The 5 Scientific Experiments Most Likely to End the World

[ASCLEPIADES]

On a more positive side, here comes a Question & Answers section by Dr. David Morgan:

 

"Why do you think the paranoia about the LHC is so prevalent online?

 

[i think] it's becuase people mistrust anything they don't understand, and the conspiracy mindset is rampant in this country. People distrust science so much that they believe scientists would take a 1 in 100 chance of turning the Earth into a black hole just to test theories; that scientists aren't humans and don't care about the potential for a disaster to occur.

 

So what are the actual chances of a major catastrophe resulting from the LHC?

 

I think if you pull out ALL the stops, you get like - 1 in a trillion, but that's really pushing it. I think a more reasonable estimate was soemthing like 1 in 10^20.

 

Will the LHC actually create any black holes?

 

It will create black holes. It's not a given, but fairly probable. But what people don't understand about black holes is that they are not magical sucking machines; they are mass compressed into a small space. These would be black holes with the mass of a proton.

See, the black hole scenario is the one that works people up, but it's the strange matter conversion and the vacuum bubble scenario that are far more interesting and horrible.

 

Can't these black holes then grow and suck in all of Europe though?

 

It can't "suck in" any more than any ordinary proton sucks in mass. It's just that, once you get too close to [a black hole] you are stuck. And by close, we're talking 10^-15 meters or something, about a millionth of a nanonmeter.

 

And then what? You'd have a tiny little black hole walking around with you picking up paperclips?

 

No. Can you pick up a paper clip with the gravitational attraction of your hand? A single proton-sized black hole wouldn't be able to do anything, and all our theories say that a proton-sized black hole will evaporate.

 

READ MORE.

Edited September 15, 2008 by ASCLEPIADES

[ASCLEPIADES]

Apparently, doomsday will have to be rescheduled:

 

Atom-smasher hit by electrical hitch.

 

The world's largest particle collider was stopped on Wednesday, a week after its startup, as a result of an electrical fault, the European Organisation for Nuclear Research (CERN) said on Thursday.

The problem affected a cooling system for high-powered magnets designed to steer beams of particles around the Large Hadron Collider's 27-kilometre (16.9-mile) circular tunnel, CERN said.

 

The LHC "is still in commissioning phase, it's a very complex tool and it's normal for there to be stoppages," a CERN spokeswoman told AFP.

 

Commissioning work stopped on Wednesday, but was likely to resume later Thursday, she said.

 

The LHC took nearly 20 years to complete and at six billion Swiss francs (3.76 billion euros, 5.46 billion dollars) is one of the costliest and most complex scientific experiments ever attempted.

 

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[ASCLEPIADES]

More delays for the Armageddon:

 

From the Scientific American blog (Sept 20, 2008):

 

LHC helium leak will shut collider down for two months

 

"More glitches for the Large Hadron Collider (LHC):

 

The same day operators announced that a 30-ton transformer that cools part of the particle smasher had broken within hours of the LHC's launch last week, a mishap yesterday resulted in "a large helium leak" into the collider's tunnel.

 

According to a press statement, "the most likely cause of the problem was a faulty electrical connection between two magnets, which probably melted at high current leading to mechanical failure"."

 

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Edited September 23, 2008 by ASCLEPIADES

[Formosus Viriustus]

Has The Large Hadron Collider Destroyed The World Yet ?

 

http://hasthelargehadroncolliderdestroyedtheworldyet.com/

 

Want To Read More Nonsense About The Large Hadron Collider ?

 

http://uncyclopedia.wikia.com/wiki/Large_Hadron_Collider

 

 

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