Slashdot Mirror
LHC Flips On Tomorrow
BTJunkie writes "The Large Hadron Collider, the worlds most expensive science experiment, is set to be turned on tomorrow. We've discussed this multiple times already. A small group of people believe our world will be sucked into extinction (some have even sent death threats). The majority of us, however, won't be losing any sleep tonight."
Reader WillRobinson notes that CERN researchers declared the final synchronization test a success and says, "The first attempt to circulate a beam in the LHC will be made this Wednesday, Sept. 10 at the injection energy of 450 GeV (0.45 TeV). The start up time will be between (9:00 to 18:00 Zurich Time) (2:00 to 10:00 CDT) with live webcasts provided at webcast.cern.ch."
I thought tomorrow was when they turned it on. I thought the end of the world was to happen when the first collision is made right?
The greatest revenge in life is massive success.
Reminds me of GOATSE.
Cool...
Glad to see that we'll still be here tomo...
[Signal lost due to user being sucked into a black hole. Have a nice day. :-)]
... with any hawt end-of-the-world fundies out there!
Hope you are ready for a let down, it is likely to be months before they discover anything of significance.
That is... even if everything works. With all the code running this thing, there has got to be a few bugs.
Everyone out of the universe... QUICK!
25% Funny, 25% Insightful, 25% Informative, 25% Troll
Why would you send death threats to someone you think is going to destroy the world? If he was afraid of dying, he wouldn't be destroying the world, right?
Give me Classic Slashdot or give me death!
You're all invited to my end of the world party tonight. LSD and hookers will be served.
They will be only sending a beam around the LHC in a single direction at about 7% power. It will be about a month before they send a beam in the other direction and have a collision. I think it is about a year before they will be up to full power.
No possibility of a resonance cascade they said. Put the crystal thing into the spectrometer they said. The whole thing blew up my place of employment and I started Unforeseen Consequences with nothing but a crowbar for a while.
Moral: Keep your crowbars close and your guns closer and don't trust the scientists.
That strangelet chain reaction is really going to suck... or blow. Maybe both.
for those wondering what time this is happening in local time http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/fixedtime.html?month=9&day=10&year=2008&hour=9&min=0&sec=0&p1=37
The weirdness has already begun if 9:00 to 18:00 Zurich Time is 2:00 to 10:00 CDT.
A superhero or two coming out of this. I just hope it isn't someone from that LHC Rap.
I know this is off topic, but...
Jeez, you know I'm tired of seeing the same set of stories over and over again.
It's as if some catastrophic event happened that causes the same day to repeat over and over-- does anybody have any idea what could have caused this?
We're doomed!! Oh God, I can't die a virgin! Virgins may all go to heaven, but only to get screwed by Muslim terrorists!
You just got troll'd!
Intercom 1: (feedback)"Testing, testing. (coughs) Everything seems to
be in order."
Intercom 2: "All right, Gordon. your suit should keep you comfortable
through all this. The specimen will be delivered to you in a few
moments. If you would be so good as to climb up and start the rotors,
we can bring the anti-mass spectrometer to 80 percent and hold it there
until the carrier arrives.
Intercom 2: "Gordon, are you not hearing me? Climb up and start the
rotors, please.
Intercom 2: "Very good. We'll take it from here."
Intercom 1: "Power to stage 1 emitters in 3,2,1. I'm seeing predictable
phase arrays."
Intercom 1: "Stage 2 emitters activating...now."
Intercom 2: "Gordon, we cannot predict how long the system can operate
at this level, nor how long the readings will take. Please, work as
quickly as you can."
Intercom 1: "Overhead capacitors to one oh five percent. Uh, it's
probably not a problem, probably, but I'm showing a small discrepancy
in... well, no, it's well within acceptable bounds again. Sustaining
sequence."
Intercom 2: "I've just been informed that the sample is ready, Gordon.
It should be coming up to you any moment now. Look to the delivery
system for your specimen."
I need to hurry up and finish work on my black-hole shelter...
I owe far too much money for that to ever happen.
Dr. Egon Spengler: There's something very important I forgot to tell you. Dr. Peter Venkman: What? Dr. Egon Spengler: Don't cross the streams. Dr. Peter Venkman: Why? Dr. Egon Spengler: It would be bad. Dr. Peter Venkman: I'm fuzzy on the whole good/bad thing. What do you mean, "bad"? Dr. Egon Spengler: Try to imagine all life as you know it stopping instantaneously and every molecule in your body exploding at the speed of light. Dr Ray Stantz: Total protonic reversal. Dr. Peter Venkman: Right. That's bad. Okay. All right. Important safety tip. Thanks, Egon.
