you can't say this is a waste of money because it is doing something,waste is throwing half your supper away. if you want to talk about a waste of money, look up what it costs the united states to be in iraq everyday, its 5 to 7 billion a day. So that squashes anybody saying this is a waste of money

daniel, calgary, canada

what date will this machine be switched off for good does anyone know.

sarah, hassocks, west sussex

Well thats a great thought and efforts to know about the creation of this universe, but my submission is that we have spent a huge amount of money for this purpose,had it been used for the uplift of the poors in South africa and other poor countries development that would have been brought cheers to

Rajinder Singh Walia, New Delhi, India

Just like I think someone else said on here, this will definantly prove God does exist, because we basically building a creator to make life. Does no one else see this?

Daniel, Mesquite, TX, USA

don't understand much about it but if it does prove the existance of a higher being, we won't get to know.It wud cause too much trouble.Nah, better it does suck us all into a black hole. Our world is a mess & history shows us that we are too selfish to improve it.

Lynda, Hartlepool,

Well I think it is integral to our very being that we understand as much as we can about our universe ,thus ourselves. Dont you want to know the truth?Where we come from is who we are.Think of the people who go to space risking there lives to help us understand.Evolution of our species!

Greg Thomas, Vancouver, Canada

Does anyone else think that it is funny that this theory of the big bang needs a CREATOR of a machine to prove their fact. What exactly are the trying to prove here.

Kyle, Grenada, USA

We spend billions of dollars to try to do something that GOD only had to speak into existance. This shows me how small, fragile, and insignificant we are compared to GOD. I think people need to stop thinking they are equal to GOD and accept that they are the created not the creator

Steve, Kttg, USA

To all those whining about the amount of starving people:
What about the fact that in most of these countries people starve, because they do not use contraception and have too many to feed?!
What about the fact that those are the same countries that have AIDS at 20%+ !
It is not our fault people!

Jonathan Jones, London, UK

Pity we couldn't build a machine that shows what it was like just before the "big bang".

Or have we?

Albert, London Town, UK

Well, I think it is extremely unlikely that anything will happen, but the creation of anti matter is possible isnt it?

I think its an interesting experiment but wont change much about what we already know. Whats the point of wasting 4 billion dollars on something that people already believe :)

Poe, Vancouver, Canada

We are ventually going to get too smart for our own good :)

Poe, Vancouver, Canada

Well, if things do go wrong, at least it will be a less painful end of the world than if McCain/Palin get voted in.

Charlie, munich,

The next big experiment will hopefully be the LCMO or "Large Closed Mind Opener"

Depressing comments at times, no doubt from SUV driving, phone texting, TV watching, broadband using, airplane passenger technophobes.

Science is all or nothing by its nature.

Cherry picking not allowed.

Rgds

Angus Hammond, Sunderland, UK

Just to clarify... no one is trying to re-create the big bang. They are trying to match the energy density of conditions just after the big bang. It's like boiling a pot of water to learn more about clouds. It's not going to make it rain.

Arik, Mountain View, USA

Chaos Theory taught us that a mere butterfly brushing its wings against a rock could cause an avalanche somewhere. And yet they say this machine will have no effect whatsoever on Space-Time. Well, which is right?
Also; just how will this vast expenditure benefit mankind in any way that matters?

Max, London,

It's nice to know that with the amount of money spent on creating this contraption that does who knows what, we could save millions of people from starving to death. There is no way that this can benefit society in any positive way or be good for our environment.

Sarah, South, USA

someone sailed out to the edge of the earth and didn't fall off the edge, people are so afraid of change....grow up

jason , Surrey, Canada

Eco suicide??? I believe that this has to be a joke. There is no other way to characterize the bumbling idiot that wrote about world hunger being solved by the Large Hadron Collider. We do NOT have any effect on the long term condition of the world climate!!! Left wing stupidity!!!

Jon, Coon Rapids, USA

i think this is a very bad idea because you don't no what is going to happen

craig, london, england

Its very stupid. There so many other things these scientist fellows can discover---why human dies,why cant humans bring the dead to life , find solution to disesese like HIV. This expiriment is not going to contribute anything to the humanRace except few nerds will make the Human race crazy .

sheri, Salem, India

I plan on being around, at least for the next 20 years, to enjoy the discoveries that may spring from this experiment.

Collide baby Collide.

Best of Luck

Gerald, Midwest City, USA

The experiment really has proved something already, that there are a depressingly high number of uneducated ill informed naysayers out there who seemingly comment on all LHC news pages with their doomsday comments. can they not just find some other topic to get excited about, its becoming old fast

Paul, DUBLIN, Ireland

We should worship these scientists, engineers, philosophers and physicists who are trying to further mankind.

Why did we allow the actors, bankers, football players and useless celebrities to get all the wealth ( and glory ) ?

