black holes might occur
February 11th, 2008
Well, apparently there’s a possibility of black holes appearing in Switzerland this May as a result of the upcoming Large Hadron Super-collider work that’s coming up.
In this huge machine (the LHC), in Cern, near Geneva, they’re going to collide two counter-rotating proton beams. Hmmm, wonder what that means. Anyway, basically they don’t know what will happen when they do this. Black holes might appear.
There might also be strangelets and monopoles; unfortunately, only brainiac scientists know what they heck those things are, so they don’t seem like such a big deal.
Black holes on the other hand are sexy, very sexy.
You can read the whole paper that assess the risks here, if you dare (thanks, Pat!).
Or I can just quote you the money part of the paper here (liberally *snipped*):
"It is important to notice that: The study for the [previous collider] had concluded that no black holes will be created. For the [LHC super super collider] the conclusion is very different: "Black holes could be created!" !
The main danger could be the complete destruction of our beautiful planet. Such a danger shows the need of a far larger study before any experiment !
If we add all the risks for the LHC we could estimate an overall risk between 11% and 25%!.
We cannot build accelerators always more powerful with interactions different from natural interactions, without risk. Our desire of knowledge is important but our desire of wisdom is more important and must take precedence. The precautionary principle indicates not to experiment. The politicians must understand this evidence and stop these experiments before it is too late!"
Well, come May some scientists are going to be eating their words. Maybe the guys who wrote this paper, or maybe the rest of the world.
I find it hard to worry about this stuff though…there’s enough going on at the ground level to be worried about without some shmancy sci-fi fears of black holes appearing.
Still, I’m gonna track when they’re switching that thing on…
The first PG Disney movie not only had a profound effect on my view of late 70’s sci-fi flicks, but it also featured the weirdest acronym known to the modern cinema: V.I.N.CENT. (Vital Information Necessary CENTralized) What, the.
Love the blog!!!!!
Not to mention BOB and oldBOB. And I don’t know if you remember the super-trippy ending where they go into the black hole and merge consciousness? I had the novelization of the film and the end was written really strangely with mergin dialogues from the various characters…
[…] after posting that bit about the CERN collider perhaps creating a black hole, I didn’t want to freak you out and let you know that when they start up that huge collider […]