What Will the Future Hold?

What Lies Ahead for Our Children?

Have you ever stood outside on a clear night, gazed at the stars and wondered how the universe was formed? Or, perhaps you have wondered what the universe may have looked like a billion years ago?

Physicists at the European Center for Nuclear Research (CERN) are attempting to answer these questions and more. Located outside Geneva, Switzerland, CERN is on the cutting edge of particle physics. One hundred meters below the surface of the earth, they are accelerating particles to nearly the speed of light in order to collide them. They are attempting to see what our universe looked like mili-seconds after the big-bang. The particles travel in opposite directions in a 27 kilometer long, $10 billion dollar accelerator.

Just last week, CERN announced that they have narrowed their focus in their attempt to find the God-Particle (the Higgs-Boson), the particle they believe gives other particles mass. Imagine what Jenny Craig could do with the God-Particle!

As our technology expands so do our discoveries. In the next ten to twenty years (perhaps even sooner) many new technologies will be born from experiments conducted at CERN. Imagine stepping into a machine, much as H.G. Wells imagined years ago, and stepping out of the machine only moments later but fifty years in the future! What if you could step into a spaceship that travels at nearly the speed of light allowing you to explore the far reaches of our universe? Worm holes, black holes and alternate dimensions are just some of anomalies CERN will try to explain. 

Whatever the future holds it is undeniable that the 21st century is an exciting time in the history of our world. Our children will be faced with many problems, but they will also have new technologies with which to solve them. Because of CERN our children will  be closer to explaining our existence and how our universe began. They may also be able to explain the six additional dimensions that physicists believe surround us but we are unable to perceive.

My father used to read Buck Rogers comic strips and laugh at space travel. You may be reading this and scoffing at the notion of time travel, alternate dimensions and wormholes. But like Buck Rogers and space travel, our expanding technology seems to know no bounds.

To Read Tom Schuett's thriller, Collider, visit www.tomschuett.com Copies of Collider can be bought online at Smashwords, Barnes & Noble, Amazon and Books A Million. It is available across ebook platforms.