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The Large Hadron Collider was tested this weekend and a black hole hasn't destroyed the Earth...yet
VentureBeat ^ | August 10th, 2008 | MG Siegler

Posted on 08/12/2008 9:12:25 AM PDT by SunkenCiv

The science blog Cosmic Variance has a great rundown of what the LHC could find. At the top of this list is the Higgs boson, which is the only particle in the Standard Model (the theory that describes the fundamental interactions between the particles that make up all matter), that hasn't yet been detected. The site thinks there is a 95 percent chance the LHC finds this particle, and that could lead to a much better understanding of how our universe works.

Other notable possibilities on Cosmic Variance's list include finding extra dimensions (these could be so-called "warped" hidden dimensions or a large dimension we have not yet detected), evidence for or against String Theory (perhaps the most popular "theory of everything" in recent times), dark matter (the matter that theoretically makes up most of the Universe but we can't see it), dark energy (invisible like dark matter, but theoretically making up some 70 percent of the universe -- much more than matter), and a bunch of sub-atomic particles that you've probably never heard of and I won't go into...

The likelihood of the LHC creating a stable black hole that could destroy the work is 10 to the negative 25th power, according to Cosmic Variance's list. For some perspective, the likelihood of finding God is 10 to the negative 20th power, according to the same list.

After the initial test this weekend, the LHC will start up for real on September 10th. At that time, a full-power beam will travel around the accelerator's 17 mile course and reach 99.99 percent of the speed of light, according to Wired.

(Excerpt) Read more at venturebeat.com ...


TOPICS: Astronomy; Science
KEYWORDS: blackholes; freepun; higgsboson; stringtheory; toobad; wesurvived
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1 posted on 08/12/2008 9:12:25 AM PDT by SunkenCiv
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Group Protests Treament of Hadrons at CERN
BBSPOT.com | 08-07-08 | Brian Briggs
Posted on 08/08/2008 2:47:42 AM PDT by atomic conspiracy
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End of the World? Hadron Collider to be turned on this weekend.
FoxNews
Posted on 08/07/2008 12:55:39 PM PDT by Scythian
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Large Hadron Collider Rap Teaches Particle Physics in 4 Minutes
Popular Mechanics | 8/1/08 | Jennifer Bogo
Posted on 08/02/2008 9:43:47 AM PDT by AngieGal
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New particle accelerator could rule out string theory [ Large Hadron Collider ]
New Scientist | February 1, 2007 | David Shiga
Posted on 02/03/2007 1:18:18 PM PST by SunkenCiv
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1778727/posts

-Higgs boson-

Prof Peter Higgs interview:
Smashing atoms at CERN and the hunt for the ‘God’ particle
The Telegraph | 4/8/2008 | Roger Highfield
Posted on 04/08/2008 6:06:11 PM PDT by bruinbirdman
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1998751/posts

Key scientist sure “God particle” will be found soon
Reuters via Yahoo | 04/07/2008 | Robert Evans
Posted on 04/07/2008 8:05:12 PM PDT by rpage3
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1998269/posts

No sign of the Higgs boson
New Scientist | December 5, 2001 (note the year) | Eugenie Samuel
Posted on 04/10/2007 8:48:56 AM PDT by SunkenCiv
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1814966/posts
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1814966/posts?page=4#4

Desperately seeking the Higgs boson
Manila Times | Sunday, January 14, 2007 | Rony V. Diaz
Posted on 01/15/2007 4:57:53 AM EST by SunkenCiv
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1767741/posts

Top Quark Measurements Give ‘God Particle’ New Lease on Life
University of Rochester | 09 June 2004 | Staff
Posted on 06/10/2004 4:00:48 PM PDT by PatrickHenry
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1151404/posts

The God Particle and the Grid
Wired | April 2004 | Richard Martin
Posted on 04/03/2004 9:56:45 PM PST by LibWhacker
Edited on 06/29/2004 7:10:29 PM PDT by Jim Robinson. [history]
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1110988/posts
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1110988/posts?page=11#11

‘God particle’ may have been seen [nope]
BBC News Online | Wednesday, 10 March, 2004 | By Paul Rincon
Posted on 03/11/2004 4:45:23 AM PST by Momaw Nadon
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1095315/posts


2 posted on 08/12/2008 9:12:47 AM PDT by SunkenCiv (https://secure.freerepublic.com/donate/_______Profile hasn't been updated since Friday, May 30, 2008)
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another article about the impending boom and doom:
A question of everything
Tim Radford
guardian.co.uk
Thursday August 07 2008 00:08 BST

3 posted on 08/12/2008 9:14:18 AM PDT by SunkenCiv (https://secure.freerepublic.com/donate/_______Profile hasn't been updated since Friday, May 30, 2008)
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To: AdmSmith; bvw; callisto; ckilmer; dandelion; ganeshpuri89; gobucks; KevinDavis; Las Vegas Dave; ...

4 posted on 08/12/2008 9:14:36 AM PDT by SunkenCiv (https://secure.freerepublic.com/donate/_______Profile hasn't been updated since Friday, May 30, 2008)
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To: SunkenCiv
The Large Hadron Collider was tested this weekend and a black hole hasn't destroyed the Earth...yet

Well, there's always the weekend.