Shouldn't that be 0.439 TeV? (450 GeV / 1024)
Note to ACs: I usually delete AC replies without reading them. If you want to talk to me, log in.
Coming to think of it, maybe that's why it's so hard to detect alien civilisations similar to us in the universe. We only have the tiny window of time between when they discover radio transmission and until they make their LHC and wipe themselves out.
You just got troll'd!
"Hold onto your butts"
- Samuel L. Jackson (Ray Arnold), Jurassic Park
It must have been something you assimilated. . . .
my trusty crowbar ready
Back in the old days of the cold war, in the schools,for preparation of a nuclear bomb falling, we would get under our desks because they are obviously made of some kind of material that can withstand radiation and a giant percussion wave. I'll bet those desks can withstand the LHC black hole too. Only school children and teachers will be left.
Every time you call tech support, a little kitten dies.
You guys can't blow up the Earth! It's where I keep all my stuff!
Bow-ties are cool.
Quick, who wants to get laid? My standards have dropped considerably, given the circumstances.
That means that I don't have to set my alarm clock this evening?
Goodbye cruel world!
Live every day as if there was no tomorrow. Wait, no, don't take it as an excuse to rack up tons of debt, have unprotected sex and burn your bridges!
At least the post apocalyptic t-shirts are ready:
http://fiendfolio.blogspot.com/2008/09/are-you-ready-for-impending-apocalypse.html
...becomes a reality tomorrow. Get your crowbars and EVA suits ready. Watch out for head crabs and zombies. If you happen to see a guy in a dark suit who likes to hang out behind windows and doors that for some reason you can never get into do not hesitate to shoot his ass.
That dude better be on time tomorrow. If he's not down in the hole with his suit charged up, I'm not going to be happy.
...Stupid sonic dogs.
DISCLAIMER: This post was not checked for speling and grammar- if you complain- you're a whiner
The LHC Rap. Entertaining and Educational. Edutaining.
"She's a scientist and a lesbian. She's not going to let it slide." Orphan Black
Death is the ultimate statistic - one out of every one dies. What's the big deal?
Some people are only alive because it's against the law for me to hunt them down and kill them.
The guy who flips the switch better bring along a crowbar.
sic transit gloria mundi
Quiet Earth.
Some day we're going to screw up, but not tomorrow.
This is your one shot at getting laid, use it tonight, or lose it.
\u262D = \u5350
I hope they are not using humans, without proper FDA approval.
If France gets enveloped in a warp field bubble, have them give me a call, I have some experience in this area.
-- wesley crusher
At least the post apocalyptic t-shirts are ready:
http://fiendfolio.blogspot.com/2008/09/are-you-ready-for-impending-apocalypse.html
You'll know it too. You'll wake up one day with a Black President or with an old geezer and a MILF for a VP.
Then, and only then, will I worry!
The world can't end with out the CUBS WINNING THE world series
Doctors Karl Kruszelnicki and Kevin Varvell are giving an LHC lecture at the University of Sydney tonight. 7pm at the Footbridge Theatre. Varvell is a contributor to the ATLAS detector. Kruszelnicki is always fun. It includes a live cross to CERN. The lecture was to be in the school of Physics but has had to be transferred to a larger venue due to popular demand.
For some reason, the BBC are making a big thing of this, and providing a lot of coverage and related programmes on the Radio 4 station.
The BBC provide a listen again service for those of you who are distant but interested. Check out the programmes here:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/bigbang/
Assuming that the world isn't swallowed up by a black hole from the experiment, that is:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/15/science/15risk.html
Open Source Drum Kit, LPLC deve board - mjhdesigns.com
The International Space Station gets that (dis)honor, with an estimated cost of $25.6B (US) from 1994 to 2005, not including shuttle costs - and that's just NASA's budget.
So, from that perspective, the LHC is a bargain. And it's probably still cheap compared to what the Superconducting SuperCollider would have ended up costing.
"Diplomacy is something you do until you find a rock." --Richard Pound
You know, if I had a nickel for every new technology that we monkeyed with that we thought we could just push to unlimited bounds without somehow screwing ourselves, I'd be pretty rich.
