harm to them.

Here in the US we engineers and scientists are near the bottom politically. For example: "Challenger."

A recent news story indicated in France and EU in general scientists and engineers are held in high regard and generally actually make the technical decisions. I will look into moving to the EU where maybe I can get something done.

Rob, West Chester, PA, USA

I just hope they didn't forget to convert between feet and metres...

VI, Bowie, MD,US

Well, it's a pretty big event they are trying to re-create, and since these scientists aren't particularly omnipotent or anything, they deserve a break for being off by a bit in their calculations on their first try.

Who knows- maybe this universe wasn't even God's first try at the whole thing. Or worse, maybe it was, and He got it right the second or third try elsewhere- and meanwhile we're all stuck down here in His first Petri dish.

"In the beginning the Universe was created. This has made a lot of people very angry and has been widely regarded as a bad move." - Douglas Adams, "The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy.

Uncle Ian, Oshawa,

The entertainment industry is not public money (our money). We're talking about wasting public money on grand projects that even if successful will not benefit the millions of suffering around the world. The exploration of space is simply a precursor to the militarization of space and control of populations using satellites, lasers and embedded microchips. And that control will emanate from the elite sector of society for their benefit, not ours.

And, does it make sense to build more spaceships, when this one (earth) is crashing and burning? Oh yes, the simple-minded will answer. We can all escape into space and save ourselves from the misery we've created down here. And, since the misery we're seeing now on earth is human-produced and proceeds from human design it is unlikely that we'll somehow manufacture a more benign existence "out there" somewhere.

I think when H5N1 hits (soon, by all reports) our priorities will become a little clearer.

Bruce Conway, Victoria BC, Canada

Not to make light of a bad situation, but how seriously can you take a dozen scientists yelling, "Run for your lives" in a squeaky high-pitched helium-induced voice?

Mark Bergner, Chicago, IL

You luddites don't deserve internet.

Roger Duprat, Copenhagen,

Guys...
Well, you must be extremely proud of yourselves to be able to explain Pour uninformed Amelie what a boson is, oh, I salute you! And I totaly agree with Kim Smith from Helston I am even ashamed that I live on the same continent with Amelia. I totaly agree that anyone who can not give a precise definition of a boson should be coined an idiot and returned to elementary school!
You poor bookworms... she made a damn good joke and it is absolutely unimportant if that was done on purpose or not!
(Pardon my English it’s definetily not for „feinschmeckers”)

Martins, Riga, Latvia

How Dr. Guido can find links in the LHC explosions and Iraq sounds to me like the Rev. Pat . Robertson's purported conversations with god... all hog wash. Mistakes in scientifc experiments due to engineering calculation errors happen all the time whether big budget or the classroom variety. Think of the ESA's Mars lander... what happened last week was not an exception.

KOJINATOR, provo, USA/utah

Discoveries that help mankind have usually come from research or investigations into matters totally unrelated.

Take Penicillin for instance, how many people would have said that spending large amounts of dollars studying common blue-green mold in the late 1920's was a worth while expenditure in light of the troubles that most countries faced at the time? (great depression ring a bell)

Yet how many lives have been saved as a direct result?

The point is we don't know what we don't know.

Bill, Salem, Oregon

How can you say this is waist of money?
Do you realise that we, physicists, have ONLY one chance? Do you realise that we, with the amount of money we are given, can only make ONE experiment, in THE WORLD? Do you think it's not important?
Why did you buy the computer you are using instead of giveing this money to poor, 3rd world, AIDS children?
Should you think a little before criticising a community in which most of engineering you use everyday, with so little founds. Fundamental research ALWAYS gives benefits. Maybe you have to wait 50 years, but they come. If not for you, do it for the people that has to come. Don't be an egoist.

Joan Camps, Barcelona, SPAIN

What I find hard to swallow, is that all this time, vast amounts of money and hard work are being done purely out of curiosity--especially when an American-based business is involved--there's got to be more than just proving the Big Bang theory here...and the possibilities make me shudder, quite frankly--especially in light of such an idiotic blunder.

And on a lighter note--they didn't happen to find a burnt-out sonic screwdriver in the wreckage, did they :)

Nancy, Glens Falls, USA NY

[Humorbot 5000] Supercollider ? I barely know her !

