Meet Evans the Atom, who will end the world on Wednesday

The man behind the world’s biggest scientific experiment, which critics claim could cause the end of the world, is a Welsh miner’s son who has admitted blowing things up as a child.

Dr Lyn Evans, who has been dubbed Evans the Atom, will this week switch on a giant particle accelerator designed to unlock the secrets of the Big Bang.

But the 63-year-old physicist revealed yesterday that his passion for science was fuelled by the relatively small bangs he had created with his chemistry set at his council house in Aberdare in the Welsh valleys.

‘I was more interested in chemistry than physics when I was young,’ he said.

‘I had a number of chemistry sets. Like everybody, I used to make explosives. I even blew the fuses of the whole house a few times.’

His interest in physics grew at his boys-only grammar school, where lessons had an added attraction because they were attended by girls bussed in from a nearby school that lacked a physics teacher.

On Wednesday, Dr Evans will fire up the Large Hadron Collider, a 17-mile-long doughnut-shaped tunnel that will smash sub-atomic particles together at nearly the speed of light.

Built by the European Organisation for Nuclear Research (CERN), the collider lies beneath the French-Swiss border, near the institution’s headquarters in Geneva, at depths ranging from 170ft to 600ft.

The aim of the £4.4billion experiment is to recreate the conditions that existed a fraction of a second after the Big Bang – the birth of the universe – and provide vital clues to the building blocks of life.

It will track the spray of particles thrown out by collisions in a search for the elusive Higgs Boson, a theoretical entity that supposedly lends weight, or mass, to the elementary particles. So important is this mysterious substance that it has been called the ‘God Particle’.

Scientists also hope to shed some light on the invisible material that exists between particles – dubbed ‘dark matter’ as no one knows what it really is – which makes up most of the universe.


But a handful of scientists believe that the experiment could create a shower of unstable black holes that could ‘eat’ the planet from within, and they are launching last-ditch efforts to halt it in the courts.

One of them, Professor Otto Rossler, a retired German chemist, said he feared the experiment may create a devastating quasar – a mass of energy fuelled by black holes – inside the Earth.

‘Nothing will happen for at least four years,’ he said. ‘Then someone will spot a light ray coming out of the Indian Ocean during the night and no one will be able to explain it.

‘A few weeks later, we will see a similar beam of particles coming out of the soil on the other side of the planet. Then we will know there is a little quasar inside the planet.’

Prof Rossler said that as the spinning-top-like quasar devoured the world from within, the two jets emanating from it would grow and catastrophes such as earthquakes and tsunamis would occur at the points they emerged from the Earth.

‘The weather will change completely, wiping out life, and very soon the whole planet will be eaten in a magnificent scenario – if you could watch it from the moon. A Biblical Armageddon. Even cloud and fire will form, as it says in the Bible.’

He said that attempts were still being made in the European Court of Human Rights to halt the experiment on the grounds that it violated the right to life. The court has, however, already rejected calls for a temporary delay in the project, and it is unlikely to come to a speedy decision about whether the CERN experiment should be halted for good.

Meanwhile Dr Walter Wagner, an American scientist who has been warning about the dangers of particle accelerators for 20 years, is awaiting a ruling on a lawsuit he filed a fortnight ago in his home state of Hawaii.

He fears the experiments might unwittingly create something he calls a ‘strangelet’ that could result in a fusion reaction that might ultimately turn the Earth into a supernova, or an exploding star.

But Dr Evans, the leader of the project, who has devoted 14 years of his life to building the vast particle accelerator, is dismissive of the doom-mongers.

In fact, he is so relaxed about the project, he even wears shorts to work.

He said that Prof Rossler was a ‘crazy’ retired professor who had invented his own theory of relativity.

‘We have shown him where his elementary errors are, but of course people like that just will not listen,’ said Dr Evans.

Meanwhile, Dr Wagner’s fears were ‘totally and completely’ unfounded. ‘There are thousands of scientists around the world who have been preparing this machine and they know what they are talking about, unlike these guys,’ he added.

Dr Evans says his real nightmare is not that he will destroy the world but that, with the cameras rolling, the machine will break down. ‘This is not the first accelerator I have commissioned, but the first under the glare of the whole world,’ he said.

‘My main worry is that we’ve got a huge amount of equipment and it is new. If something trips off, we are down for hours and we have all these Press people sitting around.

‘We are not used to that. We are used to setting things up quietly and announcing it afterwards.’

* Experiment produces lab rap hit

The Large Hadron Collider may be causing fears for the future of the world, but it has become the bizarre setting for an unlikely music hit.