I mean, if scientists are so certain that something bad won't happen when they set about "recreating the initial conditions of the universe", then, why do they have to do any experiments at all. But they don't genuinely know what is going to happen... do they?
It may not happen now, but eventually, there will be an experiment that someone will do that will cause significant loss of life.
This is my sig.
... and misread it as "LHC Flips Out Tomorrow". Let's hope it isn't true. ;-)
http://www.hasthelhcdestroyedtheearth.com/
garethw
so finally were approaching the end of our existence... ever wondered why there are no aliens flying around? they all tried the same experiment and flush away their civilization in one day.
It's the end of the world as we know it...
It's the end of the world as we know it...
It's the end of the world as we know it and I feel fine.
I tell you what. If you think the world will end tomorrow, you give me all your possessions today, and I'll give you the satisfaction of knowing you were right when it happens. That will be the only thing worth having at that point, and I will have a lot of stuff that won't be worth a thing, and no integrity whatsoever as we slip into hell.
Sound like a deal?
Because if you don't want to do it, then you're the one lacking in integrity.
Why would CERN be sending out death threats? Confident this will be the big one, maybe.
Perhaps this is the end of the cycle. Perhaps, this is how our universe was created. And so, every X billion years, we get smart enough, disintegrate the universe, and have to start all over again, evolving from slime.
Perhaps real intelligence will know *not* to switch it on in a few more cycles of this.
Well, it's been nice knowing you all. I'm just off to steal some Porsches (no Ferarri garages nearby), and loot, and plunder booty.
Get your own free personal location tracker
Can you tell us if there is any DANGER! DANGER WILLROBINSON!
- None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license. -- John Milton
You are incorrect.
The world will end before the Cubs win the World Series.
The LHC may take a few weeks to create its first non-evaporating black hole.
Don't you think hookers of the world are entitled to just one night off before the world ends?
Besides, plenty of wives and girlfriends would like one good bonk before then as well...
you had me at #!
Aside from the idiocy of the conspiracy theorists in general, they seemed to have missed the point that if the beam is at 450GeV, then the collision will be 900GeV and that doesn't exceed the energy of the most powerful currently active accelerator (the Tevatron). Even if the 14TeV collisions ultimately envisioned were going to create a micro black hole and end the Earth, it wouldn't happen tomorrow anyway.
If we can put a man on the moon, why can't we shoot people for Apollo-related non-sequiturs?
Warp LHC!
Lets demonstrate FTL power once and for all.
In other unrelated news :
Black hole power systems for sale!
Infinite power! No maintenance required!
Mark my word. The minute they turn that thing on, all hell is gonna break loose. For one thing, the LHC will produce something very similar to a microscopic black hole, except that it will actually be a wormhole. A wormhole... to hell! And then this wormhole will gradually grow. Given that it's a tear in the fabric of space/time, it will be impossible to do anything about it. How the hell do you sew space/time back together?! Within weeks, it will be large enough that demons and monsters of all shapes and sizes are gonna start spewing out, and everyone they bite will turn into a similar demon/monster. Within six months, the world will be like in I Am Legend, with one dude in New York being the only person left alive. The wormhole will slowly continue to grow, and within several years, even that dude will be killed as the entire planet is sucked in and finds itself directly within the blazes of hell and damnation itself. That is what the LHC will cause. Not some pipsqueak black hole that will probably evaporate within a few milliseconds.
McCain/Palin '08. Now THAT's hope and change!
Is this the answer to the Fermi paradox?
If, given the expected number of star systems with planets capable of supporting life (which although may be a low percentage of stars still isn't nil), and given that evolution eventually results in intelligence (or at least there's a decent probability it does), then there should be plenty of other intelligent civilizations (certainly including post-Singularity civilizations). But there (apparently) aren't.
So either we're first, out of all those star systems...
Or just perhaps intelligent civilizations all eventually delve into the field of particle physics and build colliders... then wink out of existence in spontaneous black holes.
I guess Duke Nukem Forever really *won't* ever come out. *sigh*
It's been nice typing at you guys. It's been an honor and a privilege. Godspeed.
If we read carefully, it was that the TechnoCore actually orchestrated the "Mistake", which after http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technocore explanation is actually sometime in 22nd-23rd century. And of course, we also find out that the AI behind it evolved from "20th century search engines" ;). Interesting read, takes a while to understand the mastery in writing of Dan Simmons.
