| Chruser |
2008-06-11 11:25 AM |
Why hasn't anyone mentioned my favorite Doomsday toy yet?
Quote:
Originally Posted by Wikipedia
The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is a particle accelerator of the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) that lies under the Franco-Swiss border near Geneva, Switzerland. The LHC is in the final stages of construction and commissioning, with some sections already being cooled down to their final operating temperature of approximately 2K.
The first beams are due for injection mid June 2008 with the first collisions planned to take place 2 months later. The LHC will become the world's largest and highest-energy particle accelerator. The LHC is being funded and built in collaboration with over two thousand physicists from thirty-four countries as well as hundreds of universities and laboratories.
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In addition to the Higgs boson, other theorized novel particles that might be produced, and for which searches are planned, include strangelets, micro black holes, magnetic monopoles and supersymmetric particles.
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Concerns have been raised that performing collisions at previously unexplored energies might unleash new and disastrous phenomena. These include the production of micro black holes, and strangelets, potentially resulting in a doomsday scenario. Such issues were raised in connection with the RHIC accelerator, both in the media and in the scientific community; however, after detailed studies, scientists reached such conclusions as "beyond reasonable doubt, heavy-ion experiments at RHIC will not endanger our planet" and that there is "powerful empirical evidence against the possibility of dangerous strangelet production."
[...]
The risk of a doomsday scenario was indicated by Sir Martin Rees, with respect to the RHIC, as being at least a 1 in 50,000,000 chance.
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Essentially, the LHC will recreate the conditions seen directly after the Big Bang by hypothetically producing a "God particle"; the only elementary particle in the standard model of partiticle physics which we have not yet observed. Whether or not it appears, the results may answer one of our most fundamental questions: How was the universe created? What else have we got? Oh yeah:
Quote:
Professor Dr. Otto E. Rössler warns that the scientific community claims the success of the experiment may result in the black hole destroying the planet within 50 million years. His own calculations indicate that this time frame may in fact be closer to 50 months.
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Let's see; 50 months after either the point in time in which the machine will be started (June 2008), or after the first particle collisions will occur (August 2008) implies that the hypothetical end of the world scenario will reach its state of completion in August to October, 2012.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Professor Dr. Otto E. Rössler (translation)
After the CERN machine is built, it will be the first time in the history of mankind [that] black holes on earth can be produced.
It is, however, very [difficult] to attack it. Almost the entire scientific community stands behind it.
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Read more about him here if you like: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Otto_R%C3%B6ssler
While I am skeptical about doomsday scenarios, I must admit it would be an elegant end of mankind. Man masters science. Man finds "God particle" that created the universe as we know it. Mankind is annihilated as predicted. Nothing gained, nothing lost. Time repeats itself.
"Heaven lasts long, and Earth abides
What is the secret of their durability?
Is it because they do not live for themselves
That they endure so long?"
- Lao Tzu |
