CoFarmer Posted September 1, 2008 Share Posted September 1, 2008 End of the world due in nine days SCIENTISTS are trying to stop the most powerful experiment ever – saying the black holes it will create could destroy the world. Dubbed by some the Doomsday test, it will be carried out next week in the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), located 300ft underground near the French-Swiss border. The machine is 17 miles long and cost £4.4billion to create. When its switch is pulled on September 10, this atom-smasher will become a virtual time machine, revealing what happened when the universe came into existence 14 billion years ago. New particles of matter are expected to be discovered, new dimensions found beyond the four known, as scientists re-create conditions in the first BILLIONTHS of a second after the Big Bang. Experts even predict that millions of tiny black holes will be produced — baby brothers of the monsters gobbling up dust and stars at the heart of the galaxies. Secrets That is why boffins are now trying to stop the project with a last-ditch challenge in the courts. They fear the LHC experimenters are tinkering with the unknown and putting mankind — and our whole planet — at risk. The group responsible for the experiment, the European Nuclear Research Centre (CERN), says that these mini black holes will vanish as quickly as they are created. But the anti-CERN brigade accuse the scientists of playing God, warning that no one can guarantee that the black holes will not survive, rapidly growing in size to suck the Earth out of existence in an instant. But CERN, which includes several UK scientists, say their work is vital to unlock the secrets of matter that forms everything known in the universe. In the experiment, atomic particles will be fired in opposite directions along the 17-mile long underground ring — the length of the Circle Line on the London Underground. They will travel so fast that they make 11,245 trips around the tunnel every SECOND. From the collisions, boffins expect to discover a fundamental bit of the atom, called the Higgs boson, that is expected to exist but which has never been seen. Professor Otto Rossler, from the Eberhard Karls University of Tubingen in Germany, is one of the scientists mounting the legal challenge at the European Court of Human Rights against 20 countries which are funding the project. He said: “It is quite plausible that these little black holes will survive and will grow and eat the planet from the inside out.” A CERN spokesman said: “It will not be producing anything that does not already happen routinely in nature.” 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flamingknives Posted September 1, 2008 Share Posted September 1, 2008 The Sun? Ye gods. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SSgt Viljuri Posted September 1, 2008 Share Posted September 1, 2008 Is eating the Sun harmful to your health? Meaning about the Tabloid, not the central star of our Solar System. Inquiring minds want to know... 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Other Means Posted September 1, 2008 Share Posted September 1, 2008 I don't dub it the Doomsday test, I dub it test Fluffy. There, not so bad now is it? 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JonS Posted September 1, 2008 Share Posted September 1, 2008 When charged particles of more than 5 TeV pass through a bubble chamber, they leave of trail of candy. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stoat Posted September 1, 2008 Share Posted September 1, 2008 This stupid **** comes up every time they open a new particle accelerator. Tiny black holes evaporate, and RHIC didn't compress the east coast of the US into matter singularity when it began operating. And no one is playing God. To go along with that figure of speech, the scientists would be making new species of animal out of nothingness, or passing down guidelines for people to live by, or demanding a jihad, or killing Egyptian babies. See the difference? And wouldn't God already know if the Higgs boson existed? 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CoFarmer Posted September 1, 2008 Author Share Posted September 1, 2008 The Sun? Ye gods. Plenty of other sources 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Affentitten Posted September 1, 2008 Share Posted September 1, 2008 No one has seen the Higgs Boson? Well, we'll just have to be content with all the people who have seen atoms and electrons and stuff. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mike_the_wino Posted September 1, 2008 Share Posted September 1, 2008 This is all about the Higgs Boson? If I bring the one from home by, can we be done with all this nonsense? 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SSgt Viljuri Posted September 2, 2008 Share Posted September 2, 2008 No, it's not. And actually a negative result might be as informative as a positive one. Essentially, validating theoretical propositions is as valuable as invalidating them, sometimes even less so. And no, it's not probably going to see Higgs, but something else, with a trace of Higgs, admixture of the sorts. So close at first and then going even further! But let's hope that something totally unforeseen happens, like some non-local spacetime anomaly near London, England, resulting a land sinkage of several hundred meters. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Affentitten Posted September 2, 2008 Share Posted September 2, 2008 Has anybody considered that this could cause a rift in the space-time continuum, thus allowing the Dalek and Cyberman battlefleets through to Canary Wharf or at least a quarry in Essex? 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stalins Organ Posted September 2, 2008 Share Posted September 2, 2008 Those F-14's can sure make a mess of Zero's before Pearl Harbour tho..... 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Subvet Posted September 2, 2008 Share Posted September 2, 2008 Strike Leader: Read you loud and clear. Strike force this is strike leader, return to base, mission aborted. F-14 pilot #1: Mission aborted? But we can see 'em! F-14 pilot #2: They're gonna let the Japs do it again. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Affentitten Posted September 2, 2008 Share Posted September 2, 2008 Those F-14's can sure make a mess of Zero's before Pearl Harbour tho..... Not to mention the chance to plant some actual WMDs in Iraq. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tiny_tanker Posted September 2, 2008 Share Posted September 2, 2008 I for one think this planet has had a good run and embrace our crushy doom. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michael Emrys Posted September 2, 2008 Share Posted September 2, 2008 Yeah, I'm probably gonna die in a few more years anyway. Might as well take all you suckers with me, hee, hee. Michael 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Affentitten Posted September 2, 2008 Share Posted September 2, 2008 Yeah, I'm probably gonna die in a few more years anyway. Might as well take all you suckers with me, hee, hee. Michael That's rich coming from one of the undead. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Runyan99 Posted September 2, 2008 Share Posted September 2, 2008 I would worry about this, but I suppose that if a Swiss black hole were to destroy the earth, it would happen so fast, I'd never even know it happened. Anyway, they probably won't get all the bugs out until December of 2012, when everybody knows the world is supposed to end. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Speedy Posted September 2, 2008 Share Posted September 2, 2008 Can they bring this forward 9 days, I don't want to go to work tomorrow. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CoFarmer Posted September 2, 2008 Author Share Posted September 2, 2008 I would worry about this If there's no black hole - OK. If there is a black hole - ........OK. Not like anyone's gonna feel anything. I think. The thing is, in all these various articles, the scientists keep saying that there is only an infinitesimally small chance of a black hole eating the earth, or some similar wording. Likewise, any given person will have an infinitesimally small chance of winning a multi-million dollar lottery - but someone usually does win it. Something to think about. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hoolaman Posted September 2, 2008 Share Posted September 2, 2008 Essentially, validating theoretical propositions is as valuable as invalidating them, sometimes even less so. And no, it's not probably going to see Higgs, but something else, with a trace of Higgs, admixture of the sorts. So close at first and then going even further! Validating theoretical propositions that have no practical application whatsoever is an expensive waste of time. They should be spending all that money on some kind of Doctor Evil style doomsday cannon. Or is that what they are doing? 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Affentitten Posted September 2, 2008 Share Posted September 2, 2008 So if a black hole opens up in Switzerland, how long will it be before myself in Sydney has to worry? Are those things sucking in stuff at light speed or what? 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SSgt Viljuri Posted September 2, 2008 Share Posted September 2, 2008 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stikkypixie Posted September 2, 2008 Share Posted September 2, 2008 Validating theoretical propositions that have no practical application whatsoever is an expensive waste of time. They should be spending all that money on some kind of Doctor Evil style doomsday cannon. Or is that what they are doing? Heretic, you should be burned for that 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Other Means Posted September 2, 2008 Share Posted September 2, 2008 "What does eee whaaant?" "Eee wants de 'iggs bosun, I told eim we already gat hwan." 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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