Wednesday, August 20, 2008

CERN, CERN, CERN



According to Cosmic Log, preparations for starting up the world's largest atom-smasher on Sept. 10 are proceeding despite the legal battle to stop it.

TWISTS IN THE DOOMSDAY DEBATE

Basically, the hearing scheduled for Sept. 2, will consider whether to dismiss a civil lawsuit claiming that the machine could destroy the world by creating globe-gobbling black holes or other catastrophes of cosmic proportions.

CERN and the U.S. Department of Energy, say the doomsday worries are pure science fiction - and have cited a series of safety reports concluding that the Large Hadron Collider poses no global threat.

I'm not worried about it, are you?

13 comments:

Jan said...

I was kind of worried when I found out the sun was burning out, but then it won't happen for several million years. I don't want anything else to worry about.

Brooke said...

I was more worried when I found out that NASA was playing with anti-matter! LOL!

Anonymous said...

Cube,

I believe the correct term is African American Hole as in the particle acelerator, when operational, will suck the earth into an African American Hole.

Let's be more sensitive from now on...

QQ

cube said...

jan: I always joke about worrying about which will come first, the death of our sun or the proton death of the universe. Silly me.

cube said...

brooke: I know. I always wonder where they will put it ;-)

QQ: lol. Thank you for your advice. I know racial sensitivity is your forte ;-)

Anonymous said...

Meh, even if the experiment ends up being a catastrophic failure and it does destroy the world, well, we're not going to be around to care are we? At least it'll be a quick way to go. If we're gonna go, we might as well make it quick and painless.

WomanHonorThyself said...

heh quick and painless works for me too!

Chuck said...

We'll all die form global warming first so don't worry.

birdwoman said...

somebody's been reading too much Dan Brown!!

(*)>

Shover Robot said...

They say no sense stressing yourself out on anything that is not in your control.

David Amulet said...

I'm less worried about this than I am about a stray asteroid hitting smashing into Earth--which, in turn, I'm less concerned about than my body spontaneously combusting. Which, honestly, I have no concern about at all.

I guess that means my concern is less than zero, which is technically impossible ... but reflective of the miniscule amount o respect I have for the medievalist science-haters who fear the human-driven collision of particles even though the same types of collisions happen naturally all through the Earth every day due to cosmic rays.

cube said...

Near-Earth objects have been colliding with Earth for as long as Earth has existed & it will continue to happen.

The Large Hadron Collider will probe energies beyond those explored at any previous accelerator, and they hope to create particles that have never been observed. That induces a bit of anxiety in some & care should be taken to make the process safe.

A good explanation of the science can be found in this article:
The End Of The World At The Large Hadron Collider?

As far as spontaneous combustion goes, it is extremely unlikely... unless you smoke in bed ;-)

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