I would like see the movie or photo from the International Space Station at night when the lights dim when they turn this this on;)
Really, this will be exciting what they will find.
In case of doomsday tomorrow... I hereby leave all my worldly possessions to the blackhole that will claim everything and kill us all.
The Next Big Bang
054 HISTORY [Closed Captioned]
Tue, Sep 9, 7:00p - 8:00p CDT
After $10 billion and 40 years of planning and construction of the Large Hadron Collider, the biggest science experiment in history may yield answers about the universe.
I'm goin' to get laid. Where the hell are you going?
He coined a name for the hypothesis, but since I gave my copy away I can't look it up. This page calls it a "developmental window". Fiasco is intensely enjoyable, thought-provoking, and arguably deeply condemnatory of human nature.
you had me at #!
I now have something to do during CS class tomorrow!
After all, it's a big day tomorrow! (World ending, and all.)
you had me at #!
It's happening already! Our print jobs are slowing down. Must be a mini-blackhole. (At least that's what I'm putting in the log.)
Table-ized A.I.
and true classic. I miss Bruno Lawrence.
you had me at #!
tomorrow may end up like an episode of dr who
Anyone else having an end-of-the-world party tonight?
Just in case ;-).
Don't underestimate the power of The Source
How do you make a scientist mad?
Take away his Large Hadron Collider.
Yeah, that's bad. Mod me down.
... that the world is consumed by a black hole tomorrow. I just don't see how I can pay my bills this month, and the End Of The World would be quite welcome.
Oh, sorry to all the rest of you. :-)
because...
At least in this instantiation of the multiverse, nothing universe-destroying will happen. There will undoubtedly be many - perhaps an infinite number - that will be destroyed. But since I will be telling you I told you so, ipso facto it didn't happen here.
Else we'll never know - nor care.
To hear the gods laugh tell them your plans.
so if a mini-blackhole shoots out of the LHC and eats Mars instead of the Earth, do you think Marvin will be very very angry?
Apocalypse Cancelled, Sorry, No Ticket Refunds
The probability of the entire Universe spontaneously being destroyed five seconds after you read this due to your anal venting of unpleasant gasses is also "greater than zero." Somehow, I doubt you'll get into a panic over it, all the same.
All my creditors will be dead too :(
I followed the posted link (http://webcast.cern.ch/), but the screen is blank, so I'm assuming the world has ended - or at least the other side of it - as a result of a man-made black hole :-) I'm hoping the black hole has finished it's vengeance against mankind in the northern hemisphere and doesn't decide to go south for the winter (or is that summer?).
...but will it run Crysis?
But Death Magnetic isn't out yet!
Angry enough to send a payload of Explodium-294 to us to make an Earth-shattering kaboom. Oh, my, yes.
"I am an Adept of Tantric VAX."
Reality gets sucked into the void on my fuckin' birthday. ...
Oh well, it's been a nice 48 years. So long, & thanks for all the fish.
sig has been sent away for a few small repairs...
I'm just wondering how exactly this threat was phrased. "If you destroy the world, then so help me I'm going to kill you dead!"
No kidding. No one serious is making any threats--they're out buying Uzis and plane tickets. And last year--not this week.
"Not an actor, but he plays one on TV."
Dr. Strangelet or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Collider
I'll be hearing this nice tune while the black hole engulfs all of the planet and watch the ensuing chaos.
http://musiclub.web.cern.ch/MusiClub/bands/cernettes/songs/collider.html
Why build a Large Hadron Collider --- The ultimate doomsday device?
Isn't that a rather overly elaborate way to possibly eliminate all life on earth when a huge tank full of sharks with frickin laser beams would have been so much simpler?
can't wait for Large amounts of Herbal Cannabis to be produced from this experiment. Isn't that what LHC means?
Ok guys, I'm pretty sure I suffer from anxiety because I'm freakin out here. I'm a Christian and I've placed my faith in God (I know many of you may not agree with me here), but I'd rather not die in my sleep. And I'd really like to get some sleep. But the idea of the world being destroyed is wayyy too much for me to close my eyes. So in your opinions, is it or is it not going to honestly destroy the world?
I wonder if this is the secret ending in Spore?
Or the reason we never hear from Earth in Alpha Centauri?
LHC has all the latest safety systems... in the event of an actual black hole or strangelet event...
they simply full the lever and hit the button!!
