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Written by Hilary Martyn   
Wednesday, 10 September 2008
Some of the greatest mysteries of the universe look set to be revealed shortly as one of the greatest scientific experiments of all time gets underway on the border between France and Switzerland today. But will it provide us with insights that can be applied at home? Scientists at the European Centre for Nuclear Research (Cern) will use something called a Large Hadron Collider (LHC), a particle collider, to recreate the conditions after the Big Bang, so that they can study the fundamental building blocks of all things.

The giant scientific instrument – it is 100 metres underground and 17 miles long - is expected to revolutionise our understanding, from the minuscule world deep within atoms to the vastness of the Universe.

If successful, we are told, the experiments carried out at the centre could lead to advances in cancer treatments, systems for destroying nuclear waste and insights into climate change. It could also lead to a Noble Prize for Stephen Hawking, as it should prove his theories on Black Holes.
 
Other than bookies offering bets on the world ending, it’s surprising the experiment hasn’t got the media attention it seems to merit, considering its scale. Paddy Power is offering odds of 10,000 to 1 that the world will end today because it says the experiment could, in theory, have the side effect of creating black holes when attempting to recreate the original Big Bang.

All of which got me thinking; there’s a few mysteries around here that it could get its teeth into, such as why the Government has moved to bring forward the Budget for the first time in the history of the state.
 
RTÉ’s Economics Editor, George Lee spoke on television last week about how pointless the move is, as the Government will only have returns for part of the year, while any fiscal measures brought in will not take effect until January. Economic doomsayer par excellence he may be, but even the Boy Who Cried Wolf got it right one out of three times.

The mysteries of the universe might be made known in a flash today, but we’ll have to wait another few weeks, presuming we’re still here, to see if the Finance Minister’s flash forward Budget will serve as little more than a flash in the pan or offer us a flash back to better times.

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