Is there anybody there???

I dozed off to sleep last night to the comforting (!!) words of the presenter of the late night chat show discussing the possibility that the end of the world might in fact occur at 8.31am tomorrow (now today!).

Of course the topic of the conversation was the so called 'Big Bang' experiment about to take place in the Centre for Nuclear Research (CERN) in the Swiss Alps.

Once they start talking about protons, hadrons, ions etc. I'm afraid I'm hopelessly lost!

As far as I can make out they are trying to recreate the moment of the 'Big Bang' which scientists believe caused the creation of the universe.

In 'laywoman's' terms I think this involves putting some particles into a huge scientific-instrument-thingy called the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) and whizzing them round until they reach the speed of light and collide with one another. Of course I could have completely misunderstood this (more than likely I would think - Physics was never 'my thing'!) By doing this they are hoping to find the 'Higgs Boson particle' or the 'God particle' which is supposed to explain the beginning of the universe.

I can't help but get this image of a giant washing machine on super fast spin speed with those annoying minuscule bits of tissues that inevitably get left in trouser pockets by mistake, whizzing around in it.

Also, I'm afraid the whole idea leaves me rather cold but what I did find interesting was the possible spin-offs (pardon the pun) which would probably arise out of the research - new advances in medical science for instance.

I'm pleased to say that when I made it downstairs later than usual, today being my day off, I found I was still alive at 8.45am.

I hope there are a few of you still out there too!