5 posted on 08/12/2008 9:17:51 AM PDT by Titus Quinctius Cincinnatus (Here they come boys! As thick as grass, and as black as thunder!)
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To: SunkenCiv

The Large Hadron Collider was tested this weekend and a black hole hasn’t destroyed the Earth...yet

I confess I know next to nothing on this topic. The one article I read did say that if a black hole developed it would start out smaller than atom size and go back and forth through the earth devouring it and gaining in size as it went.

Since it develops exponentially. We would only notice it when there were minutes left for the earth to disappear. Also it would take 1-2 years to develop.


6 posted on 08/12/2008 9:19:51 AM PDT by Hang'emAll (WE WILL NOT DISARM!!!)
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To: SunkenCiv

I heard it will take about 4 yrs to happen...


7 posted on 08/12/2008 9:21:10 AM PDT by stuartcr (Election year.....Who we gonna hate, in '08?)
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To: SunkenCiv

What a racist headline!


8 posted on 08/12/2008 9:22:22 AM PDT by NonValueAdded (College kid: "Do you have a minute for Obama?" NVA: "Not now or ever.")
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To: SunkenCiv

99.99 percent of the speed of light is very slow compared to ultra-high-energy cosmic rays that have already been hitting the earth for billions of years. The fastest detected ones are on the order of 99.999999999999999999995% c. That gives a single nucleon the momentum of a baseball thrown at 60 mph. If those haven’t created earth-sucking black holes then the LHC certainly won’t. There’s also two or three other reasons why the possibility can be dismissed. Hawking radiation being one: any micro black hole would almost instantly evaporate the moment it is created. Another: collisions at nearly the speed of light also rebound at that speed, so a black hole will fly through the earth and into space in a split second. Also, a black hole the mass of only a few atoms is not likely to accumulate more mass very quickly anyway.


9 posted on 08/12/2008 9:33:27 AM PDT by Telepathic Intruder
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To: SunkenCiv
Just reporting in and for the record; I’m still here! (At least I think I am but if I still think, therefore I still am…right?)

Seriously, I have a lot more to fear from the man made “Black Hole” that is the Obama presidency than I do from any man made black hole from the hadron collider.
10 posted on 08/12/2008 9:44:00 AM PDT by Caramelgal (Just a lump of organized protoplasm - braying at the stars :),)
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To: stuartcr

Let’s see. 2008 plus 4 is, um...... Oh WOW man!


11 posted on 08/12/2008 9:51:08 AM PDT by DManA
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To: NonValueAdded

And at 99.9% the speed of light racist no less!


12 posted on 08/12/2008 10:59:49 AM PDT by MHGinTN (Believing they cannot be deceived, they cannot be convinced when they are deceived.)
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To: Telepathic Intruder
But, but, but ... there will be two protons, each moving at 99.9% the speed of light smashing head-on into each other in a magnetic confinement chamber! That's almost twice the speed of light inertia, er, um, I mean ... oh, nevermind.


13 posted on 08/12/2008 11:05:02 AM PDT by MHGinTN (Believing they cannot be deceived, they cannot be convinced when they are deceived.)
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To: DManA

See...those Mayans new something.


14 posted on 08/12/2008 11:28:14 AM PDT by stuartcr (Election year.....Who we gonna hate, in '08?)
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To: MHGinTN

I’ve heard similar arguments, actually. The magnetic confinement chamber is more like a choke, it narrows the beam rather than holds it captive. At 99.99% the speed of light there is really no way to prevent the resultant sub-atomic particles from flying away again at the same speed in random directions.


15 posted on 08/12/2008 1:15:56 PM PDT by Telepathic Intruder
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To: Telepathic Intruder
I have a curiosity question for ya: IF a particle were created in the collision which left through the 'cloud chamber' at greater than the speed of light, how would it be registered on the recording devices? ... I've been wanting to ask Lisa Randall that question ever since reading her book Warped Passages.
16 posted on 08/12/2008 1:52:42 PM PDT by MHGinTN (Believing they cannot be deceived, they cannot be convinced when they are deceived.)
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To: MHGinTN

Nothing can go faster than the speed of light. It would require infinite energy for anything with mass to attain the speed of light, and FTL travel in any form creates unresolvable paradoxes. That’s the simple answer, anyway.


17 posted on 08/12/2008 2:32:36 PM PDT by Telepathic Intruder
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To: Telepathic Intruder

Nothing stuck on our brane can exceed light’s limit as we see it. Change the temporal coordinates and it is a completely different reality, and I’m wondering how we are going to discern when/if we’ve tapped something over into those different temporal coordinates. THAT is what I wanted to write and ask Lisa, but I haven’t an address.


18 posted on 08/12/2008 2:49:59 PM PDT by MHGinTN (Believing they cannot be deceived, they cannot be convinced when they are deceived.)
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To: SunkenCiv
“The Large Hadron Collider was tested this weekend and a black hole hasn't destroyed the Earth...yet”

How do we know for sure?

It could have been destroyed and flung us into the past.

19 posted on 08/12/2008 2:52:02 PM PDT by HereInTheHeartland ("We have to drain the swamp" George Bush, September 2001)
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To: SunkenCiv

So then if a single nucleon leaves Chicago heading towards New York at 99.999999999999999999995% c, and another single nucleon leaves New York 45 minutes later heading towards Chicago at 99.99999999999999999874655% c, approximately what time will the first nucleon pass Erie, Pennsylvania?


20 posted on 08/12/2008 2:57:57 PM PDT by GreenHornet
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