Doctor Who time traveller Captain Jack has embarked on a new mission to unravel the origins of the universe. TV star John Barrowman called in at a research centre built to recreate conditions during the Big Bang that created time and space.

The vast underground laboratory near Geneva, called CERN, is home to the £2 billion Large Hadron Collider which is like something out of science fiction. Particles of matter will be fired at each other at close to the speed of light along a tunnel the length of the Circle Line in London.

When they collide, they are expected to create undiscovered particles such as the Higgs Boson and open doors to new dimensions. Scientists say they could even create millions of minute black holes.

John, who plays Captain Jack Harkness in Doctor Who and spin-off Torchwood, was shown round CERN by UK scientist Dr Brian Cox, who was advisor to sci-fi movie blockbuster Sunshine. John said as he toured the facility: “It’s like something out of Stargate!”

He added: “It’s nice to be able to see where all these questions that we have will, hopefully, one day be answered.

“And its nice to know that the scientists, the guys and girls who work here, still have questions too. No one knows the answer, that’s the good thing – except Captain Jack!”

Skymania News was given its own tour of CERN by Dr Cox earlier this year. He told us: “We’re trying to understand the basic building blocks of the universe, how those building blocks stick together and, with a bit of luck, why those building blocks are there at all.”

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