I wonder if the public story about what happened is a cover for something else. The information that is revealed publicly about nearly everything is either incomplete, distorted, or deceptive. Perhaps the singularity that was predicted actually started to form and the operators had to abort.

G. DelVecchio, El Paso, Texas, USA

"In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth." Genesis 1:1. Is this so hard to believe that intellectual minds have spent thousands of years and billions of dollars trying to figure it out? It's clearly written in the only Book that has withstood the test of time! Read it!

Nahrin Dixon, Palmdale, USA

So all the Hadron Collider repairmen are out on other jobs & they're backed up 6 months. Typical - just like my cooker.

Maggie, Guildford,

I cannot help but wonder what would have happened if a failure of the trigger of the so called big bang had malfunctioned like the LHD. We would not be here, would we? Woe unto us human beings, if we are really products of chance. So anything can happen and we be no more.

Peter, London, UK

so--- did the "fire brigade" sound like Mickey and Minnie Mouse as they worked on stopping the helium leak?:)

JD, Springfield, USA

In a hundred years time this experiment will look primitive.
This planet has urgent problems to solve yet these guys are hoping they can understand the secrets of the universe.

Instead of spending billions to satisfy intellectual curiosity, try to solve the urgent problems this planet faces first.

Terry, London, UK

who cares about this machine? the money used to build this dinosaur would have been better spent on so many more worthwhile causes. who is really behind this enterprise and what really do they want? DO SOME RESEARCH AND YOU WILL
BE SURPRISED.

patricia bennett, Lulea,

Good, one last Christmas before the end of the world!

Jackfall, Grantham, England

Or maybe we are alone and just not very bright.

Nick, Perth, Western Australia

This is, by far, the largest and most complex machine ever built by mankind. Many of its technical performance specifications are so far ahead of anything ever seen anywhere that it is unbelievable.

It is a miracle that this machine works at all. Glitches were to be expected. They will be sorted.

qed, Hurst, UK

Have they tried plugging it back in? That usually works with my computer...

Nobby Clark, Perth, the Scottish one, Scotland

Will the alarmists please stop with the over the top assertions about the LHC. Look, the world isn't going to end over it, and this failure is not new no more than it is a sign from God. It's a big, tempermental piece of kit, but when the test is done the results shall be very interesting.

Christopher Faherty, Spiddal, Co.Galway,Ireland

I was under the impression that this was one of the most huge and complex engineering projects ever undertaken. Did anybody really expect it to work on the first go?

I hope they get it sorted out soon though! I can't wait to see what they find out with their experiements!

Martin, York, U.K.

Its difficult not to wonder wether a certin cloud dwelling bieng i laughing at this point...

Thomas, Hull, Englnd

my sympathy to all the scientists involved in this great endeavour of mankind. don't give up.

jamiu, mbabane, swaziland

The Most complicated and advanced scientific machine ever created by man..... didnt honestly expect it to work first time did you??
One of the greatest discoveries to come from the LHC could be a better understanding of the processes & science required to make it work!! aliens wud be better thou!

josh, leeds,

While the LHC is shut down, the oerating scientists might study the Upanishads and Vedas of ancient India. They'll find most of what they want to know there.

Geraldine Leale, Ascot, England

Elijah of Northampton is right. Everything simply cannot be create out of nothing. And precisely where in nowhere anyway? That which exists exists, it always has and it always will. It's a challenging, even painful fact, that instead says Santa and God haven't always existed.

David, Cambridge, UK

"as much as a tonne of Helium escaped"

????

I thought Helium weighed less than air?

craig, Nottingham, UK

They will never be successful in recreating the 'Big Bang' because there was never such a thing. Laugh at me for believing in Creation; but have you ever wondered why, of all the name science gives to things,medicines etc, why BIG BANG? A kid came up with that?? Big Bang? please

Elijah, Northampton, UK,

IT'S A SIGN FROM GOD THAT THIS SHOULD STOP !!!

Peter, Bangkok,

4$ Billion Big Bang blown? Big deal. Bush delivered a 12 TRILLION $ Big Bang.

Eugene, heidelberg, germany

Obviously we are not alone. "Them" out there have seen what we are up to and are saving us from ourselves.

Pauline, Perth, Western Australia

disagree steveh, it's very clear to me that the malfunction of the CERN machinary has created an intense anomaly in the financial markets certainly leading to the pending fall of western civilization as we know it....

JY, manchester,

Phew! at least we get to see another Christmas!

Anni, Melbourne, Australia

The short-sightedness of Atlanta Dean is typical of modern-day materialism.

Pete F, Hong Kong

Peter Fargher, Hong Kong, China

If only we could put this much effort into something that I can imagine ever using.

Dean, Atlanta, GA, USA

The end of the world is not nigh....that's a relief. I can put away my heavy bill-board until the snowdrops appear. I needed a holiday....

steveh, Halesworth, Suffolk, England