Muon Barrel by µµ on Flickr

Remember the CERN Large Hadron Colider? It hasn’t been too successful yet.  There’s been two explosions that have interrupted things and there hasn’t meen much to show for all the money and hype . This is perhaps western humanity’s most ambitions (and perhaps most Promethean) project yet.  One of its aims is that the machine will create tiny replicas of the primordial “big bang” fireball thought to have marked the creation of the universe.

According to this article, there may have been a very interesting reason for the failures.  Using mathematical theory, a couple of scientists have suggested that the particle we are attempting to create in the Hadron collider, the Higgs boson, “abhors nature”; and as such when it is created it sends a signal back in time tht interferes with its own creation – hence the explosions and delays in the project. Apparently the aim is to create the right amount of these particles so that some can be isolated; but if the theory is correct, it could be a chaotic process.

Whether or not the theory is true it’s an interesting metaphor.  When we innovate, or initiate action that will change the future, something may happen that seemingly bounces back and interrupts the process; and while we may achieve our goal.  While we might achieve our goal in the end, innovation doesn’t usually go in the straight line we might hope.

As a metaphor, the Higgs boson particle might provide a simple parallel to the myth of Promethius (which I will amplify in a post soon).  And indeed, isn’t modern science our central contemporary mythology?