MELBOURNE—A physics experiment that could change the way we view ourselves begins tomorrow in Geneva with some opponents believing it could bring the world to an end.
When the $6 billion Large Hadron Collider (LHC) starts up it will smash particles together in an attempt to recreate the conditions of the early universe, fractions of a second after the Big Bang.
The experiment's opponents, who have taken its architects to court in the US and France, believe it will create black holes in which the earth could disappear.
Melbourne University physicist Geoff Taylor has led the Australian contingent which designed detectors and shielding as well as software that triggers the collection of information.
The collider is housed in a 27 kilometre long tunnel between 50 and 175 metres below the ground that runs under Geneva airport and surrounding villages and farmland.
As the particles smash together they will break apart into smaller, more fundamental components, giving physicists a fleeting chance to observe those particles, some of which have never been seen before.
Professor Taylor says the experiment's opponents are "completely misguided" in their stance.
"One of the things we are trying to do is create mini-black holes which scientifically would be a magnificent thing and tell us we don't live in three dimensions but that we live in nine or 10 dimensions," Prof Taylor said.
"As soon as you say there is the possibility of creating black holes you have people saying we are going to be swallowed up by black holes.
"That's where the furore has come and it's completely misguided."
Prof Taylor said the results could have a similar outcome as when Copernicus discovered that the earth was not the centre of the universe.
"That changed the whole way we looked at ourselves and realised that everything did not revolve around us - that we were just a part of something much, much bigger," he said.
He said if tomorrow's experiment showed there were more than the three dimensions - height, width and depth - it could change the way we look at life.
One of the most highly anticipated products of the collider might be the elusive Higgs boson, or the God Particle, which could explain how other elementary particles acquire properties such as mass.
If scientists can verify the existence of the Higgs boson, it would be a big step in the search for a Grand Unified Theory, which aims to bring together three of the four known fundamental forces: electromagnetism, the strong nuclear force and the weak nuclear force, leaving out only gravity.
"One of the key reasons for building the machine is to find out if (the God Particle) exists," Prof Taylor said.
"The existence of such a particle would give us a whole new view on the structure of the universe."
Cathy Foley, president of the Australian Institute of Physics, said particles would be smashed together at speeds that generate large amounts of energy but when compared to more everyday events they were less impressive.
"Each collision of a pair of protons in the LHC will release an amount of energy comparable to that of two colliding mosquitoes," she said.
"It's like a rice-bubble pop."