Written and performed by 23-year-old Kate McAlpine, who works in the Press office at the CERN laboratory in Switzerland, the video features Kate and two background dancers bopping about in lab coats.

A long way from rap’s usual subjects of violence and crime, the rap focuses on the science of high-energy particle physics. One section goes: ‘Two beams of protons/ swing ’round./ Through the ring they ride/’til in the hearts of the detectors/ they’re made to collide!/ And all that energy packed/ in that tiny room/ becomes mass,/ particles created from the vacuum.’

Kate, who wrote her first physics rap while studying at Michigan State University, says: ‘Rap and physics are culturally miles apart and I find it amusing to throw them together.’

A CERN spokesman said: ‘We love the rap and the science is spot on.’

Fetch Fido! The robotic dog that could revolutionise the military

A robot dog that runs, climbs rough terrain and carries heavy loads has become an internet sensation after video footage attracted millions of viewers.

BigDog was created by engineering company Boston Dynamics for the American military.

The robot, which is the size of a large dog, is powered by a gasoline engine that drives its hydraulic system.

In trials the intrepid hound was able to run at 4 mph, climb slopes up to 35 degrees steep and walk across rubble while carrying a 340lb load.

The robotic rover has legs that move like an animal's and can absorb shock by repositioning its three joints up to 500 times a second .

During a demonstration video, which was viewed by more than 6m people on YouTube, it managed to keep its footing on an uneven surface after being shoved sideways.

BigDog has an on-board computer that helps it to balance, steer and navigate as conditions vary. Other sensors focus on the internal state of the robot, monitoring the hydraulic pressure, oil temperature, engine temperature and battery charge.

Current models are remote-controlled from bases, however it is believed scientists are working on sight sensors that will allow BigDog to make basic movement decisions.

The project was sponsored by the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, which comes up with radical inventions for the military.

Watch BigDog in action here...

Teenage girl's head 'doubles in size' after drinking an exotic holiday cocktail in Crete

A teenager has vowed never to touch alcohol again after an exotic holiday cocktail containing a 'secret ingredient' caused her head to swell to abnormal proportions.

Corinne Coyle, 19, was rushed to hospital in Crete's popular party resort of Malia after just a few sips.

The cocktail, bought in a Greek bar for 10 euros (£7.80), and served in a bowl, is said to contain a mixture of Baileys, chilli powder, tequila, absinthe, ouzo, vodka, cider and gin, plus a 'secret ingredient'.

Today Corinne was safely back home after her ordeal but her facial features have still not returned to normal.

As she tried to sleep off the devastating side-effects in a darkened room, her mum Fiona Roth, 43, of Astonbury Green, Easterside, explained how one drink turned her daughter's dream holiday into a nightmare.

She said: 'She drank about a third of it then her friend said 'have you seen your head?' Then Corinne said 'I know, I have brain-freeze'.

'When they went to the toilet her forehead had doubled in size. She panicked and they got into a taxi and went to hospital."

Corinne, who went on holiday last week with her friend Nicola Galbraith, 21, a nursery nurse, also of Middlesbrough, was put on a drip and tablets and spent two days in hospital following the Friday scare.

Doctors said the swelling was caused by a chemical reaction and they had seen a similar incident within the last couple of weeks.

Fiona, a home care assistant, said: 'She couldn't see out of her right eye because of the swelling. It was the first bar they had been to that night. Within 20 minutes of drinking it that was the reaction she got.'

Corinne, an administrator in media and arts at the University of Teesside and a former pupil at Macmillan Academy, Middlesbrough, was flown home in the early hours of Tuesday morning and has spent the last two days being examined at the James Cook University Hospital and by her GP.

Doctors are still waiting for the results.

Corinne tried to get home earlier but she was not allowed to fly due to the swelling. However, she sent pictures on her phone to her mum.

Fiona said: 'I couldn't even recognise my own daughter. I just hope to God it goes back to normal because she's a really pretty girl. I just hope there's no lasting damage.

'I tried to get a flight out but I couldn't get one in time. I felt useless. I just wanted to be with her.

'The swelling went down a bit but then the flight back made it worse again with the altitude.

'Corinne has a little beauty spot on the corner of her right eye and it's dropped down her face by about an inch.'

The teenager, who lives with her mum, sister Ashleigh Coyle, 14, and Fiona's husband Stephen Roth, 42, has vowed never to drink again.

Her mother said she was relieved to have daughter back at home.