It says.. "Black Hole/Stranglet CRASH button - In case of imminent world destruction, break glass and press CMS ABORT button"
(Yes, that's really in the LHC control room LOL)
I said no... but I missed and it came out yes.
We're doomed. :)
Send your spendthrift head of state this
Awww, I can understand you'd be scared if you're living the dream off of this whip cream topped turd of a world we live in. Truth is ALWAYS worth life. Flip the sucker on. If something bad happens you can all come on down. We'll pop some popcorn and sing campfire songs.
I had no idea the ISO posted to Slashdot.
I guess your standards really have gone to pot! ;^)
--
Toro
Have to wait for them to get the beams up to 5 TeV, still 6 to 8 weeks away assuming all goes well.
Damn it you insensitive clods, we're stuck in a time loop!
Somehow I was immune to its effects and have been reliving this day over and over and over, at least 100 times now!
I've been watching Groundhog Day and 12:01 to try to work out what's happening and how I can stop it but... oh crap here it goes ag~~~
Homonyms are fun!
You're driving your car, but they're riding their bikes there.
I saw this on the discovery channel
Migres, migres de Geneue trestous,
Saturne d'or en fer se chargera,
Le contre Raypoz exteriminera tous,
Auvant l'aruent le ciel signes fera.
translation:
get out of Geneva
a "saturn" metal construction will charge.
The opposition of positive rays will exterminate all
Before the happening, the sky will make signs
quiet impressive terminology for someone who lived in the XVI century
(http://bigsciencenews.blogspot.com/2008/05/nostradamus-and-lhc.html)
Only on Slashdot would this be considered "informative"...
Slashdot is a pretty cool guy eh posts dupes and doesn't afraid of anything.
The LHC will NOT create a Black hole, there isn't enough energy to do so.
Imagine a road that goes in a circle.
Now, tomorrow, they're going to put ONE CAR on the road
and drive it moderately fast to make sure the road is intact.
Then they will proceed, in future tests, to drive that ONE CAR
faster and faster around the circular road to make sure the road holds up.
On "collision day", the add a SECOND CAR driving in the
OPPOSITE DIRECTION on that circular road.
Then they drive those two cars REALLY REALLY FAST and crash them head-on
into each other.
The point is to try to understand the cars and how they are put together
by analyzing the parts that go flying off in the collision, and the speed
and direction that those parts went flying.
We are going to be killed dead!
Start selling black hole insurance?
Ave Molech Setting
I would gladly destroy the world if it meant no one having to hear any more political coverage.
I scream. You scream. I assume that means we're both acquainted with the problem. We proceed.
they are doing all this on an assumption, his theory could be wrong and they dont dissapear. why isnt the usa armed forces down there shutting it down? they like to go save the planet for everything else.
Say your prayers. The white man is trying to play GOD again...
Comment removed based on user account deletion
For international, nay, global event like this, could you please post the time in UTC? At least that way I don't have to convert the time TWICE.
In Soviet Russia, articles before post read *you*!
http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/turn-on.png
The subject line says it all. Watching a bunch of engineers watch computer screens is about as interesting as watching paint dry.
For Melbournians: Melbourne Uni is hosting a live satellite link at the Melbourne Museum.
the entire Universe spontaneously being destroyed five seconds after you read this due to your anal venting of unpleasant gasses
is definitely zero. Hey! Unless you know something I don't... <chinrub/>
You can keep track of the LHC status by subscribing to the feed here:
http://www.hasthelhcdestroyedtheearth.com/
My amazing wife - Artist, Author, Philosopher - Laurie M
I am nowhere near smart enough to discuss the experiment itself, but lets try this theorie for some Sci-Fi fun.
As most slashdotters know, there are theories that suggest that in an infinite universe such as ours, you must get more then one intelligent form of life, simply by the law of averages. With so many stars and so many planets it is unlikely that just one has spawned life. Where you get life, you would eventually get intelligent life, even if a lot of it goes in other directions, perhaps life like whales, huge brains but no means/desire to affect their enviroment, you would inevitably get life-forms similar to our own with a desire to go out and explore.
So where are they? Because our species is also very young, where are the older space faring species?
One explenation why we haven't been contacted is that it is impossible. Interstellar travel can never go faster then light and this makes any contact missions impossible.
