I did a bike ride up to Sunrise on Mt. Rainier the other day with my Dad and a friend from Church. I haven't been much of a bike rider, especially since my bicycle was vandalized at the University of Washington. I was using my Dad's 'rain bike' for this ride, but I am thinking about getting another one some day when I don't have a lot of expenses due and it's relatively good weather. Ever since my dad had stents placed in two constricted arteries, he has taken up bicycling, and even completed the Seattle-to-Portland this year.
Tomorrow, the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) begins operation tomorrow. This is a giant particle accelerator sponsored by CERN (European science organization), which is an 8 billion dollar experiment near Geneva, Swizerland (hey, at least WE didn't have to pay for it!). Scientists hope would solve some of the mysteries behind why particles have mass (which they believe is attributed to some Higgs particle), and ultimately develop a Grand Unified Theory of the universe (where the four forces, gravity, electric, and the weak and strong nuclear forces, are combined into one single force). The LHC is the largest particle accelerator ever built, and there is speculation that it may generate a black hole which could potentially grow out of hand and swallow up the entire Earth. Although Scientists are saying that this is highly unlikely, but this isn't preventing people from sending the LHC team death threats if they continue. This is an artist rendition of what such an event might look like:
Just in case, I just wanted to tell you all goodbye, it was nice knowing you, and I guess we'll meet again in heaven. Actually, I'm just being sarcastic, and I'm mostly just enjoying the comedy of the situation; but I'm definitely keeping my eye on the scientific discoveries that will come about in the next year.
