MEYRIN, Switzerland – In the beginning was the big bang. God may
have been around before then — but as far as scientists are
concerned, the big bang is as far back as they can go. And to
get back there, they’re getting ready to blast subatomic
particles so energetically that the extreme conditions of the
freshly born universe will be re-created on Earth. Will those
“little big bangs” crack age-old scientific mysteries? Or,
despite repeated assurances from the world’s top experts, will
they create black holes that could gobble up the planet? After
decades of preparation, scientists are finally switching on a
machine that will separate the facts from what is plainly
science fiction. The machine is the $10 billion Large Hadron
Collider, or LHC — the most powerful, most expensive particle-
blaster ever invented. On Wednesday, Europe’s CERN particle-
physics lab is due to start shooting beams of protons through
the LHC’s 17-mile-round (27-kilometer-round) ring of tunnels
beneath the French-Swiss border. It will take