14 DAY TRIAL // The winner of the renaming contest for the Large Hadron Collider, hosted by Wired, is now known: the device will henceforth be called "Black Mesa"; at least by people from Wired.
In all admittance, compared to the importance of the device's goals, its magnificence, as well as the tons of science compacted in its bowels, the name of Large Hadron Collider was, to put it mildly, rather nerdy. It was like calling your washing machine "Big white thing that washes clothes," or your car "Wheeled device that gets me there." Not cute at all, is it?
That's why some sites involved in science decided to take this matter into their own hands and finally find a respectable, appropriate name for the 18 miles (28 km) of track and 27 tons of magnets that make up the monster machine that would supposedly swallow the Earth. The Royal Society of Chemistry agrees with this, and, in this regard, it launched a contest in mid September, throwing in a £500 ($930 or 630 Euro) prize as well. As it claimed, LHC's name "fails to reflect the drama of its mission, or the inspiration it should be conveying to the wider public." Its elected winner was Rhode Island's Aaron Borges, with his "Halo" name proposal.
Its main competitor is Wired, the online face of the Wired magazine, which embarked on a similar mission a year ago, without a cash prize, though. Its winner, however, gets to be submitted to the LHC operators from CERN. Referring to "Halo," Wired labels it as unexciting and "a little too cute," while pointing out that Microsoft probably owns that name by now. "Halo" sounds even less attractive than the least of Wired's favorites, "The Blesser," submitted by Vicenzo Maggio. The team didn't like it for its religious implications, claiming that, in the light of the recent mishaps, LHC would need to be blessed, not bless.
Speaking of the collider's series of unfortunate events, it's exactly what got it Wired's winning name, "Black Mesa" (clearly inspired from one of the best computer games, Half-Life), which, as Brandon Keim from Wired says, it sounds "scary and intimidating, like a leaked government project." The winner, submitted separately by DSA and Brian Reed, was followed by runner-up "Chuck Norris Roundhouse Kick Simulator," submitted by Anonymous. Among other great name choices were: "Master Blaster Atom Smasher"; "Atom Smasher +5, Holy Avenger"; "What Willis Was Talking About"; "The Big Banger"; and "The Thing We Play With When We Aren't Playing Warcraft." We're impatient to see whether CERN still has a healthy sense of humor after all it's been through.