MEYRIN, Switzerland — The 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.
The countdown to doomsday is here.
They say they did the math on what the chances where that it would end the world. I live by a simple rule: If I am doing something, and I have to do the math to see if there is a chance that what I am doing will end the world, I don’t do it. Period.
I wouldn’t worry about it too much DJ. The universe has been doing this experiment on the moon for billions of years. The moon is constantly bombarded by the same high energy particles that will be tested in the LHC without the moon being sucked into a tiny black hole. Any miniature black holes created in the LHC will disappear in flash of hawking radiation in a poofteenth of a second.
Safe or not, who is to tell until they turn the switch on! It scares me when scienties “toy around” with the unknown….cloning, now this for example. Yes, discoveries MUST be made in order for us to go forward, however doing so is not always worth the risk. This to me is not a risk worth taking. Just my opinion.
What if it dont do anything that everyone says but actually knocks us off or out of our atmosphere in stead? Then what?
Not atmosphere our solar system.
Smash your Atoms , grind your Theorys , Dot the I’s and please do cross the T’s . Above all else would you please postulate . What for the love of all that is known is on the ” Other side ” . Is not everything contained within a space , a space ,a space. Is it a choice and a matter of mind or are we subjugated to a confinement that we may comprehend yet truely not understand . Where are the ” Miracles ” . I must ask ” Do we fold unto our selves” or with proper traing expose our selves to ” What shall be” I have Traveled……………………..
Thanks for posting this Sam. The LHC is involved in some of the most important science of our time and the fears are based scientific illiteracy. Even if the thing generated a microscopic black hole and even if it didn’t instantly evaporate it still would have about the gravitational pull of a mosquito. Unfortunately fear is a compelling argument and movies are full of a lone scientist that everyone thinks is crazy that turns out to be right. As Shane said the LHC will just be re-creating something that happens in nature, to quote the CERN report “Nature has already generated on Earth as many collisions as about a million LHC experiments – and the planet still exists.” When you learn about the science it becomes less strange and exotic and the fear is removed. What we can learn about the fundamental nature of the universe is really exciting.
What if the protons collide and wont split into anything else? What if its just a huge waste of money?
This idea is the stupidest on I’ve ever heard of do the want to blow up the earth the should focus on more important things like solving global warming