philosophy

John McCain delivered a speech on his judicial philosophy on Tuesday.

It's no surprise that liberals hated John McCain's speech on the judiciary on Tuesday, while conservatives (mostly) liked it. But it's disappointing that the speech didn't break any new ground in the debate over judicial nominations. McCain can be refreshingly clear when it comes to subjects that our political debate tends to constrict. Not this time.

A suit filed in District Court in Hawaii demands that the U.S. halt construction of the Large Hadron Collider (L.H.C.), the $8-billion particle accelerator on the Franco-Swiss border, on the grounds that it could cause the destruction of the earth, the solar system, or the universe.

The L.H.C. could reveal the nature of matter and confirm physicists' best guesses about the validity of string theory. These would be advances comparable to Einstein's or Newton's -- but they are possibilities only because we do not know what will happen when we switch the contraption on. Scientists protest that the probability of their experiments' causing the end of the universe is astronomically low, and they are telling the truth. But tinkering with the unknown is what experimental science is all about, and even the scientists must admit that there is a chance of doomsday (and, indeed, a chance of many other things) in any project like this.