The Collider, the Particle and a Theory About Fate

NYTimes ^ | 10/12/09 | Dennis Overbye

[LibWhacker]

More than a year after an explosion of sparks, soot and frigid helium shut it down, the world’s biggest and most expensive physics experiment, known as the Large Hadron Collider, is poised to start up again. In December, if all goes well, protons will start smashing together in an underground racetrack outside Geneva in a search for forces and particles that reigned during the first trillionth of a second of the Big Bang.

Then it will be time to test one of the most bizarre and revolutionary theories in science. I’m not talking about extra dimensions of space-time, dark matter or even black holes that eat the Earth. No, I’m talking about the notion that the troubled collider is being sabotaged by its own future. A pair of otherwise distinguished physicists have suggested that the hypothesized Higgs boson, which physicists hope to produce with the collider, might be so abhorrent to nature that its creation would ripple backward through time and stop the collider before it could make one, like a time traveler who goes back in time to kill his grandfather.

[askrenr]

Crazy, just crazy!

[trumandogz]

A pair of otherwise distinguished physicists have suggested that the hypothesized Higgs boson, which physicists hope to produce with the collider, might be so abhorrent to nature that its creation would ripple backward through time and stop the collider before it could make one, like a time traveler who goes back in time to kill his grandfather.

That is really far-out.

[BunnySlippers]

Bump

[The Cajun]

A pair of otherwise distinguished physicists have suggested that the hypothesized Higgs boson, which physicists hope to produce with the collider, might be so abhorrent to nature that its creation would ripple backward through time and stop the collider before it could make one.....

Ah, the "Can't get there from here conjecture" ;^)

[coconutt2000]

Maybe it will return things to normal and Obama won’t be President anymore. McCain wouldn’t have won the republican nomination, and the economy will have been in recovery now.

Everything went haywire after they turned it on the first time... ;-)

[Irishguy]

perhaps it could go back and sort out the nytimes....

[Vanders9]

Theyve been watching too much Doctor Who.

[SunkenCiv]

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[allmost]

The dastardly particle from the future went back through time and thwarted their plans. Hard to believe that even made it to print. :)

If these are the type of people that are being listened to regarding this machine I think that solves the problems with it right there.

[R. Scott]

A lot of people have a problem with theoretical physics because much of it seems just ... strange. It took me some time to accept Schrödinger’s cat and quantum tunneling.

[Psalm 73]

"....distinguished physicists have suggested that the hypothesized Higgs boson....might be so abhorrent to nature that its creation would ripple backward through time and stop the collider before it could make one...."

Hmmm, but to believe that God created man in His image is just crazy talk......

[allmost]

The promoter of this ‘theory’ imbues intelligence, time travel, and action on a theoretical particle. Not admitting the designers and/or manufacturers could have made mistakes. The theoretical range being within the capabilities of Fermilab should have resulted in a similar action by this ‘gremlin’ particle, by that logic.

[R. Scott]

I don’t think the particle is imbued with intelligence, just that it might be cause and effect.

[allmost]

The most likely cause of failures in machines is design and/or implementation. Equipment failures are to be expected when a new machine of this complexity is built. I think the guy sounds like a quack with this theory.

[TangoLimaSierra]

I still don’t believe in cats.

[starlifter]

Actually they are quite tasty.

[Erasmus]

But if you eat Schroedinger’s cat, an hour later you wonder if you really did or not.

[Jeff F]

So logically, Schroedinger’s cat is actually Chinese food. QED.