Not likely. But there are some who believe that the subatomic collisions that will make matter sizzle so hot it melts into a plasma of elementary particles will produce not just millions of miniature examples of the big bang, but will recreate the big bang itself. According to some alarmists, the event could spawn a chain reaction that gobbles up all matter in the universe as it spreads, creating an alternate and entirely new universe in its place.

Tom Ludlam, associate director of the collision experiment, which is scheduled to begin later this year, says most of that speculation is the stuff of science fiction fantasy. Some of the scenarios though, are not in conflict with the laws of physics.

"Some of it has some basis in real science," Ludlam said. "It is possible to -- without violating any physical laws -- to imagine a scenario where you create something on this very tiny scale which could get out of control in some fusion reaction," or more extreme, he explained, cause the propagation of a new universe.

Such ideas, Ludlam said, propose that the universe is fundamentally unstable. Supposing that after the big bang the universe settled into a state of matter that is unstable, it is possible that there are more stable kinds of matter that could have been produced but weren't. The argument follows that if any type of more-stable matter were produced anywhere in the universe, the creaking wobbly universe that is the one we know and love would tumble down, collapsing into its more-stable state.

"Now that's something that scientists have occasionally speculated about," Ludlam said. "It doesn't violate any theory, doesn't violate any physical laws. But it presupposes a pretty ridiculous supposition that the universe is a house of cards that's going to fall as soon as we turn on RHIC.

The universe has existed in quite a stable condition for billions of years, and the kinds of collisions the Brookhaven collider will produce are not the first their kind, Ludlam said. High-energy collisions of atomic nuclei occur continually in the universe as cosmic rays bombard matter and collide with other charged particles. These collisions have been happening since the universe began and have not spawned any propagating universal annihilation, he said.