Curt, Silicon Valley, USA / California

Where do you think radiation therapy for cancer comes from? Research like this leads directly to benefits for us. (see http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/factsheet/Therapy/radiation)
Particle accelerators help up understand the nature and structure of the atom. Of course most people don't need and don't care about it, until they use the derivative products that are created. Such as your low power LCD screen, or cancer treatment or any of a number of derivative technologies
(see http://www.fnal.gov/pub/inquiring/physics/discoveries/top_quark_background/top95_benefits_of_hep.html)
for a better explaination.

Keith, Woodbury, NY

Dear Amelie.

Priceless, I haven't laughed so much since I heard about the Open university expedition to Mars which crashed due to a catastrophic sticky-backed plastic failure. You know, the one which was run by the spaceman with the magnificent mutton chops (large sideburns, in case you Physicists are wondering what the colloquial term for your excessive facial hair is).

Amelie, you have, without the aid of an enormously expensive machine that goes ping (or BANG), proved that Physicists do not have a sense of humour. Most scientists spend their entire lives proving the blindingly obvious, so that must make you a scientist, but clearly not a Physicist.

Audrey Tautou has nothing on you.

Legs, London, UK

Actually, they succeeded in recreating the big bang, they just don't understand their mistake mirrors the mistaken creation of this universe perfectly.

Phil, Austin, Texas,

Any chance i can just make fun of scientific terminology in a comment here instead of having something useful to say (say perhaps, something like 'bread not circuses' or 'big science is too expensive' or 'fermilab did it on purpose')? Oh wait, I just did. Thanks!

Math, Toronto, Canasda

If these scientists had not been distracted by the war in Iraq this mistake would likely have been avoided. ...yet another reason to blame the USA fo all the ills of the world!

Dr.Guido, Carmel, ca

Is there one person here, who can post that actually has a clue as too what this article is talking about?

Yes, it is a Boson particle.

Brian Emenaker, cincinnati, ohio, usa

CERN should not trust U.S. company to implement important components like this. They (U.S.) loosing every ground in scientific research and plain engineering for last two decades. Science in America being replaced by stupid religion and political madness.
Scientists also have no reasons to immigrate to U.S., not anymore.

Alex, Vancouver, Canada

"It lifted a 20-ton magnet off its mountings, filling a tunnel with helium gas and forcing an evacuation."

The explosion lifted a 20-ton magnet off its mountings, filled a tunnel with helium gas, and forced an evacuation.

Jeebus, Springfield,

Boson. Boatswain. Who cares!? I'm hungry....

Pat, Williamsburg, VA, USA

what actually "exploded?"

keith, sacramento, ca

Satyendra Nath Bose must be supercolliding in his grave

Nonplussed , London, Londinium

Kris, the LHC is built out of components developed in laboratories around the world. What happened here was that a problem was identified from a particular set of components built by a particular collaborator. The problem has been identified and is being fixed. It is, indeed, disconcerting that such a problem would have slipped past the multiple levels of review involved. However, Fermilab is undergoing an external review process to identify where the engineering effort broke down. I am not sure if this requires that all other components built by completely separate groups need to be reassessed.

Also, it is somewhat misleading of the Times to suggest that Fermilab had anything to gain from this. The entire international physics community is relying on the LHC to do more than find the Higgs boson but to give experimental hints for new directions. Nobody gains from the LHC being delayed. Not even Fermilab.

Flip, Cambridge, UK

I'd have to agree with the "Realists" around here. Life here on earth is complicated and mysterious enough. People are dying of Cancer, Aids, Hunger, Pollution from China and USA is Insane and our Automobiles burn at 28% efficiency. Imagine how much we more we can do if our scientists concentrate on life here on Earth. I've just come back from a tour of Asia and Australia and it's really disturbing that we continue to dis-respect our environment. Let's fix life here on earth first and foremost! The Man on the Moon, the Space Station are literally waste of money. Take a dollar and give it to our poor, our homeless, the needy and you'll see how the world could be a better place. I don't mind the idea that we dream or have the interest in finding out how the earth became what it is today, but let's be real! Life is Life and Life is Short. Fixing the problems here on earth are so inexpensive and yet No-One is doing anything... :(

Paolo De Berardinis, Toronto, Canada

From the comments on the Tevatron, this couldn't POSSIBLY have been deliberate now could it ?

