NOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!! LHC to shut down for a year to address safety concerns

the longer they fix it the more powerful it becomes. I take it that's what they are saying.

So it''l start back up at the end of 2012? Just in time for the end of the world party. Coincidence? I think not.

That is sad news, but good that they plan to try to prevent damage rather than fixing it if/when it occurs. Thanks for the seed.

I think it is best to fix it before it is broke. Better to take care of problems now instead of waiting until it is too late. Don't worry, be happy. 2012 is just like 1990 and 2000, nothing happened then and nothing will now.

From my experience studying physics, I think a lot of the problem can come from the terminology, and general mindset, of probabilistically-minded scientists. For example, when a physicist says, "There's a very small chance that this experiment will destroy the planet," they're not saying that it's a normal kind of very small that the average person is familiar with -- what they're describing is often an even that would not occur over hundreds of billions of years if the experiment were run constantly throughout that time. And there's a significant difference there.

The flippant remarks from physicists, while amusing to those in their esoteric situation, generally frighten the public because they're not familiar with the principles of combinatorial mathematics. I'm not saying that this behavior is worth scolding them, and it's certainly funny behind closed doors, but their public-facing comments need to be screened to ensure that people understand that there is no risk to them from these experiments.

Put it into perspective -- tell them that they have a better chance of winning the lottery every month for the rest of their life (at one ticket/month) than they do dying from the LHC destroying the planet. Granted, I don't think most people realize how bad their chances are at winning in the first place... but I think it will help illustrate the point.