Now that the first proton particles have been injected into the Large Hadron Collider, the facility is now getting ready to start up the humongous atom smasher next Wednesday. Pretty exciting stuff.

Excitement has been dampened for the scientists at the facility however, as they've been getting death threats to stop the operation.

More than that, Head of public relations, James Gillies, gets phone calls that range from tearful to angry. He gets stuff like: "I am seriously worried. Please tell me that my children are safe," or "You are evil and dangerous and you are going to destroy the world."

To which Gillies replies:

I find myself getting slightly angry, not because people are getting in touch but the fact they have been driven to do that by what is nonsense. What we are doing is enriching humanity, not putting it at risk.

One professor in Manchester University, commenting on how Nobel Prize winning physicist Frank Wilczek has received death threats, remarks: "Anyone who thinks the LHC will destroy the world is a t---." Right on. And the thought of a professor saying "destroy the world" and "t---" in the same sentence just puts a grin on my face.

Seriously though, the world's most brilliant minds wouldn't give the project the thumbs up if they thought it would make the world go kablooie. They live here too, after all. We don't live in a world of mad scientists. And if we do, then there's also a James Bond out there somewhere that will save us anyhoo. Chill out about it, folks.

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