How a cruel disease is paralysing a little boy - and no one knows what it is or if it will kill him

The holiday photos show a beautiful blond boy trotting along the beach, kicking a football determinedly and giggling with his daddy.

But Lewis Jeynes's mum, Samantha, admits she never looks at these snaps - taken in France in September 2005 - it's simply too painful.

For her boy is now trapped in a body that doesn't work. The once-lively and active four-year-old can no longer talk, eat, move his limbs or even support his own head.
And, heartbreakingly, his large brown eyes are still filled with intelligent curiosity, a constant reminder of the old Lewis, a toddler whose energy promised so much.

'It hurts too much to look at those photos now. He's never going to run, kick a ball or make sand castles again - not without a miracle,' says Samantha, 39, cradling Lewis in her arms.

What makes their story even more tragic is that doctors have no idea what is wrong.

Indeed, Lewis's condition has continued to baffle a succession of medical experts.

He's had hundreds of blood tests, biopsies, MRI scans, a lumbar puncture, allergy tests - and all have come back absolutely clear.

'On paper, Lewis is perfectly healthy,' says Samantha, who's given up her clerical business in order to be Lewis's full-time carer at home in Doncaster.

'No one can explain why this has happened to him.

'Until recently, I used to feel full of anger. Why us? Why has this happened to my boy?

'Now we just live day by day and treasure the highlights, such as when he gives us one of his gorgeous smiles.'

For the first two years of his life, Lewis passed every developmental milestone.

He sat up at six months, started to crawl at nine months, and was walking at 17 months, trotting after his older brother Sam, now 15, from Samantha's first marriage.
Lewis started to limp

Just before his second birthday in February 2006, Lewis started to limp on his right leg.

'His leg was X-rayed but they could see nothing, so assured us it was just an "irritable hip" - when the tissue around the hip bone becomes inflamed - and that it was quite common in boys of Lewis's age. A week's rest cleared it up.'

But two months later, in April, Lewis started limping again on the same leg.

'At first, our GP thought it was a return of the irritable hip but a few days later he couldn't take any weight on his right leg.

'Instead of walking, Lewis reverted to crawling everywhere, which was worrying.

'But I never thought it was anything serious - in every other way, he was his usual self.'

Lewis's family saw a paediatric neurologist at Sheffield Children's Hospital a week later. An MRI brain scan, blood and urine tests all came back normal.

'It was so frustrating,' says Samantha. 'Why couldn't he run around like other boys his age as he'd been doing just months before?'

Then in July 2006, Lewis suffered a seizure. An MRI scan and tests to diagnose epilepsy showed slight abnormalities in the brain, but nothing conclusive.

'The scan showed his brain function was totally normal.

'We left hospital with totally mixed emotions - relieved we hadn't been given a frightening diagnosis, but anxious that no one knew what was wrong.'

With the couple due to get married the next day, it was a fraught time.

'We'd been planning the wedding for two years and the original plan was for Lewis to be a page boy.

'He looked adorable in his suit, but while the other children ran around, he was crawling on the carpet,' says Samantha.

On their honeymoon in Spain, Lewis wasn't himself either.

'Lewis had started swinging his hips, as if his joints were sore, and he seemed tired all the time.'
His body started to shut down

From then on, Lewis's body started to shut down.

His left hand clenched up permanently in a fist so he couldn't use it.

He stopped crawling and lost neck movement, so much so his head had to be propped up with cushions. Then he lost movement in his right arm.

By Christmas, he was having trouble swallowing, choking on pureed food.

'That was the most terrifying time - watching our beautiful baby's body shut down - and feeling utterly powerless,' says Samantha.

'We were stuck in a never-ending round of hospital consultations and social services appointments for help with our now severely disabled son.'

Samantha and James's family videos are heart-breaking; instead of recording the joyful steps of childhood, they realised they were recording the last times their son could to do things independently.

'There's one video where Lewis is struggling to eat a yogurt in his high chair.

'His left hand can't hold the pot so he's trying to do it one-handed, and he keeps trying and trying', says Samantha tearfully.

Throughout this time, Lewis was in and out of hospital for more tests and intensive physiotherapy sessions to try to strengthen his degenerating muscles.

'He hates the needles in blood tests but he's so brave,' says Samantha. 'He even received a WellChild Bravery Award from Prince Harry last year.'

In November, he had a lumbar puncture to test a sample of fluid from his spinal column for rare neurometabolic diseases and progressive neurological disorders.

The seriousness of these tests, coupled with Lewis's deterioration, terrified his parents.

'Until you have a child who's sick, you can never imagine the emotional roller-coaster of hope and terror, and then hope again,' says Samantha.

