Some fear debut of powerful atom-smasher

Some fear debut of powerful atom-smasher

www.cnn.com

he most powerful atom-smasher ever built could make some bizarre discoveries, such as invisible matter or extra dimensions in space, after it is switched on in August.
But some critics fear the Large Hadron Collider could exceed physicists' wildest conjectures: Will it spawn a black hole that could swallow Earth?

Or spit out particles that could turn the planet into a hot dead clump?

Ridiculous, say scientists at the European Organization for Nuclear Research, known by its French initials CERN -- some of whom have been working for a generation on the $5.8 billion collider, or LHC.

"Obviously, the world will not end when the LHC switches on," said project leader Lyn Evans.

David Francis, a physicist on the collider's huge ATLAS particle detector, smiled when asked whether he worried about black holes and hypothetical killer particles known as strangelets.

"If I thought that this was going to happen, I would be well away from here," he said.

(visit the link for the full news article)

John Titor any one?

www.cnn.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

Sorry to say it like this.... but this must be what, thread no. 15 or so??

The fears were already there 5-6 months ago.

lol i figured i just had to make sure it was up. My bad on posting already posted material.

No really your fault mate... the media keep wallowing around in these completely unfound fears. It's rather pitiful But I guess as long as they can sell on fear they will do that.

Just remember to tell your family not to worry, Earth won't be disappearing just yet

Was going to point out the multiple other threads, but flice covered that for me

Anyways, most fears are unfounded. The biggest fear obviously is a blackhole being created, escaping from the LHC, and not collapsing under its own weight. If all these unlikely things happened, the black hole would need a microscope t be seen. It would also take a couple thousand for it to grow big enough to pose a threat.

I say fire the damn thing up, smash those freakin particles already, and discover the secrets of the universe. We would be doing the universe a favour if we annihilated ourselves anyways


EDITED: for spelling and clarity

[edit on 30-6-2008 by ben420]

HaHa, I like the mention about the odds of a global catastrophe being 1 in 50 million being akin to winning a lottery. What they fail to note is that someone always wins a lottery. LOL

reply to post by liamoohay


You took that out of context...

Someone is always bound to win the lottery because theres millions of people playing it. In this lottery, its like only one person being in the lottery, and the chances of that one person getting the numbers right is 1 in 50 million

LOL, yes I know. I was just being facetious.

Originally posted by ben420
The biggest fear obviously is a blackhole being created, escaping from the LHC, and not collapsing under its own weight. If all these unlikely things happened, the black hole would need a microscope t be seen. It would also take a couple thousand for it to grow big enough to pose a threat.

How can a black collapse under its own weight? It already is imploded material, isn't it? A black hole can only disappear by evaporating itself through Hawking's radiation (correct me if I'm wrong).

You said 'it would take a couple thousand to grow'. A couple of thousands of what? I'm not an astrophysicst yet I think a microscopic black hole that's being fed wouldn't take long to grow into a size that can rip a planet apart. Though we would need to ask a scientist here for specific information - how the size of a black hole correlates to the amount of matter it can consume (the rate at which it consumes matter).

However, if we kids were 'playing with matches' and posed a threat to the whole solar system, I believe little green men would step in.

On the other hand, I would be quite glad to know that humans are getting extinct once and for all.

So I wouldn't worry about anything regarding the LHC.