XKCD and my love for science-coolness

The brainiacs at XKCD have a great talent for putting a smile on my face. Their webcomic fuses science and humor, a lethal combination in my book. They pride themselves in their ability to interweave romance, sarcasm, math and language. Fantastic!

Thanks, Newton

Wanted: Arch Rival

Photo of ice rivals, Tonya Harding and Nancy Kerrigan

Imagine putting so much of yourself into something: your life's work. You struggle in the shadows for most of your career, but in an instant, your work suddenly becomes public. It may seem that the attention and acclaim was all the reward you needed. How do you know you've reached the top? A respectable rival. That's when you know you have something worth fighting for. After all, nothing says "I love you" more than "I hate you."

A rival is a great milestone. Consider the lives you affect on your path to greatness. Thanks to you, many lives were touched and hopefully improved, but your rival's life was affected more than anyone else's. Your work is now fueling their work and theirs with yours. Much of their inspiration now stems from your demise, and your hatred for them only drives your creativity to higher limits. Hatred? I call it flattery. Think about all that time and energy taken to sabotage your potential prize winning peanut-butter fudge bars of heaven at the Pillsbury Bakeoff. Or when they sleep overnight beneath your unguarded science fair project to nudge things out of place before the science fair? To finally have that person in your life is achieving an ultimate level of productivity, unless they've already broken your knee.

Which group gets attacked by the media the most?

You can guess. Hint: It has nothing to do with this group's income, ethinicity or gender.

The answer: scientists.

Scientists get it real bad from the media. They are held responsible for many of Earth's tragedies: a-bombs, pollution, cancer. In particular, we point fingers when human life just wishes their brilliance could've prevented a decline in resources or more certainly, death. Curiosity can be a curse, but also a blessing.

Recently it has been announced that 14 kilometers beneath Geneva, there is a lab where an impressive experiment is going to take place. The Large Hedron Collider (LHC for short) is a particle accelerator that is aimed at the smallest particles we know. This $4 billion dollar experiment is going to try to recreate the Big Bang; fusion power. These scientists want to know how we came to be from the very start of the universe.

Why is this important to know? This may just give us the missing link in particle theory, the source of life as we know. Not to mention, an incredible power source. But this is worrisome to skeptics. Many fiction stories have been inspired such as powerful neutrino rays, the creation of dark matter, a black hole, or possibly the end of the world. I remain more hopeful than the sci-fi skeptics.

I'm excited to see what happens next.