Does the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN threaten to obliterate mankind by creating a black hole? Did Stephen Hawking really say the Higgs boson, the existence of which was confirmed by the Large Hadron Collider in 2013, would destroy the universe? Are the scientists running the world’s largest machine playing God? (Why else call the Higgs boson the “god particle”?) Combating these rumors, which are widely shared among conspiracy theorists and influential religious leaders, is also part of the work being done at CERN. It’s not all smashing atoms all the time in Geneva. As with any giant — and public and powerful — global enterprise, part of the work is in controlling the message, trying to combat misinformation and disinformation.
With the reboot of the LHC last summer at double the energy it previously had, CERN has redoubled its efforts to dispel the rumors that inevitably attach to its groundbreaking scientific work — work that very few lay people truly understand. The reboot — coupled with the Higgs discovery — also gave CERN and the LHC a much higher public profile. The attention has been welcome and, in cases where CERN has to constantly defend its work, less welcome. A 60 Minutes episode airing on November 8 won’t cool things down either for the hard-working communications staff at CERN. Here are some of the issues they’ve already tried to get in front of, including the statue of the Hindu God Shiva on the campus:
- CERN Denies Stephen Hawking Meant Large Hadron Collider
- CERN Defends Its Statue of Hindu God Shiva ‘The Destroyer’
- What Are Large Hadron Collider Effects On Weather Patterns
- CERN Battles Dark Matter Doomsday Scenario
- CERN Tries To Calm Fears On Large Hadron Collider, September 23
- CERN Denies It Will Create Black Holes — In “Cosmological” Sense
- Large Hadron Collider — Mysterious Object Detected In Tube
- CERN Adding New Collider To LHC, 1000 Times Faster Acceleration
