If it was a scientist asking this question, the answer would inevitably be to smash. I realized not too long ago that a significant amount of scientific achievements are made by smashing two things together to see what happens.

Take, for instance, the show that NASA put on on July 4, 2005. Had we been able to see it all of our fireworks shows would look like kids with M80's (albeit with signifcantly less hands getting blown up). A large comet named Temple 1 was passing near Mars and NASA wanted to know what it was made out of. Did this team of geniuses devise a probe that would travel through the tail and collect debris, or something that could scan the different visible light, EM, and megnetic specturms of the comet?

(Pictured above: me proposing these ideas to NASA)

Hell no! Instead they took a satelitte, launched a rocket from it directly at the oncoming comet, and caused an explosion equivalent to 4.5 tons of TNT being detonated. They then collected and studied the debris from that. Mission accomplished. They did the same thing with the freaking moon! Twice! In an effort to determine if there is water on the moon, NASA launched a similar rocket into it to study the debris. They then realized that their satelitte was running out of fuel and its orbit would degrade soon. Instead of letting it gracefully fall to the lunar surface, they pointed the thrusters and crashed the satelitte into the moon, then observed the debris from Earth.

Even the LHC, the most advanced technological achievement in human history, only has one purpose: take two particles, get them going really, super duper fast, then smash them together and watch the explosion. It's funny: when I was a kid I'd take my Hot Wheels track, construct a path that would take the cars down the stairs, and launch them into a wall made out of Lego. I knew it was fun, but little did I know that it was science!