Steve Taylor, Heywood, UK

What a waste of money? I'm not entirely sure you can say much about scientists "wasting" money, when the entertainment industry pays millions to someone simply for throwing a ball around a field.

Raul, Moses Lake, Washington

To the earlier comment that didnt get the point of theorhetical science:
Once upon a time electricity was seen as a waste of time and money, and more recently semiconductors were. The whole point of theorhetical science is to pave the way for practical applications. It just doesn't work if you try to come up with the practical applications first. A perfect example of this is flying cars. We don't have them yet because we don't know what we need to find out to get them.

Also, to the guy who had a beef about imperial units:
Look at it this way, most US professionals are capable of using both, and a failure to recognize which one needs to be used is a failure of whatever system was relaying the information, not the system itself.

Alex, Bemidji, Minnesota, United States

Don't try to buffalo us with that BISON stuff it is obviously BEAU SON... :)

Carl Street, San Francisco, USA/California

Don't you mean Spill Czech?

Carl Street, San Francisco, USA/California

Brett, Interesting that the original competitor was located just up the road from where you are, but shut down in '92. The world's budget is big enough for us to do this kind of research. The simple fact is, that all this reasearch gets applied not just to understanding the universe but to engineering. Such as why the pioneer sats are moving at different speeds from calculations. Or how to make inexpensive anti-matter so that we may make it to another star. And in this case, how to correctly design supermagnets. Science, in the persuit of understanding, is never a waste..

g.r.r., highlands ranch, Co

@Brett in Austin:
The research done in these labs does more than help find out how the universe forms. There have been cancer treatments developed at FermiLab that use the beam they have there.

Andy, Afton, Minnesota

People seem to be ignoring the obvious here.

If this accelerator is really to discover the Higgs Boson which will enable a giant leap forward in understanding gravity and unifying Quantum dynamics with Relativity, then the world will change dramatically afterwards with things like anti-gravity becoming possible.

Clearly, the people of the future are sending agents back into their past to introduce errors in the program to delay the discovery. If this accelerator can be stopped from being built the entire future timeline will be different!

Jeremy, Vancouver, BC,

Go Amelia.

Maybe if Fermilab had found their Higgs-Boatswain particle the engineering staff would be a little more diligent in their work

Alex, Chi Town, Illinois

actually the US uses the SI units for math, chem and other sciences... just not everyday life; go figure, we're american.

george, sacramento, USA, CA

What a waist, considering that the concept of Big Bang is flawed and already obsolete. For an interesting alternative, called the Universe Grand Design, see http://www.slenters.ch/einstein
Voted by readers as the most intuitive TOE around.
Enjoy the read.

Cornel Slenters, Seon, Switzerland

Anybody else think that it might not be the best idea to recreate the Big Bang? Haven't we made enough silly mistakes trying to prove our technological prowess? Even Einstein admitted he wished he hadn't found the formula that led the the nuclear bomb. I'm just saying...

Isaac, Austin, TX

Surely its all in the last paragraph?

Jane Knight, Didcot, UK

The mis-spelling in the article, and the nautical misinterpretations, are greatly disturbing. Obviously, none of those commenting here - and, indeed, very few people involved with the newer accelerators either - are familiar with the real intentions behind the LHC, or Large Humour Collider. The search for experimental evidence for a class of particles called Bozons (which have the properties of Spin, Charm, Custard Pie, Floppy Shoes and Seltzer) has grown to be one of the greatest quests in modern physics - yet, it's not without its dangers. Little wonder then, with such chaotic forces to balance, the experimental equipment failed. Pratfalls are an ever-present danger AND destination in humour research, and it's not at all surprising that from time to time researchers and engineers will fall on their faces and the magic smoke will leak out of the wrong components.

*ta-da-chink*

Thank you, I'll be here all week.