But what about this, say that doomsayers are true, it would neatly explain why there are no galactic civilisations, what is this experiment is pandora's box? Any species with the intelligence/curiousity to attempt to go for space comes across this experiment and pushed the big red button and destroys itself.
If they don't, they are not curious enough and don't want to leave their planet, if they are curious enough, they are doomed.
Star Trek has long had a similar theory, every species has to survive its nuclear phase, you need the tech to advance but must survive it without killing yourself in a nuclear holocaust.
As to the actual experiment soon to take place, we got two sides, both basically saying "we are about to do something we don't understand, based on theories nobody has proven but is safe/going to kill us all because we think part Y is true and part X isn't."
Hawking radiation is going to destroy the blackhole, despite the fact that nobody has ever proven it exists beyond intellectual excersises. It doesn't help the doom-sayers that some of them seem to have clear agenda's, but they got a point. We are about to create a black-hole and then hope that it will be destroyed by something we haven't observed yet.
This is like starting a fire in your house hoping that there is a bucket of water you just haven't seen yet.
Personally I think there is a real risk, the scientist are guessing so it is 50/50 they are right or wrong. Considering how much theory has been over-turned by the scientist involved, I wonder if in 50 years (if we are still around) we won't consider their science like we do Einstein's today, brilliant for the time but outdated.
Oh well, at least this is more fun then discussing the destruction of earth with global warming.
MMO Quests are like orgasms:
You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.
The right man in the wrong place can make all the difference:
http://www.popgive.com/2008/09/gordon-freeman-spotted-at-cern.html.
Letter to the UK paper Metro this morning, "Lots of people have been threatening to kill and beat up the LHC scientists if they destroy the earth. If that does happen, where are these people going to come from exactly?" Then there was a quote from Brian Cox working on the LHC project, "Anyone who thinks the LHC will destroy the world is a t**t!".
Windows guys please stop pissing on everyone and the Linux guys stop pissing in the wind, hoping to hit Windows guys!
it means we managed to create something that destroys worlds?
quick, someone should patent the deathstar.
Either that, or they're just slashdotted...
Bill Stewart
New Fast-Compression-only CPR http://preview.tinyurl.com/dy575ks
It's really just a bit typo-prone.
(I am so very, very sorry.)
http://rocknerd.co.uk
Is anybody still out there? Or is it just me now?
I read this is going to be a HUGE user of bandwidth once they start sending the data around the world to be analyzed. Is it a good time to invest in network providers? I think there will be good plays along with all the cool scientific stuff we'll get out of it. I know the economy is looking poor, but I don't see internet usage shrinking any time soon.
I'll be sleeping soundly tonite.
What annoys me is not that the science is being done, nor that people panic about the risks, but that those who panic are labelled ignorant idiots.
From a psychological point of view, the best way to persuade someone with an irrational fear - especially with elements of paranoia - that they're correct is to tell them that they're an idiot, a fool, that they don't understand. It's either a trigger to go on the defensive, or heard pretty much as "shhh, you're right but we'll have to shut you up".
From a scientific point of view, you tackle ignorance with explanation. You explain how the risk assessment process works, what previous scientific theory and practice suggests that the danger is limited, etc. I.e. you do what you'd have to do with other scientists, but brought to a language that suits the layman.
And note "language", not "level". Don't assume that someone with a fear is stupid. A professional should never leave the layman thinking "I'm a professional and I know better than you, case closed" - instead it is the professional's job to help the layman investigate for himself if he chooses. The same applies to doctors, tech support, etc.
Finally, science is rarely about deductive certainty; there's a whole deal of induction. The layman's worry might be that the status of some exploration is binary - something is either a confident truth or it is a minefield of the unknown. But this isn't how life works - we make assumptions based on our current ability to observe, and we generalise, and sometimes we fuck up; but, considering the amount of dangeorus science we do, it seems we have made a good balance. Perhaps the layman also needs a bit of philosophy, then.
If people are worried, they are taking notice; and if they're taking notice it means they're not ignoring. How many other science projects get such feedback? Use it to your benefit and theirs.
how we can afford to spend that much money on big atom experiments, but can't spend anything on the Shuttle?
Plus, why is this sited somewhere foreign? I thought it was going to be in Texas? Is it too dangerous to have on US soil?
So does anyone know what the expected PRACTICAL outcomes we are hoping to see? Interdimensional travel (a-la 'beast of thousand backs'), anti-grav phazotrons anything other than few geeks getting hard-ons?
