In the next few days a world first will take place that have some believing we could be facing the end of everything as we know it.
Next Wednesday, scientists in an underground lab in Switzerland will switch on the large hadron collider: a massive atom smasher designed to recreate the Big Bang, the moment when universe was formed.
Twenty years in the making, it has been funded and built by 8000 scientists from 85 different countries, including New Zealand.
But what critics fear is that activating the collider could create a massive black hole that would swallow the earth.
Should we be worried?
Professor Brian Cox from Manchester University helped build the collider, and he describes it as a 'time machine back to the beginning of the universe'.
First, scientists will send beams of particles around the 27km ring-shaped underground tunnel at almost the speed of light.
If that works, they will start sending out particles in opposite directions, smashing them into each other to recreate the very first moments of the Big Bang.
In other words, to watch the universe being created.
"I think it's right up there," says Prof Cox. "It's certainly the most exciting (experiment) for a generation at least.
"Could be biggest in a century."
Huge particle detectors, essentially massive cameras, will start taking photos of something scientists have never seen before.
And what do they hope to find? Everything. What took place when the universe dawned 14 billion years ago? How did mass emerge? And what is it? And what about dark matter? Scientists know it's out there but cannot detect it.
"We could find extra dimensions in the universe," says Prof Cox. "Could be other ones, could find we live on a sheet in the universe."
Is it too early to ask what use this knowledge might be?
"No it isn't," says Prof Cox, "and we get asked it all the time by governments that contribute money. Look back in history. Go back to Ernest Rutherford - he discovered the atomic nucleus, which led to quantum theory, modern electronics...the list is endless.
"Understanding the universe is not a bad idea. This is understanding the universe at the most fundamental level and it's served us well so far. If you'd asked Rutherford, he would have had no idea the technology that would have come from the knowledge, but technology always comes from knowledge.
Would Rutherford have imagined anything like this?
"He would have been astonished."
But the most powerful particle collider in the world has some people scared. Critics say the LHC could create a black hole that could engulf the earth. Some have tried to take legal action to stop the experiment going ahead.
"It's just complete nonsense. If you go around the internet you'll see a couple of loudmouths...it's completely unscientific. This happens all the time in nature, we're getting hit by particles all the time, from space, it's nonsense.
"The louder you shout on internet the bigger your opinion."
Not overly bad, just still.