Mark, Melbourne, Australia

If LHC and Tevatron were two lads in a pub each trying to bag a saucy minx (named Boson), and if LHC went to the loo to take a slash, would Tevatron not use the opportunity to spike LHC's pint of lager and scooch in on the lass shortly thereafter? Of course he would. This is a particle physics numerical barfight. I smell a C to the onspiracy.

L. Ager, A Shed Near Brixton Tube, UK

Considering they were trying to "recreate the conditions of the Big Bang", the fact they only blew up a few magnets instead of the entire Universe should be considered a bonus!
...
Sorry about that: I could not resist.

By the way people, stop doing a Dawkins and leave the poor girl alone.

Frederick Davies, Oxford, UK

Shouldn't this prompt a full stop? If your current engineering controls do not prevent such a significant mistake from occurring, I would hope the process would be changed and the *whole* effort reexamined.

After all, what they are studying is very dangerous considering the energy being thrown around. This isn't a woodshop table project.

It's also disconcerting to know this is all being effected by competition and conflict of interest too.

Kris Bravo, Atlanta, GA, USA

I believe it was a simple mistake of, ohh I don't know the fact that americans use say imperial units while the rest of the world uses SI units!

Elie, H, Nova Scotia

What a waste of money! When are scientists going to stop researching stupid crap like this and start concentrating on helping our society. Stop searching for tiny particles and theorizing about the beginning of the universe and start doing things that actually matter to the human race here on earth. Lets concentrate on setting up a moon base or putting a human on mars (or heck, I'd even settle for just feeding the hungry) before we start speculating on some particle that blinks in and out of existence or the gravitational and relativistic quantum quantum effects of a black hole.

Brett McMillian, Austin, TX

Andy, do you know how much CO2 your dolphin trip is going to emit?

Understanding the universe is not a waste of resources IMNSHO

snugge, sweden,

I'm just glad Amelie remarked about a word that sounds like boson; a variation of hadron would probably have been a bit more risque...:-)

Andrew, Laurel, MD USA

"Any chance of the Higgs bosun becoming president?"

The Americans already have a bozo. What would they want a boson for?

Martin, Newark,, NJ, USA

Silly to get your multiple knickers in a twist over a simple typo - it's so obviously a BISON.

Sue, Pontypridd, Wales

Isn't a Boson a big hairy American cow? Or is that a Bison.

And why are we trying to recreate the Big Bang.. and Black Holes.. if they know what will happen why spend the money doing it.. and if they don't know 100% what will happen..... and we worry about climate change... right i'm off to swim with Dolphins before November - or maybe spring seens as they've blown it up once already and there is still some time left... but I have faith they know what they are doing!

Andy , Ellesmere Port,

Ny chance Amelia could be given a job at Fermilab as both
seem able to produce amazingly unexpected collision forces :)

Keith, Bengtsfors, Sweden

Any chance of the Higgs bosun becoming president?

richard, melbourne,

Why all the glum faces at Fermilab, they set out to re-create the the big bang. Low and behold it went bang! Job well done in my book.

Kevin, Inverness, Scotland

Thanks, Amelie. You have started my day wonderfully.

I warm to the idea of a Higgs bosun - a sort of sub-atomic commander of a sub-atomic cutter sailing up to an atom and delivering a broadside of mass before sailing off through the sub-atomic ether with a cheery shout of "Avast there matey."

It's a happier visualisation than I have of those here who would challenge Amelie's right to be reading the article. Shame on you!

Alan G. Ainsworth, London, England

Rename it the 'Colliderscope', and then pick up the pieces from there.

S Saines, Toronto, Canada

Sadly, yes, but it's made to spell check under American rules, not the British ones.

Andrew, Brook Park,

hey, every once in a while everybody messes up something... but in this case, its something that probably shouldn't have been messed up... (by the way i live only a few miles away from fermilab and its pretty cool going ther once in a while.

Russell Thompson, LaGrange, Illinois

Erm... it IS Boson!

Shaun, Cheltenham, England

I hope the comment from Amelie is a joke...otherwise why is she reading this article. In this context, the word is "boson".

Jim, Wakefield, England

Amelie, if that was deliberate, well done, it's good to laugh! (Google boson or Higgs boson).
Given the fact that the LHC is the "LARGE HADRON collider" would it not have been worth checking what nuclei are accelerated? If memory serves, gold nuclei were the hadron de jour.

