There Is A Small Possibility That Swiss Scientists Will Kill You

We're about two weeks away from the opening of the Large Hadron Collider, a 17-mile-long particle accelerator located just outside Geneva. With this new accelerator, scientists will be able to look at particle physics like never before. One of their lofty goals is to create, ahem, black holes. ...Real black holes. ...Molecule-consuming, eat-everything-in-their-sight-including-LIGHT-for-Christ's-sake black holes. And just look at that Swiss guy in the picture. He doesn't look worried at all.

I guess it's pretty unlikely that the Large Hadron will swallow up the universe and destroy us all. Gail Collins of the New York Times is comforting in her op-ed, though she admits that in physics, "there is no such thing as zero chance." And a panel of scientists released an official report reviewing the safety of the experiments, and they deemed the whole endeavor totally okay (although why they even had to assess the safety in the first place is a little eerie).

Whatever. I think it's pretty dang cool. Science rules! And don't you forget it! (Or else.)

You can read more specifics on what the particle accelerator actually does here.

Spider Guts All Over My Finger! Gross!!

I like bugs. I do not, however, like poisonous black widow spiders living underneath my patio furniture. When this happens, I like to introduce these widow spiders to a friend of mine: the hammer. (And that's not a nickname for something. I really just mean a big ol' hammer.)

This evening, one particularly meaty spider decided, for whatever reason, that she was intent on doing as much harm to me (sans biting) as she could, and in her last, vain attempt at vengeance--at the moment of hammer-to-spider impact--she sprayed her disgusting insides all over my finger. It was gross. Really, really gross.

I guess that'll teach me.

New Discoveries

A couple of fascinating new articles--

From BBC News:













"One of South America's few remaining uncontacted indigenous tribes has been spotted and photographed on the border between Brazil and Peru.

The photos were taken during several flights over one of the most remote parts of the Amazon rainforest in Brazil's Acre region.

They show tribe members outside thatched huts, surrounded by the dense jungle, pointing bows and arrows up at the camera."

From NYTimes.com:
















"Two monkeys with tiny sensors in their brains have learned to control a mechanical arm with just their thoughts, using it to reach for and grab food and even to adjust for the size and stickiness of morsels when necessary, scientists reported on Wednesday.

The report, released online by the journal Nature, is the most striking demonstration to date of brain-machine interface technology. Scientists expect that technology will eventually allow people with spinal cord injuries and other paralyzing conditions to gain more control over their lives."

...
Wow. Really captivating and beguiling stuff. The world is indeed an incredible place.