The Large Hadron Collider was switched on today and the world did not end, as some doomsayers predicted, Reuters reports. Scientists at CERN in Switzerland now plan to use the giant particle-smashing machine to recreate the conditions of the Big Bang and shed light on the origins of the universe. Interest in the experiments soared after doomsday writers predicted the machine could spawn a black hole and destroy the world. (More CERN stories.)