Atom Smasher

[Tribal]

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.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The atom smasher ... the 17-mile-long machine that some fear will destroy our planet

 

 

 

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.

 

 

 

 

 

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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.

 

 

 

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/fe 630897.ece

 

 

 

Questions, comments, concerns?

 

 

 

What do you think will happen? I must admit, it looks REALLY AWSOME.

[Agunimon979]

I SAY WHO THE HELL CARES HOW WE GOT HERE. WE'RE ALREADY HERE FFS.

 

 

 

LET THIS BE A MESSAGE TO ALL

[Errdoth]

This is why experiments of this nature should be carried out in places like Eureka. :P The public can't [bleep] about things they don't understand if they don't know they're happening :

 

 

 

Srsly, the LHC isn't going to destroy the universe, the black holes are going to dissipate as soon as they're created. And even if it did pose a threat, taking risks is a necessary part of science.

 

 

 

Edit: I love how the article says "They fear the LHC experimenters are tinkering with the unknown." ...no [cabbage], it wouldn't be science if it were otherwise.

[Nom]

Never fear, the apocalypse is in 2012.

 

 

 

Atom Smasher sounds like a wrestling name.

[Kaphias]

I say go for it. I think the supposed risk is much less that the great reward.

[Woodcut Lvr]

Whatever, if black holes do start, I just chill out with my girlfriend. I'll be happy.

[warri0r45]

From what I've read it's very unlikely that the doomsayers are at all correct. I'm not worried at all.

 

 

 

As for the benefits of this kind of research, it's not only a question of the beginning of the universe, it's a question of the fundamental nature of matter. Now that is useful to mankind.

[Lenticular_J]

If I die, I'm gonna be REALLY pissed.

[Zierro]

17 freaking miles long? Wowwww can it really be that big?

 

 

 

Anyways, I agree with Warrior on this. If anything does happen, it will probably be something positive like a new discovery.

[Sbrideau]

If I die, I'm gonna be REALLY pissed.

 

 

 

I lol'd at that.

 

 

 

Anyway, I don't know enough to know what to think about that :lol:

[baalboy5]

Danm I really DO live in the future. :|

[scootlaboot]

You know what would be funny, or ironic I get them mixed up a lot, if when they do this experiment they somehow open a dimensional doorway and a man walks out, [bleep] slaps the head scientist, then points at him/her and says, "You're doing it wrong", then walks back through the gate, snaps his fingers and the door closes.

[fastortoise]

Lets see...

 

1- if it works, discoveries will lead us into the golden age of technology and understanding of our universe

 

2- they screw up and no-one is left to sue them :lol:

[Nadril]

Lets see...

 

1- if it works, discoveries will lead us into the golden age of technology and understanding of our universe

 

2- they screw up and no-one is left to sue them :lol:

 

 

 

Did you get that from Cracked.com by any chance? They had an article about inventions that will kill us, and the LHC was up there like 3 times. :P

 

 

 

 

 

It's a pretty cool thing, I'm not worried about it killing us all though.

[Millard]

Its an article from The Sun so im guessing its been exaggerated a bit.

 

 

 

I read somewhere that there is a 1 in 50million chance of a black hole being produced, so i doubt anything will happen.

[Jaziek]

I love how the scaremongers make it sound like it 100% will create a black hole that will 100% definitely destroy the universe. The chance of that actually happening is so infintessimally small, and the knowledge we can gain is so great, that doing it is just a no-brainer, plain and simple.

 

 

 

on a semi-related note; who saw mock the week on thursday?

[thrash-boy]

go for it. its alot of knowledge we have to acquire eventually if we want to continue to get smarter, why not work it out now?

 

 

 

and if it does start black holes, i seriously wont care. well i probably will a bit, but at least ill know my life is going to end very soon so i can have fun. there are worse ways to die.

 

now you have got me thinking what i would do if suddenly the news came on and said "you will all be dead in 16 minutes, go have some fun!"

[jemathonical]

This is pretty interesting. I don't think the world will get sucked into a black hole, and even if it does - it's all in the name of science ;).

 

I can't wait to see what happens and the results.

[myself117]

wait, so they're just trying to crack open the atom to find yet another elementary particle?

 

 

 

to paint a picture of atoms it breakdowns like this [and I'm doing this by memory so correct me if I'm wrong]

 

 

 

you have the electrons as an outer cloud, you have the nucleus. If you were to blow an atom up to the size of a football field, the entire nucleus [which is most of the physical hard matter in an atom btw] the entire football fields and stadium would be the electrons and a golfball on the 50 yard line would be the nucleus.

 

 

 

thought I'd throw that one out there because it's interesting to think about, especially with an experiment like this.

 

 

 

anyways, electron, nucleus, in the nucleus we have neutrons and protons, both protons and neutrons are comprised of Elementary Particles, called Quarks, these come in 6 different types and 3 different flavours. Theres usually 3 quarks to make a proton or a neutron. There three are held together by the strong nuclear force and is mediated by an odd little thing called a gluon. the gluon is basically a string holding the quarks together.

 

 

 

So my guess is he wants to find his Higgs Boson within the quarks, it makes sense that there might be something in the quarks seeing as how theres 6 different types and 3 different flavors.

 

 

 

Although, [i'll make this one short if I can]

 

Scientist have found you can spin a quark faster and faster at a linear rate without it breaking apart. Doesn't seem like much but that just means theres nothing smaller inside that makes up the quark itself. Think about a basketball, if you spun it fast enough it would pop because the different types of atoms [air, everything in rubber] holding it together couldn't handle it.

 

Instead, the quark will just spin and spin and out will come an anti-quark [opposite charge of the quark] and they spin out flat away from each other, with the gluon holding them to one another. so they're both on a string more or less. The cool thing about the gluon is it recreates itself as much and as long as it needs to to stay connected to the quark and anti-quark, until they both run out of energy and the gluon brings them back into each other.

