Theoretical physicist, Stephen Hawking, claimed the Higgs boson could not be discovered, but when he recovered from his pique at being apparently proven wrong, he took an extreme tack in a new direction. In the preface to his new collection of essays and lectures called “Starmus,” Hawking warned the particle could be responsible for the destruction of the known universe.
Which makes CERN’s vagaries concerning their attempt to open up a black hole (or worm hole) somewhat disturbing. The Higgs boson doomsday theory postulates a quantum fluctuation that could possibly, in some distant future, create an expanding “bubble” which might suck up the universe like a vacuum-cleaner. So, while we’re not suggesting Geneva will disappear into oblivion, and the rest of the planet with it, it would still be comforting to know that CERN’s scientists have a positive outcome in mind for their experiments.
