It's funny because I have often thought this and in fact was thinking about it just the other day.

LOL!

http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/201 ... in-the-lhc

There are some other equally interesting questions in the video also.

Why not drop a steak into the beam and see what happens?

You can work up from there, until you find somebody stupid enough to put their hand in. They'll either lose their hand or they will turn into Proton Man

I imagine it being like a small sharp burn, like a magnifying glass in the sun.

I thought of it more like being shot by an incredibly small bullet.

i.e. you would end up with a hole straight through the palm of you hand but it would be so small so as not to cause too much of a problem.

However, it was interesting what the guy said about them hitting the mass and dissipating. The fact that the protons are so small means that even though they are travelling so fast, your hand would probably be enough to stop them.

At which point you have a bit of a problem.

LOL!

Look up "Sixty Symbols" on youtube. Some very interesting videos on there.

They should ask TV’s smiley boffin Professor Brian Fox to answer this one. Or get Myth Busters to find out. Or both. Both would be good.

I imagine they'd have to turn it off. And on again. At huge cost. So don't try it.

They could at least put a sausage or something in just to see what the likely effects are. As it’s designed to handle small things, maybe they could use a cocktail sausage or one of those mini frankfurters.

A black hole would be created in the palm of your hand.

And then the world would end. Twice.

A baguette almost found it's way in, don't forget. That didn't go well.

Must be using Windows?

Well considering that it is a vacuum in the LHC tube it would be very cold and your hand would be a no different than if you put it in any vacuum. I doubt that the density of particles in your hand is enough to cause it to create new particles through collisions