CERN LHC and the end of the world ?

[gaa_ian]

There has been a lot of nonsense paraded around, about the risks associated with the start up of this huge particle accelerator :screwy:
I have tackled this one in one of my latest interviews
on AskTheScienceGuru (ATSG) http://www.askthescienceguru.com/?p=25
Feel free to leave your comments here or on ATSG.
Cheers
Ian

[leinad]

My work collegue has been paying attention to the LHC/ATLAS project alot, but more so on the computing/networking side. Amazing stuff.

There's also the crazy talk about blackholes and doom... and there's also been talk about the possibility with exploring Quantum Wormholes.

I found the following articles quite interesting.

28/04/1990
http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg12617144.500-wormholes-time-travel-and-quantum-gravity.html

23/05/2002
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn2312-quantum-wormholes-could-carry-people.html

What is everyones thoughts on this?

[gaa_ian]

I was very pleased to get a comment on this science segment on AskTheScienceGuru.com from a scientist who does not Agree that the LHC is entirely safe.
http://www.askthescienceguru.com/?p=25
I guess the thing about a subject as complex as this, is that it is so far beyond most peoples understanding, that there is room for lots of speculation !
One thing for sure is that it is exciting science :eyepop:

The article you linked to leinad, certainly provides more food for thought. :thumbsup:

[Mr. Subatomic]

I find it amusing how it takes something like this before science reaches the mainstream media. It's not so much the groundbreaking science of the LHC, but rather the prospect of a WMD type fate (which is ridiculous) that the media is interested in.

I thought another good example of this was when the first story about the ISS to appear in mainstream media for a long time was about the toilet breaking down...I think space science is still a novelty to most people.

[renormalised]

Science itself is a novelty to most people. The appalling lack of any knowledge that is evident amongst the general populace, and the media in particular, is almost ridiculously laughable if it wasn't so serious. Just goes to show you how much their teacher's actually knew, and how much attention they paid in school.

[leinad]

..and don't forget the Yeti(life) on Mars pic the news channels were publishing those months back.

Gotta love the Spin doctors.

[JimmyH155]

During the Manhatten Project, when they were going to test the first atom bomb, weren't they frightened that it might trigger a chain reaction in the atmosphere that would gobble up the whole world?:shrug: Been there, done that eh???:D

[renormalised]

It's always the way:P:D

[glenc]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7512586.stm
A vast physics experiment built in a tunnel below the French-Swiss border is fast becoming one of the coolest places in the Universe.
The Large Hadron Collider is entering the final stages of being lowered to a temperature of 1.9 Kelvin (-271C; -456F) - colder than deep space.
The LHC has thousands of magnets which will be maintained in this frigid condition using liquid helium.
The magnets are arranged in a ring that runs for 27km through the giant tunnel...

[smenkhare]

so it won't create stranglets turning the whole earth into a ball of strange matter?

[gaa_ian]

It is great to see this Marvelous piece of Scientific and Engineering excellence coming online.
I am (almost) certain we will all be fine ;)

[glenc]

u never know ;)

[monoxide]

if they knew what was going to happen when they fire it up they wouldnt have bothered to build it in the first place :P

[gaa_ian]

LOL ...that is a good point monoxide !
Discovery is what it is all about

[ispom]

by means of that gigantic device we may

“erkennen, was die Welt im innersten zusammenhält”
(Goethe, „Faust“)

how to translate it?
I will try….

“we will discover wath held together the world in the innermost”

that’s not correct I assume,:ashamed:
who can do better?

ps

btw,
my friend ghosty (another forum) suggest the following translation

"Realize what keeps the world together in the innermost"

what do you mean
(or are there only such non poetic guys :-( )