GINETTE LEIGH, WIGAN, ENGLAND

Hope I get my holiday in before it all goes belly up :-)

Dave, Harlow, UK

considering the lehman brothers bank gave out 5.5billion in bonuses last year 2.6billion is pretty minute in the whole scheme of things....especially when you consider what improvements in scientific knowldege could be gained from conducting these experiments.

euan, london,

I think this is fantastic and I can't wait to see what comes from it. To all those complaining about how much it cost - £3.6bn isn't much in the world economy. Try to imagine what good could come from this, it has the potential to provide solutions to a lot of the world's problems!

Adam Hamilton, Belfast, Northern Ireland

To Phill, the new findings of this experiment could help people in every day life such as solving the starvation problem which would permanently benefit the world we live in. Giving aid to other countries is only a temporary solution and eco-suicide.

Paul, Middlesborough,

I think £2.6 billion is small change compared with the amount current governments are spending daily to prop up the broken financial system and don't forget the £608 billion a year spent by the world's military. I think this is an excellent model of how people can cooperate on difficult projects.

Laurie, Manchester, UK

To comment on Jenie's comments: Purlease! High energy collisions happen in the Earth's upper atmosphere all the time and we haven't been sucked into a black hole yet and it's been happening for millions of years.
The LHC is testament (now there's an interesting word) to the strength of our species!

Rob, Cuckfield, UK

Is it a privilege to live in a world where we spend 3.5B on a machien to smash particles together whilst more than 25,000 people died of starvation every day in 2003, and as of 2001 to 2003, about 800 million people were chronically undernourished?

It's not a privilege for all...

Phill, Durham, UK

Good : they gain a greater understanding of the origins of the universe and in the process develop new and wonderful technologies for the benefit of humanity

Bad : Destruction of the universe is unlikely, but they could always discover new and more lethal weapons of mass destruction.

Dave, UK,

I Cant believe what im reading. This experiment is great and I cant wait for the outcome.

To all the people predicting doom. Let me remind you particles are smashed together at a far great rate naturally here on earth. Scientists have been doing this for years under ground.

Quit stressing

Huseyin, London,

How is firing 2 beams of light at each other "playing god"? It happens every day in our atmosphere, and more in space, it's like saying controlling electricity is "playing god" because it makes the dead twitch. If you had a heart attack you would want to be shocked back into life, it's all science!

Law, Manchester, UK

Just so you know, the term 'God particle' started as a joke; now it's been misinterpreted so badly that you really should forget it. 'Molasses particle' might be a better term. Far better explanations will be found in various science blogs; try 'Cocktail party physics', for example.

David T, St Albans, UK

There will be a lot of energy produced in this experiment but not enough to "destroy the universe"-it's not as if they're firing canon balls at each other at the speed of light!

These guys are professionals, they know exactly what they're doing, and what the energy output will be - almost no risk

Andy , Gibraltar, British Gibraltar

What risk, the reaction happens all the time in our atmosphere, at a much greater intensity than what the LHC can do. If the scare mongerers theories were true, it would have happend already!

The only risk if things go wrong is that the LHC will get damaged (hence its underground!).

Wayne, Worcester,

This experiment is not going to destroy the universe or anything like that, in fact their are events in this universe far far more energetic then this experiment!, like cosmic rays that hit our planet with even greater force then this experiment, so people chill out, the end is not now.

ed, bodmin, england

I think this experiment is absolutely great. Yes, there is risk involved, but the possible benefits are revolutionary. Benefits that could provide us with technologies to IMPROVE life. Stop complaining, nobody is playing God here, just people doing what they do best. Good luck guys! :-)

Shaun, Paarl, South Africa

It's a privilege to be alive in a world capable of performing such an experiment. Every culture, since reason began, has searched for the same thing but,for the 1st time, lhc might move us all one step foreward. It may not, but it is ALL of us.

Paul smith, oxted, surrey

I don't remember how Higgs became "God-particle", if it exists it simply gives particles mass, which, with some wild imagination, might eventually lead to some sort of anti-gravity device. Of course I'm just an engineer so I'm not going to pretend to have some insight into the LHC, simply good luck.

John, Toronto, Canada

what if it goes wrong and all of a sudden this universe explodes and were all gone thats gonna be it.

they're attempting something that's stupid and its gonna cost everyone in the earth and this universe.

wow i think about it and i get very scared.

soooo get ready.

Jenie, Reading, North america

Science is definitely gone to surmountable lengths since the beginning of industrialization. The risk is great if things go wrong, but then we live for the wonders of life and not for risks that life has to offer.

Arsim, Ottawa, Canada

Boys and their toys eh! We never grow up - the toys just get bigger and more expensive.
Best of luck!

Michael Man, Hong Kong, China

What if, they miss??

What if, the Big Bang is a once only event in the life time of the universe and you cant recreate it again...?? even like this..??

What if, it doesnt occur naturally so therefore you cant create it artificially..??

Best of luck,

Laurie (WJ) Carroll, Waiuku, New Zealand

Stand back, gentlemen. I'm going to attempt science.

Anne Hiro, Meshroom Land, Nigeria

Playing God with nature is akin to letting a 5 years old discover the wonders of a shotgun. Bad Bad idea. My guess is that will all discover the God particle at the same time.

RIP

Eldy, Toronto, Canada