down to 8th grade science level.

Maybe I'm just an old, crotchety guy but I grew up with those old SF movies where well intentioned scientists blew the universe out of existence. Like no one ever gets carried away by their ambitions/excitement even today. I'd say put that money to use spreading solar tech around the world. I can live without knowing about Dark Matter or the Higgs Boson.

Just saying. Some things man was not intended to know...

are an extremely curious lot. It's in our DNA.

If we hadn't always wanted to know what's over the next hill, we wouldn't be who and where we are.

I hope you enjoy your computer which would not work without quantum electrodynamics. And the fact that you are not dying of smallpox, thanks to the germ theory of disease. And that life expectancy is in the 70's or above, thanks to potable water, the flush toilet, and science-based medicine.

And the microcomputer you are using to post was a product of the space race, plus those basic science advances which enabled the technology.

And BTW, the World Wide Web that enables DU to work was invented by a physicist at CERN named Tim Berners-Lee. That's the very laboratory you so callously malign in your post.

You'd still be using a film camera if it weren't for cutting edge astronomical research which resulted in digital detectors.

There's much more where these examples come from.

So what of the basic science research that enabled all these things would you forgo because, as you wrote, "man was not intended to know" it?

The ATLAS detector at CERN (top pic above) is about the size of a ten story building. Heaven only knows -- so to speak -- what that technology will give rise to.

Just observing how enthusiasm can sometimes lead people by the nose past the point where sober reflection might urge a little more forbearance. There is a large gap between developing silicon chips and smart phones or any of the other wonders you listed (most of which I am quite familiar with, though I thought the Internet was largely the doing of DARPA rather than Berners-Lee) and I am quite aware that there is more computing power contained in the desktop I use than was used in putting us on the moon. However, none of that involved delving into things to the level of investigating dark matter or the Higgs boson.

Not all technology is an unmixed blessing, as the residents of Hiroshima and Nakasaki might argue. Raising questions does not make me a Luddite, just someone with a deep rooted skepticism about even the smartest of people and their ability to run headlong into walls.

FYI, I did not, and do not, callously malign CERN or their scientists. I simply raise a concern that more caution might well be advised when science advances so far as the current and upcoming experiments suggest.

And the line about things man was not meant to know? That is an old, hoary SF cliche offered in a spirit of benign humor. Sorry if I misjudged my audience.

Certainly there are no dangers to building or using the LHC. There are almost never such dangers in primary and basic research such as this. Any that exist are taken care of. The people at CERN are not ignorant. However, any argument to the contrary is based on unwarranted fear which is, in turn, based on ignorance.

The LHC is not like the Manhattan Project, whose deliberate goal was a bomb, and whose development was grounded in fears during a very different world political situation, hopefully one that will never be repeated. So that example is not in anyway analogous to what CERN is doing.

You might not have directly maligned CERN, but you did strongly imply that they were treading where man was not meant to go, whatever the fuck that means. Such arguments have a history. To my thinking, they are always based on ignorance, or ideology, or both.

I apologize for my strong position here. I mean no personal slight. However, such arguments as yours get my shorts in a bunch, as you can tell.

But I nevertheless stand by my criticism.

My regards.

Are meant to be known. Fear is part of what limits the pace of discovery.

Back during the days of the space race, Wernher Von Braun gave a lecture on the subject of putting a man on the moon. When his lecture was finished, he asked for questions.

A woman’s hand immediately shot up: “Why,” she asked, “can’t you forget about getting people on the moon and stay home and watch television like the good Lord intended for you to do?”

IN texas of all places but the Ignorance Industrial Complex decided took over .

The mainstream news will devote 15 seconds to this between gossip about who knows ?

Yes, the SSC was alive and well in Texas until some anti-science idiots in Congress cut off the funding. The movie "Particle Fever" includes clips of those idiots ranting and raving. Now the action in particle physics is at CERN in Europe, and America is no longer a leader in this field.

Fermilab closed down their tevatron due to lack of funding. At least they have a new magnet, so some new experiments will be taking place.

My son did some simulcasting with Cern when they got the collider up and running and the Boson Higgs was detected. I imagine they will be simulcasting with Fermilab again. My son-in-law has a program and some experiments he runs from Fermi also. Since he started out as, and still is, a physics teacher, he is able to explain some things to us in simple terms.

I feel privileged to be related to a couple of genuine science nerds. Nerds rule!

or I am going to have to send Skittles over there to kick your ass.

[center][font font size=5 color=red]''DANGER! DANGER WILL ROBINSON! DANGER!''

''DR. SMITH'S CALCULATIONS ARE FLAWED, AS USUAL! DANGER! DANGER!''[/font][/center]

- I'm old fashioned I guess. I think that on an evolved planet, it's dominant species should cloth, feed, house and educate all its inhabitants before they waste time and resources on things like this.

I know, I know -- if it hadn't of been for the Apollo Space Program we wouldn't have duct tape and stuff......

they are fascinating but are nothing but empty images when you know nothing about them.

minutiae, you might want to go to the official CERN site:
http://home.web.cern.ch/topics/large-hadron-collider

Then there's always Wiki for an overview:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Large_Hadron_Collider