Of Atom Smashing and Black Holes

The Large Hadron Collider now being completed near Geneva, Switzerland, will accelerate atomic particles to almost the speed of light, crash them into each other and generate energies more powerful than the sun. This most complex piece of scientific equipment ever built, which will duplicate conditions like those that existed just after the Big Bang that created the Universe, might answer is why the universe composed of matter. But some critics say not even that would be worth the possible risks, fearing that it could also create a black hole with the capacity to swallow the Earth. John Johnson of the Los Angeles Times has more on the $8 billion LHC.