Buried under the French-Swiss border, the Large Hadron Collider has gotten its

 share of ink--and for good reason.

 Hearing about the sheer magnitude and price of what's been 

called the biggest and most expensive scientific experiment

 in human history is enough to instill fascination and excitement 

in even the most non-particle-physicists among us. 

Once it's running at full capacity, the project's researchers say,

 the $5.3 billion LHC, the biggest particle accelerator ever built,

 will be able to answer questions physicists never thought they'd get

 answers to, like why the universe formed the way

 it did and why matter has mass. Critics of the project say 

it could have the opposite effect, leading not to knowledge 

but instead humanity's demise