Has anyone here read about the "Oh-My-God particle"? A proton detected in 1991 with an energy of 3.2±0.9×10^20 eV - that's 51 Joules, an energy you'd expect for a macroscopic object and 10 million times more than the maximum the LHC can produce (7 Tev).
The linked page has some of the relativistic properties calculated for that proton including that "After traveling one light year, the particle would be only 0.15 femtoseconds -- 46 nanometres -- behind a photon that left at the same time."
You play pool? When you hit two balls NEARLY straight on, no spin or anything, does the one you hit stop and give the energy to the other one? No.
Therefore if a small fraction of the energy (a billionth, say) were to be left available to the black hole as kinetic energy, that black hole would be going of the order of 1000 times the escape velocity of the earth.
if something does go wrong then the black holes will consume France first.
The physicists are basing their experiments on concepts such as supersymmetry, phase change, gauge theory etc. These are not things that are well understood and defined enough to be called laws of nature. The experiments based on them are very speculative. Other better understood laws of nature such as evolution, genetics, and anthropology are not given any weight when considering the consequences of the experiments. Evolution would suggest that the universe exists now as the current iteration of a long series of universes, each recycled from the last in some process perhaps similar to the LHC experiments. The history of the world is ten thousand religions leading their people to extinction in religious wars. Their policies of eugenics breed zombies who want to die and take the whole world with them. Pack a lunch!
... when Chuck Norris will say "Boom!".
you're including a longer delay before we hear of them. At some point, the difference will be longer than the time they spend being able to be detected at this distance and so you'll have to wait thousands of years before you can notice their first steps.
And why can we NOT be first?
PS most of the stars are in the galactic core where there are too many stars for safe environments for carbon-based lifeforms we could recognise to exist.
"It's been 56 minutes since you last successfully posted a comment"
Also, time is actually cubical in nature.
http://rocknerd.co.uk
What they might be swayed by however are Legal considerations.
Now I have been told that CERN's legal department has been asked for an assessment of CERN's potential liability in case the world ended because of their experiments.
I have furthermore heard that the legal department reasoned thusly. In case the CERN machinery does not cause the end of the world, there will be no damage and therefore CERN will not be liable. In case however that it *does* destroy the world all in one day or less, it is very likely that both the the mail service and any courier service needed to deliver a subpoena will be out of action. Obviously CERN won't be able to be sued for liability if the subpoena can't be delivered, right? In case the destruction of the world takes longer, the legal department is confident that the current court backlog will be sufficient to prevent the case being heard before the end of the world.
The upshot is that people won't be able to make a quick fortune by suing CERN for e.g. property damage. So from a legal point of view they saw no reason to raise objections and CERN is in the clear.
I haven't verified this story but it strikes me as solid thinking, and it ought to satisfy doom-sayers. Right?
This is a video worth watching if you have no idea what the LHC does.
"It is the business of the future to be dangerous" -Alfred North Whitehead
Basically, no one ever created a "smalish black hole" yet ..
So, with luck, everything will go on as usual, but if, as it is common for about fifty centuries, some of the theories they base this experiment on will be disproved, one has to hope if it will not be the "disappering" property of smalish black holes ...
However, this may be good new for the USA : no need to pay for the massive debt they owe the rest of the world ... and no need to stage another massive election fraud ...
I, for one, would like to welcome our miniature black hole overlords.
There are no loopholes. It's either legal or it's not.
Black holes are NOT theoretical ...
Look at the center of that milky way you reside, and you'll feel one (sorry, no can see, as they eat light at a rate pretty much like the USA's pathological need for chinese money)...
Hopefully, the hungry bastards wont stop at McDonald's :)
read again: LHC is the most expensive *experiment*.
ISS is a project hosting *many* (cheaper) experiments.
OK, there will be more than exactly one experiment at LHC, but the entire goal of LHC project is Higgs Boson hypothesis.
ISS does not have a single one hypothesis, unless you really go philosophical.
Updates on status of tests available here
I went out and bought a school desk last night and Morlock spray. Nothing can touch me now... I'm INVINCIBLE!!!
Every time you call tech support, a little kitten dies.
I'll try and buy another copy and get back to you.
Here's another review which mentions the "window of contact".
you had me at #!
