Project brings death threats to professor

Grand-scale atom smasher launch has some fearing results

 Nobel laureate MIT physicist Frank Wilczek has received death threats in advance of tomorrow’s launch of a grand-scale atom smasher in Switzerland.

Wilczek is safe and sound stateside and has reported the threats to local law enforcement. However, he said he’s more embarrassed than anything by the threats surrounding his role with the Large Hadron Collider (LHC).

“For one thing other people have contributed more to the project, and for another it’s a shame that the fuss over nonexistent dangers at LHC is getting as much attention as its genuinely exciting scientific prospects,” said Wilczek, who served on the committee overlooking the project for six years.

Those worked up over the LHC — a $10 billion accelerator that will shoot particles around a 27-kilometer loop at extreme speeds in order to create collisions and reveal elusive particles — have feared an apocalyptic result.
Some even dread the creation of a black hole that could swallow the Earth when it is fired up after a nearly 20-year build.

Wilczek, who is an expert on accelerator disaster scenarios, said the controversy will be short-lived.

“We’ve been waiting for this for years, for decades,” he said, stressing the start-up is just part of a prolonged process. “It’s one milestone on a long path.”