Well, it's Friday and the Earth hasn't imploded yet.Fears that the Large Hadron Collider would destroy the world by possibly creating a black hole (read: gasp), have spurned worldwide media coverage, lawsuits, hate mail and threatening phone calls to CERN, and really just made everyone feel a little uneasy.
To save you the research, the Large Hadron Collider is an $8 billion dollar piece of super-equipment that stretches 16.8 miles under the border of France and Switzerland. Effectively it's a huge, ring-shaped tunnel through which photons are blasted at incredible speeds, smashing together at a point to create exotic and rare matter which is then photographed and studied by people smarter than us.
I've been following the story of the collider in the press for a few months now, this past Wednesday the machine was fired up, and although nobody can say for sure that it's safe and that it won't suck us all into oblivion, we've survived three days now. That's got to count for something, right?
Then again... who can say we haven't already been sucked into oblivion?
One thing I was having fun thinking about this morning is that since nobody actually knows what is at the center of (or through) a black hole, we may very well have already created one. If that's the case, then along with our solar system we might already have been sucked in. As long as the 'order of things' had been maintained in this happy phenomenon, we'd be inside it, but also none the wiser. Quite.
That probably makes no sense, but it was an interesting thought. It may explain my headache in any case...
Cheers all!
Jimzip :D
5 thoughts are now mine:
I think everything to do with the large hadron collider is amazing. Although it still amazes me that people smart enough to build it and spend $8 billion on it, so massively miscalculated the public relations side of things. Instead of it being seen as an amazing step forward, it's being seen as a doomsday machine because they're so inept at informing the public. Perhaps proof science nerds have no social skills.
Anyway, I don't think it'll end the world (fingers crossed) - but expect everybody to be nervous again on oct 21 when the first actual collisions take place. Apparently the first clue that something's gone wrong would be the world instantly disappearing or possibly nothing for a month, then the world's oceans turning into lava etc. Personally, I'm still hoping it makes dragons.
PS. Yes, looking back, I used the word amazing too many times in that comment. :p
Hahah. I read that article too - it's good to see scientists can have humour! But yeah, I'm with you on that, I don't think this thing will end the world. One thing that someone was saying is that the collisions and general particle interaction is already happening every minute in the atmosphere. For some reason I find that comforting.
The flipside is that although these are 'common' reactions, containing them in a space like the collider means that the resulting particles can't escape (I believe the term 'hanging around' was used), that's where some of the problems lie.
I didn't know Oct 21 was when the first reactions are scheduled either. Must have missed that, ah-me! Thanks for the heads up!
Aaaaannway, sorry for the large response to your response to my post in response to the article on the comments of the scientists...
Jimzip :D
I must have been totally under a rock when all this came about but i had no idea there was a possibility the world could end until the night it could have happened! haha. I was driving to the city and totally had a mini freak out about the whole thing. Lack of knowledge totally causes me to catastrophise! Now thanks to Lukes post... i will have another chance to contemplate the meaning of my life in approx 22 days haha!
Ali
ps. Hope ur well! ox
Hmm, interesting thoughts James. And I'm sorry to have to discredit them! You see, I think if we had been sucked into a black hole there would have been a definite "whooosh!" noise. :)
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