Page 1 of 2 [ 19 posts ]  Go to page 1, 2  Next

Averick
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 5 Mar 2007
Age: 44
Gender: Male
Posts: 2,709
Location: My tower upon the crag. Yes, mwahahaha!

28 Mar 2008, 10:04 pm

"The builders of the world's biggest particle collider are being sued in federal court over fears that the experiment might create globe-gobbling black holes or never-before-seen strains of matter that would destroy the planet.

Representatives at Fermilab in Illinois and at Europe's CERN laboratory, two of the defendants in the case, say there's no chance that the Large Hadron Collider would cause such cosmic catastrophes. Nevertheless, they're bracing to defend themselves in the courtroom as well as the court of public opinion.

The Large Hadron Collider, or LHC, is due for startup later this year at CERN's headquarters on the French-Swiss border. It's expected to tackle some of the deepest questions in science: Is the foundation of modern physics right or wrong? What existed during the very first moment of the universe's existence? Why do some particles have mass while others don't? What is the nature of dark matter? Are there extra dimensions of space out there that we haven't yet detected?

Some folks outside the scientific mainstream have asked darker questions as well: Could the collider create mini-black holes that last long enough and get big enough to turn into a matter-sucking maelstrom? Could exotic particles known as magnetic monopoles throw atomic nuclei out of whack? Could quarks recombine into "strangelets" that would turn the whole Earth into one big lump of exotic matter?"


By Alan Boyle
Science editor
MSNBC

MSNBC News

Maybe Dan Brown forseen these events in Angels and Demons? :roll:



tweety_fan
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 2 Oct 2007
Age: 39
Gender: Female
Posts: 3,555

28 Mar 2008, 10:11 pm

whoa



DeaconBlues
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 21 Apr 2007
Age: 60
Gender: Male
Posts: 3,661
Location: Earth, mostly

28 Mar 2008, 10:32 pm

Or, more likely...


_________________
Sodium is a metal that reacts explosively when exposed to water. Chlorine is a gas that'll kill you dead in moments. Together they make my fries taste good.


Averick
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 5 Mar 2007
Age: 44
Gender: Male
Posts: 2,709
Location: My tower upon the crag. Yes, mwahahaha!

28 Mar 2008, 10:50 pm

Yeah, totally DeaconBlues.

Wouldn't it be nice with all the technological advances that the super-scientists at CERN produce me a machine to instantly molecularize par nul a real Butterball turkey at my waking disposal to cure world hunger?



bicentennialman
Sea Gull
Sea Gull

User avatar

Joined: 20 Mar 2008
Gender: Male
Posts: 227

28 Mar 2008, 11:38 pm

Those fears sound like they're more informed by science fiction than by science. It's a shame they're getting in the way of physics research. Not that I'm an expert, but I tend to trust the physicists more than the critics in this case.



Aaron_Mason
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 3 Jul 2005
Age: 38
Gender: Male
Posts: 511
Location: Bathurst, Australia

29 Mar 2008, 4:08 am

Yeah, it sounds really frivolous. The first thing I thought of when I saw this was "you've gotta be kidding me..."

I think it'll be fine. People are just dumb.


_________________
We are one, we are strong... the more you hold us down, the more we press on - Creed, "What If"

AS is definitive. Reality is frequently inaccurate.

I'm the same as I was when I was six years old - Modest Mouse


Scribbler
Snowy Owl
Snowy Owl

User avatar

Joined: 15 Mar 2008
Age: 35
Gender: Male
Posts: 127
Location: UK

29 Mar 2008, 11:35 am

I bet it cost millions and millions and millions to make and will cost yet more millions to run... I wish the science community would pump its money into something useful like a cure for aids, rather than frivolous tat like this.


_________________
"Who says 'marvellous' to the Job Centre?!"


pakled
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 12 Nov 2007
Age: 66
Gender: Male
Posts: 7,015

30 Mar 2008, 12:23 am

one function of a black hole is mass (not the state north of Connecticut..;). How much could they actually make?

