Break Out The Bubbly!

[Update 9/12/08: The alternative theory to the Big Bang that I mention; the evolution of quantum foam theory, is actually that of my friend Alan P. Scott, and you can read it HERE. A few years ago, we were emailing back and forth about the origins of the universe, and he posited this theory that was a real eye-opener for me; intuitively, it just makes so much more sense than the Big Bang. Should note that I'm neither atheist nor agnostic, though. For more on that, just email me...heh.]

They've fired the sucker up! Literally! And unless we're in a parallel universe, we didn't get sucked into a black hole, either....woo-hoo!

The Large Hadron Collider was started up today, and so far, is working like a charm. This is BIG, on so many levels. Scientists are chomping at the bit to find the Higgs Bosun, a particle that would validate current theories of the existence of dark matter and the Big Bang itself. I'm particularly interested in this because despite that scientific theory, a Big Bang makes absolutely no sense to me on a purely intuitive level. Everything else appears to be some form of evolutionary process, so why should the mother of all beginnings of all evolutionary processes be any different? An evolutionary process of quantum foam; dynamic "bubble" formation with occasional random mutations has been posited and makes much more intuitive sense to me. But hey, I know nothing. All I can say is it's absolutely fascinating and I'm more than a little curious as to what they'll find.

There are just two niggling little buggers on my mind:

The LHC scientists say not to worry about the black holes that will most likely be formed by the LHC, because they'll be too small to form into anything dangerous anyway. Yet in the next breath, they say they don't know if they'll form at all, and then excitedly "We have no idea what we're going to find!"
...heh...heh....yeah...tra-la-la, faith is a beautiful thing, people.

Then second, since the LHC will recreate the conditions of the Big Bang only on a miniscule scale, what if we inadvertently form a Whoville of sorts? Or Whoville(s), plural? Ya know, the little microscopic world with little Whos at our mercy? What would be the ethics involved there? Would we be responsible for the new little universe(s)? Would they die when the LHC is powered down? Think about it. We could end up with a real live 'Horton Hears A Who' scenario.

Anyway, it's all very exciting. Makes me all tingly :)

Oh and here's some gee!-krap that's been floating around. It's cute in a nerdy way, and actually does an excellent job of explaining the LHC in a nutshell.