| Author | Message | ||
     Glitch |
Good-bye cruel world! The man behind the world’s biggest scientific experiment, which critics claim could cause the end of the world, is a Welsh miner’s son who has admitted blowing things up as a child. The aim of the £4.4billion experiment is to recreate the conditions that existed a fraction of a second after the Big Bang – the birth of the universe – and provide vital clues to the building blocks of life. But a handful of scientists believe that the experiment could create a shower of unstable black holes that could ‘eat’ the planet from within, and they are launching last-ditch efforts to halt it in the courts. | ||
| Tramp |
All kidding aside, this experiment truly scares me. When any doubt of such magnitude presents itself, caution is the correct path. | ||
| Glitch |
Who's kidding? I know my post kind of looked like I might be, it's an affliction I have. I saw a quick blurb, so I did a quick search. "Evan the Atom" was my search. If this is really as dangerous as some want us to think, why not more of a protest? Are scientists not taken seriously? | ||
| Greenlantern |
Tramp, remember we had this issue already on Long Island. http://www.bnl.gov/rhic/black_holes.htm | ||
| Miamiuly |
They weren't sure that the first atomic explosion would stop either. | ||
| Spiderman |
LMAO sounds like lab coat envy for the opposing scientists LOL | ||
| Glitch |
I guess we'll know on Wednesday. About the experiment. The lab coat envy may never be resolved. | ||
| Greenlantern |
Get ready......  | ||
| Tramp |
GL- I'm well aware of the collider at Brookhaven, bear in mind I lived nearly atop Stanford's Particle Accelerator in the 90s. I'm not as much worried about any strong odds of an unstoppable chain reaction as I am in the rush into this project without more thoughtful determination of potential snafus. The interesting part is, that, if those who speak against it are correct, they'll never receive credit for it, as their supporters and detractors, alike, will be gone, giving those whom support the experiment the upper hand in credibility. weird, right? Personally, I side w/TS Elliot re: a whimper, as opposed to a bang. | ||
| Greenlantern |
The interesting part is, that, if those who speak against it are correct, they'll never receive credit for it, as their supporters and detractors, alike, will be gone, giving those whom support the experiment the upper hand in credibility. weird, right? Thanks for the Monday morning logic headache!  | ||
| Miamiuly |
"Get ready......"  | ||
| Gjwinaus |
And trains that traveled faster than 21 mph would kill the occupants with the vacuum created in the carriages. | ||
| Greenlantern |
And trains that traveled faster than 21 mph would kill the occupants with the vacuum created in the carriages. And it would of too! Then someone thought to close the windows.  | ||
| Spiderman |
They also thought if a human went faster than 100mph his body would come apart by the molecules... | ||
| Spiderman |
Oh yeah man will never fly as well. AND if you went to the moon the radiation would kill you instantly... | ||
| Hughlysses |
It's an interesting risk problem: probability versus consequences. OK, the probability may be one in a gazillion, but the consequences are pretty much infinitely bad. | ||
| Glitch |
Someone once said man will never be able to reach the speed of light. | ||
| Spiderman |
ummm we haven't yet and even if he did we wouldn;t know till years after he reached it, due to the time vs speed issue... | ||
| Glitch |
That's my point | ||
| Spiderman |
What's your point?  | ||
| Gjwinaus |
Spiderman-that is profound, I never thought of that, and it may even be true | ||
| Midknyte |
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| Hexangler |
Yesterday, at dog park I met an 80 year old man who owns the world record for the highest g-force SUSTAINED by a human being--16G for 3 minutes in the human cyclotron! From Wikipedia: "Human tolerances depend on the magnitude of the g-force, the length of time it is applied, the direction it acts, the location of application, and the posture of the body. The human body is flexible and deformable, particularly the softer tissues. A hard slap on the face may impose hundreds of g locally but not produce any real damage; a constant 16 g for a minute, however, may be deadly." He worked on the Mercury missions, and told me that they were having problems with the sternum collapsing into the chest cavity at high sustained g-force. So he and his crew developed a steel hammock that naturally pushed on the sides of the chest--when at high Gs--to stop the deformation. Anyway, I'm not worried about CERN. The experiment will happen. We will survive. We will learn. We will have more questions than answers in particle physics soon. It will probably take a year or two until they get up to near-relativistic speed. The sad part is that Europe has surpassed US as far as this type of science is concerned. What happened to America? | ||
| Hexangler |
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| Freezerburn |
My question is: if you are about to be eaten by a black hole, is it better to hold your breath? | ||
| Spiderman |
Spiderman-that is profound, I never thought of that, and it may even be true It is true, they have verified the time relative theroy with clocks on the space shuttle. The time would be instantanious for the travler but for us it would seem like years maybe decades. Not to mention the rate at which you would have to increase and decrease said speed, if a ship jumped into lightspeed without any Star Trek-esq buffering you would instantly be turned to mush... | ||
| Ducxl |
For all of the Billions $$$$$$$ they spent to make this thing work. What's the payback? A bunch of nerdy scientists learn some new equation? Big freakin' deal. How does this thing affect life in any way? | ||
| Spiderman |
that's why it is an investment you won;t know the gains till after. Look at the space race and all the billions NASA has spent. We got some pretty cool knowledge and junk from that... | ||
| Hexangler |
...uh, you can thank a bunch of nerdy bikers for your Buell. Science is COOL! It is the pinnacle of exploration. Asking questions is human nature. DISCOVERY. For the uncool, ignorance is bliss.... (maybe they should have spent all those millions of dollars on religion, politics, and military world domination. PAX AMERICANA) | ||
| Rick_a |
I think understanding the origins of all matter in the universe may be a decent payback. That's the ultimate goal, anyway. Until then:  |
