Bang for buck?

We're still here then.

Despite morbid fears of armageddon or lasting side effects, the big switch-on of the Large Hadron (careful not to commit a typo there..) Collider (LHC) experimental machine took place today deep beneath the Franco Swiss border.

The world didn't end this morning, and the planet may have gained a way of finally discovering how life allegedly began - how the big bang happened (if the scientists are right of course). Hopefully without the opening of black holes left, right and centre.

Google is certainly glorifying it today.

The project is being run by CERN, the research institution where the world wide web was born.

The thing is, all the publicity has focused on the enormity of the project and the safety fears, but very little has questioned what would happen if it fails, and what hurdles it faces (other than avoiding global destruction of course).

Sure, that's quite a negative perspective and wouldn't have helped NASA in the 60s, but what if this £5 billion experiment doesn't deliver the goods with a clear conclusion? The early signs are promising, but the project is apparently now four times over budget, big loans have been secured for it and many countries have committed to funding it.

The point is this: PR is going to be fundamental to whether it's seen as a success, and whether it can continue on its path if the world's biggest-ever physics experiment gets the hiccups. Otherwise the LHC may be a tougher sell than PR to a sales director.

Despite what are pretty understated press releases on the topic, at least the media seems to be giving it a fair shout. An earlier story in today's Metro cited an expert saying anyone who says it will cause black holes is a "tw&t".

Plus apparent CERN staffers are doing the rounds on You Tube with a LHC rap. Part of the official CERN PR strategy? Hmm.