Tomorrow they (assorted boffins from around the world) turn on the Large Hadron Collider. I'm in awe of the engineering that this represents - it's the largest machine ever built on the planet as far as I know; it's a 27km underground circular tunnel with several massive support buildings above ground and it's initial purpose is to replicate the conditions present in the Big Bang. It does this by shooting really, really small particles down the tube really, really fast and watching what happens when they collide. 

(Where "really, really small" is "sub-atomic" and "really, really fast" is "as close to the speed of light as we can make it". Not the most accurate description you've ever seen I know, but it's all you're going to get from me; I'm not a particle physycist!)

There is also a "non-zero probability" that it will create an artifical black hole which will destory the planet and end human existance. Which technically brings it just within the remit of this site, since I can say "not likely". Mainly though I just wanted to put something down about it, because it's cool! 

Tomorrow we should know a little bit more about the world we live in. Actually it'll probably take them several years to analyse the data, but it all starts tomorrow. I'm all for that.

Here's something pretty cool I saw in New scientist. Here's a 4 year old link, but the idea seems to have resurfaced recently. Basically create a self contained, tamper proof reactor that will fit on a large pallette. Plug in a generator and presto - power on tap. They're talking about low maintenance units that can be transported around the world safely, are cheap enough for developing countries to buy and come with enough fuel sealed in for 30 years of operation.

I'm a fan of nuclear power. Which doesn't automatically make me an "enemy" of green power, before anybody gets on their high horse. Renewables are great when you have the raw material - i.e abundant sunlight, a nice handy coastline etc. And I'm sure in time the technology will get better, to the point where it's actually practical to power a country with a few acres of wind farm / solar panels. Right now though, in the short to medium term I don't see a better alternative than nuclear power so if we can make it cheap and safe that has to be good, right?

The reactor designs they're talking about for these things are not Chernobyl - that happend over 20 years ago and we have made some progress since then! The modern designs (so I read) create less - and less dangerous - waste than their predecessors and incoporate many safety features to help prevent the china syndrome.

Conceptually I like it. Whether it'll ever get off the ground politically is a whole other question - do we want to be handing over a large chunk of nuclear material to people who we don't trust? I can see it being used to provide power for remote installations of "friendly" nations, but I can't really see the US selling Iran a nuclear-power-station-in-a-box!

Try these links for a taster of things to come:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SSTAR

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toshiba_4S