Actually, this is very, very real, and there ain't no superheroes around to come to the rescue if it all goes bad. However, according to the New York Times, we do have a couple of guys on our side. Here's the story in a nutshell...
A group of erudite, government backed scientists with the European Center for Nuclear Research (CERN) built a massive particle accelerator, which according to some experts rivals the pyramids as a feat of human ingenuity. When this thing comes on line this summer, the scientists will: (a) see particles colliding, (b) reproduce big bang conditions, (c) discover a whole lot of nothing, and/or (d) generate a tiny black hole that could ultimately terminate all life as we know it. Now the black hole thing would be bad, but since the risk is quite small these scientists figure what the hell, let's accelerate some particles. If they stop now they won't get their $14 billion dollar deposit back, and who wants to waste that kind of money?
So do our heroes don some spandex and repel down the side of a mountain to save us just in time? Will they pull out a new laser beam or mind control weapon to stop the mad scientists? No. Like I said, this is real life. They're filing a lawsuit.
Walter L. Wagner and Luis Sancho contend that scientists at the European Center for Nuclear Research, or CERN, have played down the chances that the collider could produce, among other horrors, a tiny black hole, which, they say, could eat the Earth. Or it could spit out something called a “strangelet” that would convert our planet to a shrunken dense dead lump of something called “strange matter.” Their suit also says CERN has failed to provide an environmental impact statement as required under the National Environmental Policy Act.
The lawsuit, filed March 21 in Federal District Court, in Honolulu, seeks a temporary restraining order prohibiting CERN from proceeding with the accelerator until it has produced a safety report and an environmental assessment. It names the federal Department of Energy, the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, the National Science Foundation and CERN as defendants.
Dennis Overbye, New York Times, March 29, 2008
5 comments:
Thank you for your comments, I summarized some of the safety arguments below...
CERN However, studies done by CERN show that the energies generated will be too low to make black holes.
(Rebuttal: CERN published predictions that they might create micro black holes at a rate of 1 per second, and incidents at the University of Colorado (cold bosenova implosion) and at the RHIC (hot Fireball as Dual Black Hole implosion) indicate that black hole formation may in fact be an expected result of head on collider collisions, and it is not certain that the first micro black hole has not already been created according to a Nobel Laurite on the University of Colorado team. Links: nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/2001/cornellwieman-lecture.pdf and arxiv.org/PS_cache/hep-th/pdf/0501/0501068v3.pdf)
CERN references the 1999 RHIC safety study as proof of safety.
(Rebuttal: But the 1999 RHIC safety study does not address the safety of actually creating micro black holes on Earth)
CERN Black holes lose matter through the emission of energy via a process discovered by Stephen Hawking.
(Rebuttal: Hawking Radiation is contested by multiple groups of PHDs in the field who question whether micro black holes might evaporate or not. Links include: xxx.lanl.gov/abs/gr-qc/0304042, arxiv.org/PS_cache/gr-qc/pdf/0408/0408009v2.pdf and www.ingentaconnect.com/content/els/03759601/1995/00000209/00000001/art00785.)
CERN If the LHC can produce microscopic black holes, cosmic rays of much higher energies would already have produced many more. Since the Earth is still here, there is no reason to believe that collisions inside the LHC are harmful.
(''Rebuttal: Cosmic ray impacts with stationary particles on Earth do not focus energy as head-on collider collisions do and cosmic ray results move too quickly to be captured by Earth. Impacts between cosmic rays traveling at the same speeds in exactly opposite directions might, but the odds of this type of collision happening in nature have not been determined and the fact that Earth is still here may be evidence that it has not happened on Earth yet.')
CERN promised to create and release an new safety report before the end of 2007.
(Rebuttal: CERN's LHC Safety Assessment Group has concluded that particles created by cosmic ray impacts with Earth's atmosphere are safely ejected into space and LSAG stated that they do not assume that micro black holes will evaporate, but CERN never released any safety reports created by their LHC Safety Assessment Group.)
CERN asserts that there is no risk to the planet, even though the Large Hadron Collider will create conditions not seen in nature since the first fraction of a second after the big bang.
(Rebuttal: But the legal action contends a 75% probability of risk with very high degree of uncertainty calculated by a scientist with a masters degree in statistics, and alleges that Chief Scientific Officer Mr. Engelen passed an internal memorandum to workers at CERN asking them regardless of personal opinion to affirm in all interviews that there were no risks involved in the experiments, changing CERN's previous assertion of minimal risk.)
Professor Otto Rossler calculates that a single micro black hole could accrete the Earth is as few as 50 months and Dr. Rossler is world recognized as one of the most prestigious, most eminent, award winning scientists alive. Others including Dr. Raj Baldev, director of the Indira Gandhi Center for Atomic Research, are also warning of a very real, very possible, very present danger to the planet from the Large Hadron Collider.
(Rebuttal?: But CERN has not scientifically refuted his calculations that I am aware of, CERN only promised Dr. Rossler that if they create stable micro black holes that they will stop the experiment immediately. But could that be too late?)
JTankers
LHCConcerns.com
Note: The Large Hadron Collider promises head-on collisions between protons and/or anti-protons of the same mass, all traveling at exactly the same speed, 99.9999991% of the speed of light and will collide head on with exact opposite vectors and some percent will collide exactly center mass to focus the energy to a single point to create conditions not seen in nature since the first fraction of a second after the big bang. Collisions may begin as soon as August or September 2008
Thank you,
JTankers
LHC Concerns.com
Wow! Thanks for filling in so many details. As a lay person I admit that I don't know much about particle physics, and this is so bizarre and frightening. I don't think anyone could write scarier fiction. Again I say, where is the Justice League?
well let us all hope they win! Oh, and I vote for tights instead of spandex! Maybe polka dot ones?
Definitely, tights, but lets all get along spandex tights, of course.
I will freely admit right here online that I'm way too stupid to know what we are really discussing here, but I hope the good guys win and I don't think I want us to fall into any black wholes.
How'd I do? Am I still allowed to homeschool my son?
Well you know, sci-fi books written in the 50's and 60's have become factual during this time. I'm not really surprised that something that this disturbing could actually come to be.
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