Of course, streams of well-known nuclear physicists have pointed out several flaws with this theory (such high-energy reactions take place all the time in space around us without causing Armageddons) but the possibility of a bunch of mad scientists imagining the end of the world is too exciting for cold hard probabilities to be considered. This is a somewhat amusing example, but it reflects a deeper problem in our society: overestimating the danger of small-probability events, a reflex belief that science would happily sacrifice safety to progress — which leads to such things as a distrust of GM agriculture; an obsessive focus on air crashes or terrorism as opposed to, say, road safety; paranoia about stem cells and cellular cloning; and the fact that AIDS research gets more funding than that much more deadly disease, malaria.

So, over the next few weeks, if the extraordinary effort to recreate the Big Bang being made at the world’s largest-ever machine crosses your mind, it should not be over the vague concern that a black hole is slowly eating its way through the earth’s crust in your direction. Let there be happiness that a giant, international project — not only European in scope, but incorporating the input of dozens of Indian scientists from frontline research institutes across this country — is taking off, and that humanity continues to learn more about the conditions that gave the universe birth.