I was 67 years old when I did some reading in 1991. Here's a visible inorganic fact physicists haven't resolved as of August 10, 2008 over here in Ukraine Richard. Maybe you or another informed reader might propose a physics response: One has said that "Physics is about things that move!" The Queen Nefertiti Rock (See Google verbatim.)was moved and sits upon its pedestal in Utah, USA. It will move again. CERN physicists et al are challenged to explain who moved "Nefertiti - The God Particle"© to its temporary residence. [The expression: "Nefertiti-The God Particle" is the intellectual property of Kent E. Kelley USCGR 641-072 1942] August 10, 2008
ERRATUM September 10, 2008 replaces August 10, 2008.
Man's technology has exceeded his grasp. - 'The World is not Enough'
Zealous Nobel Prize hungry Physicists are racing each other and stopping at nothing to try to find the supposed 'Higgs Boson'(aka God) Particle, among others, and are risking nothing less than the annihilation of the Earth and all Life in endless experiments hoping to prove a theory when urgent tangible problems face the planet. The European Organization for Nuclear Research(CERN) new Large Hadron Collider(LHC) is the world's most powerful atom smasher that will soon be firing subatomic particles at each other at nearly the speed of light to create Miniature Big Bangs producing Micro Black Holes, Strangelets and other potentially cataclysmic phenomena.
Particle physicists have run out of ideas and are at a dead end forcing them to take reckless chances with more and more powerful and costly machines to create new and never-seen-before, unstable and unknown matter while Astrophysicists, on the other hand, are advancing science and knowledge on a daily basis making new discoveries in these same areas by observing the universe, not experimenting with it and with your life.
The LHC is a dangerous gamble as CERN physicist Alvaro De RÃjula in the BBC LHC documentary, 'The Six Billion Dollar Experiment', incredibly admits quote, "Will we find the Higgs particle at the LHC? That, of course, is the question. And the answer is, science is what we do when we don't know what we're doing." And CERN spokesmodel Brian Cox follows with this stunning quote, "the LHC is certainly, by far, the biggest jump into the unknown."
The CERN-LHC website Mainpage itself states: "There are many theories as to what will result from these collisions,..." Again, this is because they truly don't know what's going to happen. They are experimenting with forces they don't understand to obtain results they can't comprehend. If you think like most people do that 'They must know what they're doing' you could not be more wrong. Some people think similarly about medical Dr.s but consider this by way of comparison and example from JAMA: "A recent Institute of Medicine report quoted rates estimating that medical errors kill between 44,000 and 98,000 people a year in US hospitals." The second part of the CERN quote reads "...but what's for sure is that a brave new world of physics will emerge from the new accelerator,..." A molecularly changed or Black Hole consumed Lifeless World? The end of the quote reads "...as knowledge in particle physics goes on to describe the workings of the Universe." These experiments to date have so far produced infinitely more questions than answers but there isn't a particle physicist alive who wouldn't gladly trade his life to glimpse the "God particle", and sacrifice the rest of us with him. Reason and common sense will tell you that the risks far outweigh any potential(as CERN physicists themselves say) benefits.
This quote from National Geographic exactly sums this "science" up: "That's the essence of experimental particle physics: You smash stuff together and see what other stuff comes out."
Find out more about that "stuff" below;
http://www.SaneScience.org/
http://www.LHCFacts.org
http://www.risk-evaluation-forum.org/anon1.htm
http://www.lhcdefense.org/
http://www.lhcconcerns.com
Popular Mechanics - "World's Biggest Science Project Aims to Unlock 'God Particle'" - http://www.popularmechanics.com/science/extreme_machines/4216588.html"
i am very happy that this endeavo(u)r is being done. i am very excited in seeing the results (too bad it's one year till showdown and probably a couple of months for supercomputers to analyze all the data.)
kudos to the scientific community. scientists from different nations as well as countries have collaborated in this event. i hope this is the start of more advances in science (and hopefully i would live through seeing the fruits of their labo(u)r.) :)
Live your life each day as if it was your last.
Looks like we made it so far... I'm getting an I surcived the LHC experiment t-shirt from http://www.madscistuff.com
Yippie :)
facts:
(1) the universe is a violent place
(2) Earth, as compared to the universe, is a "protected" and safe place.
(3) LHC is trying to understand the universe better. In the process, man kind has to experience the vulgarities of the universe on Earth itself.
LHC is likely to bring some of the violent nature of the universe to Earth in one way or another.