Panic Watch!

It seems every few months we're going to need to reassure people that the Large Hadron Collider will not swallow the earth, because the stupid story keeps coming back. Three scientists posited this week that any microscopic black holes created might persist for slightly longer than previously thought. They did not say earth-swallowing black holes will be created. In fact they said that still doesn't seem possible. But somehow this is being construed as "serious safety doubts" by the media.

And so, once again, scientists are forced to release statements to point out the obvious fact that the Earth will not fall into a LHC black hole lest angry mobs start tearing down one of the most groundbreaking pieces of scientific equipment ever created. This is about the 500th time they've had to do so in the past year (see our earlier coverage here).

Some media outlets just can't let this one die though. In reporting the above story about how safe the LHC is, FoxNews chooses the headline "Scientist Insists 'Doomsday Machine' Is Perfectly Safe". Give me a break. The only thing we accomplish with this kind of stupid scaremongering is forcing little girls to commit suicide.