James, St Andrews,

what a pitty the english dont have trust in the scientific quotes given to the times.

A Boson is a theortetical particle that acts between quarks when a proton/neutron is "transformed" (for want of another name) in to each other. that is the W Boson.

what a large country of ill/uninformed people we are becoming. Im sick of it.

Kim Smith, Helston, Cornwall

Actually Amelie, a boatswain is on a ship. A boson is a subatomic particle.
And as a physics student, I'm rather embarassed.

Jenny, Omaha,

I can't tell whether Amelie from London was being serious or not. A boson is a type of subatomic particle, named after an Indian physicist named Bose.

Not sure how CERN might go about producing exotic new boatswains!

Mark, Nottingham, UK

Errr... "Higgs BOSON" has absolutely nothing to do with a bosun(boatswain) - did you even read the article?

ross, worthing, england

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Higgs_boson

Lists the spelling and capitalization the same way as in the article. Why not spend a second or two researching before you tirade?

Sean, Fort Lauderdale, FL

It is actually boson, that's the name of the force carrying particle, it's not related to the nautical term. Of course the Times uses a spell check!

Thomas Hudson, London, UK

Nice one Amelie!!!

Monkey Business, London, UK

Is that meant to be irony?

Rhodri, Abu Dhabi, UAE

Lol, you might want to do a little more reading-up on Physics Amelie!

Dan Bishop, Redcar, England

My dear Amelie, a "boson" is a subatomic particle with integer spin. A "Boatswain" is a sailor on a sailing vessel in charge of meting out punishment to unruly crew members.

I sincerely doubt the purpose of the LHC is to create a large, sweaty man with a cat-o-nine-tails named Higgs.

Michael, Arlington, Virginia

If five engineering studies didn't catch this error in a company who builds these labs across the globe you begin to wonder about the intentions of corporate. Perhaps the flaws were "missed" for the benefit of the Tevatron labratory.

John, New Orleans, USA

Errm...I assume you're joking. Bosons are particles with integer spin that obey Bose-Einstein statistics.

David Gillies, San Jose, Costa Rica

It is in fact boson- study up on your theoretical physics a little bit

Sandeep, Evans, USA/GA

All elementary particles and composite particles are either bosons or fermions (depending on their spin). - Spell checker at the Times is working very well. Why would they choose to give a nautical twist to the story?

John Treloar, Hastings, New Zealand

No... boson is right.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Higgs_boson

Kevin, Bloomington, Illinois

'Bosun' or 'boatswain' not boson! Does no-one at The Times use their spell-checker?

Amelie, London, England

"Coincidentally" ?

Science is business afterall...

Andrej, Koper,

The LHC will be the largest scientific instrument ever constructed, pushing engineering to new and incredible limits. CERN is no longer just a "European Organization" but is a worldwide collaboration of thousands of scientists, engineers and technicians. This includes several hundred excellent people from the USA. Without their contributions the LHC would be years away at best.

To imagine that mistakes will not happen in a project of this magnitude is simply naive, and is the reason why CERN performs such an extensive series of tests to cover every possibility, however unlikely. Indeed it was one of these unlikely (but possible) scenarios that showed the problem, albeit in a rather dramatic way.

As to conspiracy theories: probably best to go and read a Dan Brown novel if that type of thing interests you.

Dave Barney, Thoiry, France

Must have had a bunch of Affirmative Action hires doing the arithmetic.

Hank, Lexington,

Here goes for another conspiracy theory, but I CANNOT beleive that several people missed a mathematical error that would setback (read: nearly destroy) the LHC over several years of planning and review.

Do they not have computers in the U.S.? (Maybe I just found the problem in the answer to that question, BSD anyone?)

Ironically, the embarassment suffered will be far outweighed by the ' sudden discovery' of the Higgs Boson.

This will no doubt be especially sweet since congress cut funding for their supercollider.

Paul Philips, London,

Yes John, but who created the planet where the first particle accelerator was built and exploded ?

Nick Moore, Paris, France

The big bang is an alternative to the Bible

True/False

Myself i have read "a brief history of time" indepth and a little bit of the universe in a nutshell Yawn.