Actually, antimatter has been made in much the same way. Almost a dozen or more atoms of it. Even transported by commercial jet (this was a few years back). haven't heard about any problems with that...



spudnik
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 19 Feb 2008
Age: 62
Gender: Male
Posts: 2,992
Location: Calgary, Alberta Canada

01 Apr 2008, 10:38 pm

Something to do with the Higgs Boson particle, might be why there hasn't been any contact with any other civilizations in in the galaxy, having discovered the particle and destroying themselves in the process



pezar
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 5 Apr 2008
Age: 49
Gender: Male
Posts: 2,432

06 Apr 2008, 10:33 pm

Averick wrote:

Some folks outside the scientific mainstream have asked darker questions as well: Could the collider create mini-black holes that last long enough and get big enough to turn into a matter-sucking maelstrom? Could exotic particles known as magnetic monopoles throw atomic nuclei out of whack? Could quarks recombine into "strangelets" that would turn the whole Earth into one big lump of exotic matter?"



This sounds like a SciFi Channel Original Movie, of which TV Guide once said they "were written on a bender and filmed in Bulgaria". "Oh no, the Medusa Project is turning the earth into one big lump of exotic matter! We must stop the matter ball before it reaches Seattle!"

OTOH, "strangelet" sounds like a good name for aspies if "aspie" ever gets too loaded.



CowboyFromHell
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 22 Dec 2007
Age: 34
Gender: Male
Posts: 1,158
Location: Surprise, Arizona

06 Apr 2008, 10:47 pm

Averick wrote:
Yeah, totally DeaconBlues.

Wouldn't it be nice with all the technological advances that the super-scientists at CERN produce me a machine to instantly molecularize par nul a real Butterball turkey at my waking disposal to cure world hunger?


It'd cook a mean bag of popcorn for the next big sci-fi blockbuster.


_________________
www.Last.fm/user/BadMoonReaper
I love WP's color scheme. Green is awesome when you're blue!


reika
Supporting Member
Supporting Member

User avatar

Joined: 13 Aug 2007
Age: 60
Gender: Female
Posts: 933
Location: Alaska

07 Apr 2008, 12:11 am

That made me LOL Deacon Blues, I even sent it to an acquaintance of mine, thanks.
Also, I saw an interview w/ Simon LeVay, A Neuroscientist who just wrote a new book "When Science Goes Wrong" and he mentioned the black hole/anti-matter issue also.

http://www.thedailyshow.com/video/index ... imon-levay

Forewarning, its The Daily Show, so its also "amusing". The comment begins at about the 4 minute mark in the interview.


_________________
Did I dream this belief, or did I believe this dream?
Peter Gabriel

If only closed minds came with closed mouths. Lau: "But where would they put their feet?" Postpaleo: "Up their ass."


Macbeth
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 27 May 2007
Age: 45
Gender: Male
Posts: 2,984
Location: UK Doncaster

14 Apr 2008, 9:27 pm

Pretty sure that this was part of the plotline in a Joe Haldeman novel.

(Possibly part of the Forever War sequence.)

Might be thinking of a different thing entirely, but its definitely an old sci-fi standard.


_________________
"There is a time when the operation of the machine becomes so odious, makes you so sick at heart,
that you can't take part" [Mario Savo, 1964]


KingofKaboom
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 20 Oct 2007
Age: 37
Gender: Male
Posts: 3,471

14 Apr 2008, 9:48 pm

I feel smarter by just reading this thread ^___^


_________________
Tacos (optional)


Zara
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 23 Jun 2007
Age: 43
Gender: Male
Posts: 2,877
Location: Deep Dungeon, VA

14 Apr 2008, 10:13 pm

I'm not worried.
Miniture black holes? There's no technology on Earth that can compress enough matter to even make a micro black hole. The most they could ever get is a highly radioactive and unstable heavy element that will only exist momentarily.

Destructive mono-poles? If such things exist, then they probably already exist here in some minute trace amounts. Well we're still here aren't we?

Don't know about stranglets and exotic matter... guess I'll have to look those ones up. But still not worried.


_________________
Current obsessions: Miatas, Investing
Currently playing: Amnesia: The Dark Descent
Currently watching: SRW OG2: The Inspectors

Come check out my photography!
http://dmausf.deviantart.com/


reika
Supporting Member
Supporting Member

User avatar

Joined: 13 Aug 2007
Age: 60
Gender: Female
Posts: 933
Location: Alaska

15 Apr 2008, 1:09 am

Deacon Blues, just wanted to Thank You for that site. Ive been all over it and just ordered a shirt that cracked me up which reads.
"Science. It works, b*****s"
Harsh but hilarious to my somewhat distorted sense of humor. :)


_________________
Did I dream this belief, or did I believe this dream?
Peter Gabriel

If only closed minds came with closed mouths. Lau: "But where would they put their feet?" Postpaleo: "Up their ass."