Injunction sought against colllider

HONOLULU, March 31 (UPI) -- Two men have asked a U.S. court in Hawaii to block a European particle accelerator, arguing that it might produce an Earth-devouring black hole.

Physicists involved with the Large Hadron Collider say it is safe, The New York Times reported. The accelerator has been under construction by the European Center for Nuclear Research, or CERN, for 14 years near Geneva, Switzerland.

Walter Wagner, who operates a botanical garden on the Big Island of Hawaii, and Luis Sancho of Spain filed the lawsuit March 21. They named CERN and the U.S. Department of Energy, the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory and the National Science Foundation as defendants.

The suit asks for an injunction that would block CERN from starting up the accelerator.

The aim of the collider is to mimic the condition of the universe in the moments immediately after the Big Bang, allowing physicists to look for clues to the universe's origin.

Wagner and Sancho say there is at least a small chance of total annihilation of Earth and possibly the universe. They say it could come in the form of a black hole or of a strangelet, which would turn the entire planet into strange matter.