First, I want to appologize for not posting as often as I used to be, I’m really busy at the moment and don’t have much time to investigate new scams! That being said, if you don’t already know, the first attempt to circulate a beam in the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) will be made tomorrow, September 10.
There are a lot of fears surrounding the LHC and it’s for a good reason: it’s one of the most complex machine ever built and could be able to spawn mini black holes. It looks a little scary I know, but I wrote a post a couple of months ago about the LHC and why it shouldn’t be a threat and it explains a lot of important things. (See that I use “should” here because it’s so complex, even Stephen Hawkins could be wrong! ). If you haven’t read the article I suggest you do and if you’re too lazy, here’s a straight to the point explanation of why you shouldn’t fear:
While it is totally possible for the collider to generate a black hole, it wouldn’t result in a doomsday scenario simply because we have to put everything in perspective. A black hole generated in the collider would be too small to have any sort of influence. Mangano, a member of the CERN group studying the safety of the collider doesn’t deny the possibility that the collider could spawn a black hole, but he says the energy would be concentrated in a space thinner than a human hair. That’s simply too small to even have a slight influence on us. That would be a spectacular thing though, because black holes are still a mystery to scientists.
There’s also the other fact that the energy created by smashing protons and lead ions together might not produce enough energy to create a black hole. Energy created by the collider can reach 14 trillion electron volts, but it is not widely accepted as being enough to spawn a black hole.
There you go, we’ll see tomorrow if everything went right!
Sounds like one more thing the 2012-ers can add to their list of things that will end mankind…
I think we should create black holes. It would give us somewhere to stash all the doom sayers.
I actually like that suggestion
Expose a planet (lots of planets. And the Sun. And lots of other stars, and so on) to high energy cosmic rays, such that lots of high energy proton-proton collisions happen. See if it still exists. No experts required.
“Expose a planet (lots of planets. And the Sun. And lots of other stars, and so on) to high energy cosmic rays, such that lots of high energy proton-proton collisions happen. See if it still exists. No experts required.”
Yes it is such a good argument CERN used it until former cosmic ray researcher and Nuclear Safety Officer Walter L. Wagner pointed out the flaw to CERN.
If cosmic rays striking Earth create neutral micro black holes, they will all travel through Earth at nearly the speed of light.
If micro black holes are created in head-on particle colliders some will travel too slowly to escape Earth.
Therefore, existence of Earth does not prove safety.
CERN has other safety arguments which were also refuted by other physicists.
http://www.newscientist.com/blog/shortsharpscience/2008/09/why-world-wont-end-on-september-10.html?DCMP=ILC-hmts&nsref=specrt12_head_Apocalypse%20axed
Sorry Ben, that was actually my post. For some reason my browser didn’t automatically sign me in.
Anyway, its past the time that they were supposed to fire the thing up and I’m still here. SO I assume it all went ok. But I just saw an ‘expert’ on the news and he reckons that they are still testing and won’t actually smash any atoms until a few weeks or months at least.
Julietta,
Whilst I can only assume to know what you’re talking about based on your somewhat poor use of grammar, I cannot escape the sensation that what you’re actually saying is bollocks.
I cannot accept the fact that CERN, leaders in this field, and the 60 countries that co-funded the experiment would spend 15 years and billions of coin for the sole purpose of destroying the planet.
I got a couple of people come up to me today and say the world was going to end today. The irony is that by that point, the beams had already been circulated and as far as I could tell, we were still there. If the world were to be destroyed by this experiment (which it won’t), it wouldn’t happen till October anyway when they do the first collisions.
I think that just by Reading this comment you can tell it was a sucess
"-because black holes are still a mystery to scientists."
The only mystery is that intelligent people actually believe in the absurd construct of a black hole. It is based upon assumptions derived from falsified theory, speculations to support those theories, and a general ignorance of what is really happening in space!..This has all been documented decades ago, but the cult of standard cosmology, using voodoo math and nonsensical, pseudoscience explanations to protect their turf and grant money, have successfully buried the truth.
Black Holes are nonsense!