The most powerful particle smasher in the world is apparently about to blow up under Melissa Franklin’s feet, and she’s having a hard time hiding her irritation. Minutes earlier Franklin waved good-bye to a team of eager students who were about to make their way down on a minor repair mission into the pit, the part of the Fermilab Tevatron accelerator where protons and antiprotons smash into one another with enough ferocity to create weird forms of matter and energy. But something went wrong down there. Now every type of siren, Klaxon, and flashing light ever invented is operating with bone-shaking enthusiasm throughout the accelerator building. The message is clear: the students in the pit have already been reduced to fundamental particles by terrible forces, and the rest of us are about to die.
Or maybe not. Franklin rolls her eyes and strolls morosely along the cat-walk toward the exit. ...
