“If the human race cannot afford that, it doesn’t deserve the epithet, human”

Less than 24 hours to go! Until the first live firing of the Large Hadron Collider, that is, not the end of the world as some apparently still believe. Stephen Hawking was interviewed on the Today programme this morning [presumably a pre-recorded interview.. – Ed] and you can listen again here – if they do find the Higgs [Brout and Englert] boson he loses a $100 bet. Meanwhile, the [other] Professor points to this useful article on the science fiction meme that some still mistake as science. Still, if we’re going to go [and we’re not], let’s go singing!

Update According to the CERN bulletin – “The first injection of the beam into the machine will be between 9:00 and 10:00 a.m. [CET]” – That should be 8am-9am local time [BST]. LHC First Beam website here. And

Please note that the event will also be webcast but, given the limited number of connections, this option is intended for use of the public outside CERN.

Live webcast will be available here from 7.30am [BST].

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