What else can the Atom Smasher do?

I watched the live web-cast at CERN while they were powering up the machine (roughly 7 hours of it).
Aside from possibly answering the age old question of why we are here (big enough in itself), they explained that the LHC has many benefits for mankind.

Learning about subatomic particles, how they work and how we can manipulate them will vastly increase our knowledge of the world around us, enabling for new technologies in just about everything you can think of: computers, engineering, space travel, even the medical field.

Most noteworthy was that the LHC will be heavily influential in the research and treatment of diseases, cancer in particular. I think that is a massive benefit, don't you?

Professor Brian Cox at CERN explains it a lot better than me:

Question: What advantages (besides increase in knowledge) do you expect to obtain from this?

Answer:
"Experiment is the basis of the scientific method, without which there would be no modern world as we know it...

... without these experimental discoveries, and the subsequent deepening of our understanding of the Universe, there would be no electronics, no silicon chips or transistors, no medical imaging technology, no nuclear power stations, no X-rays or chemotherapy treatments for cancer...

... What this should teach us is two things. First, it is virtually impossible to deepen our understanding of Nature without experiments. Second, understanding Nature has never been a bad idea - indeed without the pioneers of the past century, our civilisation would be immeasurably poorer.

... I do not know what the continuation of this long and illustrious quest will lead to, but I would be extremely surprised if a writer called upon to defend scientific enquiry at the turn of the 22nd Century does not point to the LHC as the foundation of a hundred new technologies, each considered essential to our quality of life."

You can read the whole article here where he gives insight into the possibilities of the LHC:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/7598996.stm

Also, for further reading (if you so wish):

CERN:
http://public.web.cern.ch/public/Welcome.html

Large Hadron Collider:
http://www.lhc.ac.uk/index.html

All told, September 10th, 2008 could prove to be a very instrumental and historic day. Who knows what future technologies we will have the LHC and the people at CERN to thank for.

EDIT:
The world wide web was actually invented at CERN, albeit long before the LHC.

See here:
CERN - where the web was born:
http://public.web.cern.ch/Public/en/About/Web-en.html

Yeah,with that amount of money,someone,somewhere should be interested in that stuff. Maybe,some time in the future we will be grateful.

You comment reminds me of a statement made by a ruler to a researcher who demonstrated the wonders of a very simple electrical device in the 1700s. The man's name was Volta, where we now get the word "volts" and the device, that was mostly tossed to the side as an odd novelty piece, was an electric battery. At the time, there was no practical need for it, but how times have changed!

I agree, the LHC does not have much practical applications, other than curious wonders. Just like the electric battery, motor, generator, airplane, MRI, radioactive materials, all at one time had very little practical use and some took generations before any society and technology caught up with the technology to grasp and better utilize the information.

Now I do have a chemistry and physics degree and this is complete speculation, but if we better understand how the particles are put together, we may start getting to the point of making and better controlling them. There is the possibility of making elements that exceed what we currently have on the periodic table, each with its own unique properties that have never been witnessed before. There is also the possibility of learning how to make large quantities of anti-matter, which even in the smallest amounts could supply the entire planet with all of its energy needs. The energy output of anti-matter reacting with matter is FAR greater than any other fuel source and it's a whole lot cleaner...the only by-product is energy. This is also WAAAY out there, but if we better understand gravity, we may begin to better learn how to control it (ie. hovering cars and deep space exploration).

Granted, this is all speculation. Just like the Wright brothers, did you honestly think they would figure that within 70 years after creating their first airplane that there would be 300 people sitting in a plane, flying across the ocean while eating a meal and watching a movie? Let's not totally disregard the technology, we may have to wait a while to see what becomes of it.

You are correct. The LHC has no value for the average person. It is only something to keep the scientists employed so they can show people that they are doing "science" and earning the money they get paid. Let us not forget that Einstein was working in a patent office when he developed the theory of relativity. No matter what the LHC might tell people, we can never be 100 percent certain that the theories we come up with are actually THE truth. And I would bet money that they are not. The LHC will not destroy anything other than possibly some of the theories that these "geniuses" have been spouting for decades. The real black hole may be the place where all the money to build these toys and to pay these people goes. I friend of mine once said that after all the smoke clears away about reagans star wars stuff you might just as well have taken the 30 or 40 or however many billions spent on it and just flushed the money down the toilet. That is a realistic appraisal. The same might apply here. If this thing is a dud they will still tell you how wonderful and amazing it is and what great science has come out of it and then stick their hands out to get more mony to build an even more powerful machine. People without food, people without housing, global warming, etc, etc, etc and we get a bunch of clowns playing with expensive toys. If they are so smart, why don't they put their intelligence to work trying to solve the ills of the present world and, once this has been done, then go off and play with their little toys?

For they guy who said the web came out of the LHC. What has he been smoking? The web was developed by DARPA (you do know what DARPA is don't you? - Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency). At least DOD has produced one thing that is useful.

To the guy about producing large amounts of anti-matter. Hahahahahahahahahahahahaha... Go back to watching Star Trek reruns. Your bones will be dust long before that might ever be done.