To their relief, the initial results from the lumbar puncture tests came back negative.

The next stage was skin and muscle biopsies to test for Batten Disease, a rare metabolic condition.
Skin and bones

Just days after Christmas, Lewis stopped being able to swallow. He choked on teaspoons of food and in six days had lost 3lb, dramatic for a child weighing just 1 1/2st.

'He was skin and bones,' says Samantha. 'That's when he started being tube fed. It was a bleak time.'

Three weeks later, Lewis came home and his parents started making plans for the long-term care of their son.

Now constantly tube fed and unable to support his head, Lewis was more dependent on them than a newborn.

'It was such a huge responsibility to get used to giving him his tube feeds and his medication to control his seizures,' says Samantha.

'I was constantly worrying, not sleeping because I was so scared that he wasn't going to wake up. I still sleep with him every night.'

Lewis's condition seemed to have stabilised, but the cause of his illness remained a mystery.

In April 2007, the family travelled to Great Ormond Street Hospital in London to see the world expert in neurological metabolic diseases, Professor Robert Surtees.

'He suggested a nerve biopsy for rare genetic disorders, but they all came back normal,' says Samantha.

'We were so hopeful because he was presented to us as the God of neurology and then he died suddenly in August.

'It was as if all our hopes of finding a cause and perhaps even a cure had died, too.'

Lewis's paediatric neurologist at Sheffield Children's Hospital describes his condition as a 'progressive neurological condition now in a static phase', meaning it's not getting better or worse.

'I've been told that no diagnosis would fit all Lewis's symptoms, something occasionally seen in children with neurological disorders.'
Round-the-clock care

So without a firm diagnosis, Lewis's family have had no choice but to settle into a routine of round-the-clock care.

Thankfully, Lewis's mystery condition appears to have stabilised, but he still needs weekly physiotherapy and hydrotherapy to try to increase what little movement he has.

Since last July, he has been fed through a tube straight into his stomach, with each feed taking up to six hours.

When Lewis isn't suffering from the chest infections he's prone to, he attends a special school in Doncaster during term times.

'It was really hard for me at first,' admits Samantha.

'I used to sit in the parents' room, worried sick that he wouldn't be looked after properly and would miss me.

'Now I've learnt to relax and I'll go to the supermarket or for a run.'

While Samantha is Lewis's devoted carer, the family have put all their effort into raising funds for Lewis and other children with undiagnosed neurologically degenerative conditions.

Their new goal is to raise the enormous sum of £19,000 for a computer - a Smartbox MyTobii - which Lewis can control with eye movements, allowing him to communicate for the first time.

'They've just had one installed at Lewis's school and it's amazing,' says Samantha excitedly.

'The computer is like a key for Lewis, a key that will unlock a more rewarding and fulfilling life.

'Soon he'll be able to use it to learn to read and to talk to us.

'When Lewis was a baby, he was so perfect, I never ever thought something so terrible as this could happen to him,' says Samantha.

'Thank God, he's still with us and bright as a button, but it hurts to see him trapped in his body like this. And with absolutely no explanation as to why.'

So for now his family have learnt to treasure the precious moments Lewis gives them.

'He loves being "whooshed" in his wheelchair towards someone in front of him,' says Samantha.

'He loves it so much he sometimes almost laughs. That's a great sound, Lewis almost laughing.

'It rips at your heart and brings tears to your eyes.'

Kim Kardashian Ready for Dancing With the Stars

Kim Kardashian will shake her booty when season seven of Dancing With the Stars (DWTS) premieres on Sept. 22. "I decided to do the show because I feel like never in my life will I ever have the opportunity to do something like this," Kim, 27, tells Life & Style in an interview this week.

"My greatest challenge will be this new foot injury. I cut my toe pretty bad on a mirrored desk that was cracked, and I just pray it will heal fast!" her nasy cut was even fatured on TMZ.Com and had some thinking she wouldn't be able to compete. But she says is ready and looking fiward to it.


Kim will be competing against singer Tony Braxton, 41, Lance Bass, 29, actor Ted McGinley, 50, actress Cloris Leachman, 82, former NFL star Warren Sapp, 35, chef Rocco DiSpirito, 41, Olympic gold medalists Maurice Greene, 34.

Misty May-Treanor, 29, comedian Jeffrey Ross, 42, actor Cody Linley, 18, Brooke Burke, 36, and Susan Lucci, 61. Says Kim, "I'm so excited to learn these dance moves. And it doesn't hurt that I'll get in the best shape of my life!"