Couple that with tonights 9th April TV/Sky episode of The last Gospel of Judas, and a ladder to heaven South Park, prior to, were does that leave one?

Nostril "probably" spelt Jewish wrong is a good place to start.

But given i live in wigan and i oftentimes see a "bright Star" with what appears to be stars around it making a arrow formation, suggests to em Judas as reached his Kingdom "North Star, being his position" which points the way to Jesus, and for the record you don't need to build a ladder to heaven, just a way of climbing it.

God bless all those that sail in her.

peter, wigan, England

Oh, modern math strikes again.

Bob Luetzow, Highland Village, Texas

For want of Correct Math, their ersatz "Big Bang" has become nothing but disappointing "Little Bust"... with a "Helium Filled Tube" as a bonus... reminds me of the "Hubble Trouble and the Wrong Mirror Furor". Isn't anyone in charge of these programs? (Oh, excuse me, that wasn't a polite question... just forget I mentioned it.) I guess this is one mystery of the Universe we will have to wait to have answered. (I didn't even know we were asking about it!)

Tony Francis MD JD , Wichita, KS/USA

We Americans ain't so hot at maths...

Kelly Denison-Cole, Brooklyn, NY

"Coincidentally, Fermilab stands to gain most from delays at Cern. Its researchers also operate a rival but less powerful particle accelerator, the Tevatron.

Fermilab staff are pushing the Tevatron to ever-higher energies hoping that they might find the Higgs boson before the LHC switches on. An LHC researcher said: “Ironically, this delay could be all they need.”

If you believe that's a coincidence, you'll believe anything.
For US espionage and dirty tricks this is just par for the course.
After 60 or more years of it, CERN should never have given the Yanks the contract.

Gerard Mulholland, Paris, France

Are these the same scientists telling us about global warming................

Peter, Seoul, Korea, Korea

This article is incomplete, It left out what the simple math mistake was. This leaves me with a big question. Was the math error intentional or was it that simple after all.
This is bad for American Technology. I hope it was because someone did it on purpose and can be punished for it. It would be terrible if Americans turned out to be that stupid.
Doing things in an organization where information is not available to all and the emphasis is not on the Job but on people keeping their jobs is not efficient.
The Jobs come and go but if they aren't done right then the jobs of the employees should be removed. A company's survival must depend on doing what it is paid for.

Walter Haxton, Hagerstown, Maryland USA

And history repeats itself OR "It's Deja Vue all over again" (thanks Yogi).
Cern's mistake was in trusting Fermilab in the first place - as this clearly illustrates any botched work at Geneva would benefit their US operations.
This is precisely what I witnessed as member of the test team on the Hubble Space Telescope! The vaunted braintrust of Phd scientists making a simple 'error' in mirror polishing - requiring millions more in expense to the taxpayers only to bring more profit to the contractor (Hughes).
Or will Fermilab correct its 'mistake' and make good to Cern at their OWN expense? As demonstrated in the HST debacle - it's not likely.
I wonder: Had another lowly technician, at Cern, discovered and apprised management of the error prior to this explosion and been silenced - just as I was on the Hubble project - for lack of a higher degree or, more likely, the potential for profit in correcting their 'error'?

Larry Pines, Middletown, USA/NY

"The origin of our universe occured as a big bang in a particle accelerator on a planet which was destroyed in the course of the experiment."

There's some serious speculation based on that idea. It explains a lot about why the physical constants are "just so" (i.e. inherited from the parent universe, which itself was "just so"). Gregory Benford's novel "Cosm" explores this idea in some detail (right down to including an explosion in the particle accelerator). Something is odd about our universe (dark matter and dark energy are particularly puzzling). It's going to be a very interesting few years in cosmology.

Kay Tie, York,

Must have been a hell of an accellerator!

Here's a fun fact: the energy liberated at the focal point of the LHC beams equals approximately that of a .22 caliber bullet. I won't be losing any sleep.

Jason G. Williscroft, Chicago, USA

The origin of our universe occured as a big bang in a particle accelerator on a planet which was destroyed in the course of the experiment.......

John Ledbury, Kings Lynn, England