 

 

 

 

 

[correct me if I'm wrong on any of that]

 

 

 

So now that basic stuff is out of the way, who think he'll find anything at all?

 

I wish they released more information about the experiment and what they're doing and what're exactly they're looking for.

 

One thing is, I don't see how black holes would be formed? It takes a massive star to explode and collapse into itself to punch a hole through space to create a black hole.

 

 

 

I'm sure in the microcosm world of atoms smacking atoms together they way they're going to isn't going to create NEARLY enough gravity to punch a hole through space.

 

Besides, to the least of my knowledage, when atoms get smacked around hard enough they explode out, releasing smaller particles, they don't collapse on into themselves, such as stars do.

 

 

 

I'm not worried at all about it.

 

It'll bring about some science, and i'm always down for that :thumbsup:

[assassin_696]

The chance of it creating a black hole has been estimated to be 1 in 50 million, and even if it did create one it would immediately evaporate through Hawking Radiation, or indeed just be so small that it would never come into contact with anything at all. It would just sit in the vacuum's inside atoms and never be heard from again. Cosmic rays bombard the upper atmosphere with far higher energies than anything the LHC can create. If a small black hole was going to have been created by energetic particle collisions, it would have done by now.

 

 

 

This is a very exciting time for science, for a long time the theory behind the mass mechanism for the standard model (the Higgs field) hasn't been possible to check, so scientists have been flying blind as to whether or not it's correct. Now it's guaranteed to be proved either right or wrong, plus there's the promise of all the extra stuff they might discover, supersymmetry, extra-dimensions, the origins of dark matter... The implications will be huge.

[megakiller32]

You got that article from the Sun.

 

 

 

The worlds worst, most right wing crappiest newspaper in the world.

 

How do we know everything it says isn't crap?

 

 

 

But onto the point, if the whole world gets destroyed, who cares? We won't know, if your afraid to die, go and repent or something.

 

 

 

But I'm ready to die, so good luck.

 

 

 

(It would suck if the world did get destroyed though.)

[issy2]

I really think this is such a bad idea... People playing God, something is going to go wrong at some time. Nuclear bombs, mustard gas, tanks, space ships, medicine... Don't we already know enough about science? As far I'm concerned this is a total waste of money which should be spent on humankind, not the games of a few scientists.

 

 

 

I know this could be seen as narrow-minded, but really, who is this going to benefit? Sure it is incredibly interesting and such, but what else could we have done with that 4 billion? We need to sort out our own problems beyond trying to unravel the world.

[flipflop121]

I really think this is such a bad idea... People playing God, something is going to go wrong at some time. Nuclear bombs, mustard gas, tanks, space ships, medicine... Don't we already know enough about science? As far I'm concerned this is a total waste of money which should be spent on humankind, not the games of a few scientists.

 

 

 

I know this could be seen as narrow-minded, but really, who is this going to benefit? Sure it is incredibly interesting and such, but what else could we have done with that 4 billion? We need to sort out our own problems beyond trying to unravel the world.

 

 

 

Scientists dont know exactly what will happen. but think, if we didnt start "playing god" would any of the advnacments you mentioned be here today?

 

 

 

What this may create tho, is another possible energy source which i think is quite exciting. not to mention a detailed look into the possible creation of the universe and black holes.

 

 

 

You have to realise just how rediculously small the chances of creating a black hole that lasts more then a second are.

[Greatsilverwyrm]

I really think this is such a bad idea... People playing God, something is going to go wrong at some time. Nuclear bombs, mustard gas, tanks, space ships, medicine... Don't we already know enough about science? As far I'm concerned this is a total waste of money which should be spent on humankind, not the games of a few scientists.

 

 

 

I know this could be seen as narrow-minded, but really, who is this going to benefit? Sure it is incredibly interesting and such, but what else could we have done with that 4 billion? We need to sort out our own problems beyond trying to unravel the world.

 

 

 

It's not a bad idea, and it's hard to play something that doesn't exist. ;)

 

 

 

No, we don't "know enough about science". The search for truth is one of the noblest ideals, and science, as far as we know, is the best way to pursue truth about our universe.

 

 

 

Who is going to benefit? Who knows? The ramifications in terms of technology for the average person probably won't be felt for a very long time, but even if it never brings anything useful, who cares? Like I said, it will give us a better understanding of the universe, and that knowledge alone is worth the money.

[issy2]

I really think this is such a bad idea... People playing God, something is going to go wrong at some time. Nuclear bombs, mustard gas, tanks, space ships, medicine... Don't we already know enough about science? As far I'm concerned this is a total waste of money which should be spent on humankind, not the games of a few scientists.

 

 

 

I know this could be seen as narrow-minded, but really, who is this going to benefit? Sure it is incredibly interesting and such, but what else could we have done with that 4 billion? We need to sort out our own problems beyond trying to unravel the world.

 

 

 

It's not a bad idea, and it's hard to play something that doesn't exist. ;)

 

 

 

No, we don't "know enough about science". The search for truth is one of the noblest ideals, and science, as far as we know, is the best way to pursue truth about our universe.

 

 

 

Who is going to benefit? Who knows? The ramifications in terms of technology for the average person probably won't be felt for a very long time, but even if it never brings anything useful, who cares? Like I said, it will give us a better understanding of the universe, and that knowledge alone is worth the money.

 

 

 

 

 

Ok I know that you're in the right. I've been arguing with my dad about this for a few days and I know I'm in the wrong, and yet I still think it's just a bad idea... Couldn't we have spent 4 billion on something that would benefit the world for certain, rather than hanging hopes on this?