Appaently another machine nicknamed the International Linear Collider (ILC) has been on the drawing table for 3 years and it will be much more powerful than the LHC. It will smashed billions of particles per second into each other in attempts to show other kinds of matter, the origins of gravity, and what caused the Big Bang. The cost is estimated at a mere 4 billion dollars.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/new...cle4749224.ece
If some scientists are so scared that smashing some particles together with the LHC is going to give birth to mini black holes why on Earth are they going to be smashing billions of protons together per second to see what happens? Won't the black holes coalesce as there are more and more of them created?
Crazy crazy stuff.