When the first beams of protons zipped around the track of the Large Hadron Collider at 0730 GMT (1:30 a.m. EDT) this morning, the scientific world was holding its collective breath in anticipation of one of two likely outcomes: Either physicists would finally capture the elusive Higgs boson that their models had predicted, or they would learn that they had been on a decades-long scientific goose chase.
But a few risk-averse Brown students made plans for a potential third outcome not usually entertained by physicists - that little black holes created in the LHC would rapidly expand and "eat the planet from the inside."
"Doomsday Preparation Party" was the name of the Facebook event, with an agenda befitting the expected destruction: "morbid poetry reading," "baptism 'just in case'" and, of course, "being sucked into a black hole" - all while wearing attire you'd "want to die in."
The party's host, Michael Dean '09, said the idea came to him over dinner a few days ago. He had read media reports of fringe theories that predicted a catastrophic implosion upon the activation of the LHC, which will launch tiny particles at each other at near the speed of light and then examine the microscopic debris for traces of the Higgs boson, a hypothetical elementary particle that has never been observed in a laboratory.
Today's demonstration was a test run for the LHC - which will be officially unveiled in October - and marked the first particle beam ever circulated through the multi-billion-dollar complex.
"My first thought after, 'Wow, we actually could all die,' was, 'We should actually do something,'" Dean said.
Dean arrived late to his party Tuesday night - "I just called my parents to say what was hopefully not goodbye" - to the beat of Herbie Hancock's classic funk tune "Chameleon" playing from some speakers in the corner of a room in his Williams Street home.
But the mood shifted when Dean's housemate, Annie Blazejack '09, began working on an epitaph-themed guestbook, with spaces allotted for each doomed partygoer.
"She left Hawaii for the cold of Providence - the gods will rock out to her ukulele," was written for Kailua, Hawaii-native Chloe LeMarchand '09, who walked around the room with her tiny blue guitar playing new arrivals the last songs they might ever hear.
After some time spent enjoying their last few hours on Earth playing that-game-where-you-try-to-swing-a-tethered-ball-into-a-cup-on-a-stick and composing a list of "things we will wish we had done as we lay dying," the group of about 15 moved to the bathroom for the "just-in-case" ritual baptism. Dean presided over the ceremony, pouring water over Hoy Loper '09 "in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit."
Cheers of "Amen!" sounded from the crowd as Loper writhed in the bathtub.
All the while, Dean's "doomsday" playlist ran in the background, a constant reminder of the events to come. Guests cheerily danced to The Beatles' "It Won't Be Long," Paul McCartney's "No More Lonely Nights" and the industrial-funk-inspired "Supermassive Black Hole" by Muse.
Unbeknownst to the partygoers, Brown likely deserves some of the credit for the night's festivities. Physics professors David Cutts, Greg Landsberg and Meenakshi Narain are part of the international team conducting experiments with the European Organization for Nuclear Research, the international institution that built the LHC. They will be some of the first scientists to analyze data from the particle accelerator once it is activated.
"If you really understand what is going on, (a black hole) is such a remote possibility it will have zero impact," Narain told The Herald last April.
A theatre arts concentrator, Dean said most of his knowledge of particle accelerators has come from news articles and the "Large Hadron Rap," a popular YouTube video that features LHC technicians singing about the science behind the project.
"My understanding is that if the mini-black hole opens in the lab, the lab is going bye-bye, but apparently that's going to spark other black holes," Dean said playfully. "My lack of knowledge of theoretical physics shows."
But for Dean, the end of the world is less about science and more about acceptance.
"Some people think aliens are going to envelop the world, not black holes," he said. "What this party is about, really about, is welcoming different views. And in a way, I think that's very beautiful."
