Large Hadron Collider Will Switch On Tomorrow; World Will Be Fine
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Alex Knapp | Tuesday, September 9, 2008 |
Amidst a bunch of conspiracy theorist nonsense, CERN will be switching on the Large Hadron Collider to begin the process of experimentation tomorrow (it’s already been switched on twice before for testing).
At roughly 3:30 a.m. Eastern time, scientists at CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research, say they will try to send the first beam of protons around a 17-mile-long racetrack known as the Large Hadron Collider, 300 feet underneath the Swiss-French border outside Geneva.And a generation of physicists, watching from control rooms and auditoriums on the scene, on Webcasts at webcast.cern or on Eurovision will meet their destiny. The Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, or Fermilab, outside Chicago, will hold a “pajama party” for staff members and journalists to watch the events live from a remote control room.
The collider, 14 years and $8 billion in the making, is the most expensive scientific experiment to date. Thousands of physicists from dozens of countries have been involved in building the collider and its huge particle detectors. It is designed to accelerate protons to energies of seven trillion electron volts — seven times the energy of the next largest machine in the world, Fermilab’s Tevatron — and smash them together.
The experiment being conducted here is really cool–it’s an examination of the fundamental particles of the universe and a chance to confirm some physics theory about how everything is put together. It’s a shame that some conspiracy theorist nutjobs are hogging up a lot of bandwidth on the subject. But in case you are worried, I wrote a long article debunking most of the “end of the world” nonsense about a month ago that you can read here. It boils down to this:
The bottom line here appears to be that the odds of the LHC doing anything to destroy the Earth are pretty small. Maybe not zero, but pretty small. As physicist Princeton physicist Nima Arkani-Hamed joked, the nature of quantum mechanics is such that there’s an infinitestimally small chance of just about anything happening. So he supposes that it’s possible that when it’s switched on “[t]he Large Hadron Collider might make dragons that might eat us up.”I’m pretty sure we can handle dragons.
Image Credit: Image Editor
About the Author: Alex has a B.S. in Biochemistry from Worcester Polytechnic Institute and a J.D. from the University of Kansas School of Law. He has been published in the Kansas City Star, TCS Daily, and Comic Book Resources. He joined the staff of OTB in June 2006. Additionally, he’s been writing at Heretical Ideas since October, 2001, and also reviews cigars at Cigar Jack's Cigar News and Reviews.
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Amidst a bunch of conspiracy theorist nonsense...
You mean to say you don't believe CERN is run by a bunch of evil scientists out to destroy the world for their own gain???
At least for tomorrow that tug on your pocket may be the effect of the collider on your car keys instead of the being the hand of a politician.
You mean to say you don't believe CERN is run by a bunch of evil scientists out to destroy the world for their own gain???
No, they're just being framed by the Vatican using a fabricated Illuminati conspiracy. Crap writing will ensue.
You mean to say you don't believe CERN is run by a bunch of evil scientists out to destroy the world for their own gain???
Indeed. That's why they created HTML.
Indeed. That's why they created HTML.
And their tags shall blink until the end of days.
I'll try and check back tomorrow to verify your claim, Alex.
DRUDGEBREAKING: Hadron Collider creates black hole in France. No one notices difference. Developing...
It's not that the Chickens Little of the world fear things. That's a mental illness, and they can't help it. What annoys me is that (supposedly) intelligent people waste bandwidth refuting their nonsense. It won't change their opinion, and the rest of us don't give a Shi'ite. Of course, if it's a slow news day, and you're paid by the word ...
DRUDGEBREAKING: Hadron Collider creates black hole in France. No one notices difference.
Well, only people who love art, culture, literature, great wine and food, beautiful cities and countryside, architecture, and money that is actually worth something...
Guess that leaves a lot of Bushies out.
Did I forget to mention excellent public transportation and health care?
money that is actually worth something
Um, yeah. About that.
it would be really cool if it DID make dragons. that would be AWESOME!!! i'll have my spear at the ready at 3am EST.
So if it does make dragons are we gonna have to have another Habeas Corpus argument?
So if it does make dragons are we gonna have to have another Habeas Corpus argument?
No, the dragons will answer any questions you may have.
Amidst a bunch of conspiracy theorist nonsense
How can you call acknowledged fact a conspiracy theory? There is a very very small chance that the LHC could cause unexpected even disasterous results. That's theory but not of the conspiracy kind.
Any more than me saying "you know you could be hit by a meteor tomorrow" is a CT. It is in fact true, you could be, and were you to be hit you'd probably be killed. But the odds are so remote that we generally don't need to worry about it.
DRUDGEBREAKING: Hadron Collider creates black hole in France. No one notices difference.
Well, only people who love art, culture, literature, great wine and food, beautiful cities and countryside, architecture, and money that is actually worth something...
Guess that leaves a lot of Bushies out.
damn Alec get your plane ticket allready, we won't miss you and mabey you might finely be happy.
Um, yeah. About that.
What's your point McGehee? That the dollar has made up some of it staggering losses against the euro under Bush recently? Guess that is better than nothing, but a look at the 5 year numbers shows clearly that we are still deep in the hole.
Nice attempt at skewing the data though...
http://finance.yahoo.com/currency/convert?from=EUR&to=USD&amt=1&t=5y
How can you call acknowledged fact a conspiracy theory? There is a very very small chance that the LHC could cause unexpected even disasterous results. That's theory but not of the conspiracy kind.
Only it's not fact, nor theory. The changes of LHC creating long-lived black holes are about as high as it creating dragons. It's like the people who say there was a chance that the first nuclear blast could ignite the atmosphere, it was talked about in theory at one point, but has been proven that it won't happen. The energies being produced at LHC are encountered every second in our upper atmosphere without creating world-devouring black holes.
No, the dragons will answer any questions you may have.
Wonderful line! I sorely needed a laugh this afternoon -- thanks.
Anjin, they eat snails. Historically they are backwards. (they did not adapt when the little ice age killed their crops) and they eat dinner at wierd time of day. If you like the French so fucking much, go live there and be more hated than you are when you post here. Lop!
Anjin, they eat snails. Historically they are backwards. (they did not adapt when the little ice age killed their crops) and they eat dinner at wierd time of day. If you like the French so f**king much, go live there and be more hated than you are when you post here. Lop!
Take a shower III. You reek of fear.
Hadron Collider results revealed -- 42.
Wonderful line! I sorely needed a laugh this afternoon -- thanks.
what the poop, I set it up, but once again no love for Bushy..
