As gamers, we're familiar with delays. They're usually met with frustration, anger, and a lot of swear words. In this case though, a delay isn't so bad. The ignition of the Large Hadron Collider - the world's largest particle accelerator, and periodic cause of apocalyptic paranoia in the scientific community - has been delayed until August.

I'm actually looking forward to the LHC's launch. Yes, there are risks - of course, seeing as it may produce a black hole and all, this is an understatement - but I'm willing to accept CERN's previous report that the machine is safe, if only because there's nothing I can do about it otherwise anyway.

Come August, the first beams will be injected, but the first collisions won't happen until two months later. So really, if there are going to be any black holes or strangelets (the creation of strangelets can possibly start a chain reaction that will convert our planet into strange matter), it won't be until October. So no need to worry... just yet?

At any rate, if you want to see a clock ticking down to what may be the end of the world, follow the source link below.

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Related links:

• Will Earth's largest particle accelerator create a black hole?
• Particle accelerator may reveal existence of extra dimensions
• Forum discussion: Large Hadron Collider (LHC)
• Forum discussion: What happens when you enter a black hole?