Posted on 04/08/2008 6:06:11 PM PDT by bruinbirdman
In any case, no it won't destroy the universe, or do anything untoward for the following reasons:
1) Interactions of this sort are constantly occurring when cosmic rays hit the upper atmosphere. If the universe was going to blow up, it would have done so by now. We need the equipment, however, since those interactions are very hard to observe reliably. Also, to detect the Higgs effect clearly we need trillions of them.
2) Although a black hole may be created, it is outstandingly unlikely. It's only become a possibility infinitesimally greater than 0 due to some advances in superstring theory which have made people realize that gravity could have behavior at small scales which is different than large scales and be internally consistent. Just because it could, however, does not mean that it does. It does make for interesting press releases for the general public, however.
3) Even if the black hole was created, its rate of evaporation would be so astoundingly fast that it wouldn't be technologically significant at all, much less be able to grow out of control. About a year ago I posted a link here to a relevant paper on the subject. They concluded that the rate of evaporation was 10^25 times too fast to cause any runaway issues.
This research could be a possible precursor to Warp Drive mechanics, or it might not. If we knew, for sure, that it was, it wouldn't be research.
Harnessing the powers of a black hole will be, like everything else, fairly trivial once you've done it a few times. Black holes are actually astonishingly simple objects. Unfortunately, like most things in physics, when you don't have complete information, predictions usually are not that good. That's why we do experiments. Once we have the experience (assuming that this thing creates a black hole, which is EXTREMELY unlikely) you could easily teach a bright undergrad to do it. Given 20 years of practice by the researchers, it could be a hobby for any interested layman that he could pick up in a month. People used to think that computer programming was beyond most people's imagination too, remember?
In any case, there are no secrets. The whole thing has been extremely well covered in the press, at least to the ability of the reporters to understand the physics. (If you are watching CNN, I can see how you may have felt that you got little information, but we already know that their reporters are ignorant blow-hards. Try reading Science News, since their reporters actually understand their subject.) With a little web-surfing, you can find out everything you could possibly want to know about this experiment in excruciating detail.
"The last pieces of the puzzle Like the last pieces of a giant jigsaw puzzle, the final components of the titanic Large Hadron Collider (LHC) experiments at CERN are slotting into place. At ATLAS, CMS, ALICE and LHCb the remaining large pieces of equipment are being carefully lowered into the caverns in preparation for the start up later this year of the most powerful particle accelerator ever, the LHC. "
Ok now I'm scared. "Titanic"? "God" Particle? Didn't anyone watch the titanic movie? This doesn't bode well.
Thanks for the compliment.
Well, there really isn’t any difference between collisions in the atmosphere and in the counter-rotating beams in a physical sense, since they are both occuring in a rareified near-vacuum environment. The moon surface might have slightly different types of collisions more often, since you could have interaction with the surface as a solid, but would still have all of the types that would happen in the collider, just very slightly less frequently.
If a cosmic ray hits the surface of the moon and produces a black hole, the black hole will have to travel through the moon interacting with all that mass as it goes. That means a very large number of collisions, each one of which will reduce its velocity, so, yeah, we should expect the moon situation to basically be identical with the counter-rotating beams.
As far as the black holes sticking around, they’d have considerably less velocity than the original particles in the collision, but they’d still be traveling near the speed of light. The counter-rotating beams are not well matched in velocity. Remember, that in relativity, very close to the speed of light with extremely small variation minus very close to the speed of light with extremely small variation equals almost everything from 0 to fairly close to the speed of light.
Also, if black holes are created by cosmic ray collisions and don’t evaporate, then the universe should be swarming with mini black holes. Since we don’t see this, we’re safe.
In any case, no it won’t destroy the universe________________________________________________________Universe !?, Who’s concerned about the freaking universe ?. I’d be more willing to bet that it’s the PLANET that’s on peoples minds !. Along with they’re thoughts of how science is willing to bet not only their lives but all future generations on the notion that it WON’T happen. Also, with any newly developed human technology; (there will be mistakes made along the way) that my kind sir is a given you cannot deny. The problem here is that there won’t be any reaction time allowed for: 1- I’m sorry but it wasn’t my fault, 2- Oop’s, 3- We can fix it, 4-We’ll pass the buck or 5- They short funded us so it’s all they’re fault ! -— {The only question left would be how many people die. Will it be Millions or Billions ?} —— Now of course I look forward to the new technolocal advances as anyone else would. I can’t wait to put Spock at the helm ! -— But I do have my reservations about this be tested here on Earth as opposed too, let’s say PLUTO. Yes, Pluto would be a much better place to conduct these experiments. Given there cannot be any 100% assurences given here.
Okay, I can’t give a 100% assurance, but I can say with 100% assurance that it is far less likely than the entire human race simultaneously having a fatal heart attack. Will that suffice?
It’d be much more worth your time to worry about “The Great Big One Elizabeth” than worrying about turning the Large Hadron Collider on.
Since we’re on the subject of speculatiion. It would be my guess that if the decision to power up were left to a vote from earths populations that the percentage of people voting against it would be closer to 99.99% ....... Call it a Hunch
1) Well, someone sent them 10’s of billions of $, so obviously this is not the case.
2) Most people I’ve met who’ve mentioned an opinion, even those that do not understand the science, are for it. Although that does not prove a majority, it is certainly enough to know the number of supporters is greater than 0.01% of the population.
3) Although there were a few theorists who posited that there were issues at the start about a decade ago, no one who could be expected to know the physics has had any serious concerns once it was determined that cosmic rays were above the energy threshold.
4) Free floating anxiety does not constitute a scientific argument, no matter how many people have it.
Let us all Hope the Jeenie goes freely back into it’s bottle
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