End of the world as we know it??

[MrMxyzptlk]

Well, the time is here: The Large Hadron Collider begins testing Wednesday, September 10th. [ CERN (sponsoring organization) LHC site - Google - Wikipedia - Google News ]


The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) cost US$8.8B (€6.2B) to build, and is buried more than 300ft under the Alpine foothills in a 17mile tunnel crisscrossing the Swiss-French border near Geneva.

When the giant machine gets going, the LHC will blast protons - a sub-atomic particle building block of atoms - at a velocity just shy of the speed of light, generating temperatures of more than a trillion degrees centigrade  (in teeny-tiny confined spaces - they THINK/HOPE!  ) - WAAAY hotter than our Sun!

Each proton beam will pack as much energy as a Eurostar train travelling at 150 kilometres per hour.  The LHC is designed to create two such beams at once, sending them head-on into each other at their peak energy. (I.e. This version of the long-standing "particle accelerator" device is therefore AT LEAST an order of magnitude more powerful than any previous such device.... It will pack a wallop that some - scientists! - believe might:

- Rip a hole in space-time

- Create an (earth-ending) Black Hole

- Discover or prove the existence of extreme particles predicted by modern astrophysics

- Trigger any number of possible cascading failure situations with consequences running the range of "small poof" to "End of Existence."

- Run up HUGE energy bills! 


So, now that you're "an informed person" on the subject, what do YOU think will happen when they fire it up??

[KØËHL£®]

LOL!

This is quite interesting, I haven't heard of this until today. Are they serious? I mean, do they [scientists] want to be taken seriously??? As far as I'm concerned it's just another outlandish experiment that will result in nothing but a large electricity/heating bill...or whatever it could be classified under.  It'll be interesting to see what will REALLY happen, but I'm sure failure and a waste of time and energy is eminent.  Surely no world-ending blackhole, even if it did create one, I HIGHLY doubt it'd be big enough to swallow earth and its moon.

Did a little more research on this after Mxy posted this, cuz it really sparked my interest. What they're trying to re-create is The Big Bang Theory. Good luck with that one, science dudes.

[Fralalala]

Those out comes sounds terrible!
I wouldn't want to nearly die for the sake of a HIGHER energy bill.

[((Kàkà§hì))]

Don't care...I'll be boarding up for Ike....grrrrr

[BFM_Octane]

Recently been watching various BBC documentaries on google vid  involving this experiment and the possibilities of outcome.

End Day, a BBC documentary was based around this particle acceleration. It goes through various global disasters. Such as mega-tsunamis, killer asteroids, global pandemics, super-volcanoes and then finally went onto "strange matter". A Particle Acceleration experiment which goes wrong and creates a new type of matter called a stranglet, which begins to consume and destroy all matter around it wreaking havoc on Earth's weather systems and atmosphere eventually leading onto Earth's destruction.

[BFM_Kiwi]

I believe the sun does gazillions of these per second without any adverse affects.  So I don't think we'll get sucked into a black hole.

[panoze]

All I can say is that I hope that Captain Jean Luc Picard and Commander Data are hovering around in the Enterprise so they can fix any distortions in the space time continuem! LOL j/k I don't know, I sure hope the earth does not go boom, but what can you do?   As long as it does not trigger the super volcano under Yellowstone I guess I'm fine with it.

I voted for tons of good new science.

They think it is safe:  http://press.web.cern.ch/press/PressReleases/Releases2008/PR07.08E.html

[KØËHL£®]

ROFL! Nice Sandoz

[carl]

for options i picked other.  yea sure this may make a few discoveries but what i think what will happen is this is guaranteed to make more questions about subatomic particles which will require more government subsidies to keep scientists and union tradesman flush with cash. 

[Pynk Dude]

so...Scientists are trying to Destroy the world...? 

[Cr@zy]

errrm a trillion degrees, uno question, HOW WILL a trillion degrees be contained, the melting point of amorphous (carbon based thingy) (top on the list i found) is only like 6 thousand degrees, HELLO, like melt hole problem much????

[BFM_Octane]

What will happen? I think they will create a resonance cascade, opening up a portal to a planet in an alternate dimention(see here).

I like that. What say you Mxy? We'll be able to come visit!

[BFM_JANE]

Although a few individuals have questioned the safety of the planned experiments in the media and through the courts, the consensus in the scientific community is that there is no basis for any conceivable threat from the LHC particle collisions.

That's all I wanted to know. The scientists may play with their big circle.

[Ediseye]

I doubt too much will happen other than, what some have some, failure and some discoveries. Not really worried about the world ending. Remind me of Y2K, though I was only 8 when all that happened.

 

[BFM_Hydra]

Although a few individuals have questioned the safety of the planned experiments in the media and through the courts, the consensus in the scientific community is that there is no basis for any conceivable threat from the LHC particle collisions.

That's all I wanted to know. The scientists may play with their big circle.

Boys and their toys...

I just think it will be another major flop. Big $$$ for nothing. We'll see though.