Large Hadron Collider

Well, It's a big fucker, measuring 27 kilometers, lying underneath the Franco/Swiss border, and reputed to be the biggest machine on planet Earth. It looks like summit out of a James Bond movie, and it's being used to re-create the "Big Bang" (the reason for building such a colossal and expensive machine being to study the ultimate building blocks of all matter, and in particular to search for the Higgs boson, known as the God particle because of its postulated commanding role in explaining how subatomic particles interact with each other.) Some fear that this particular particle collider could create black holes that could devour the Earth! Oh, and it gets switched on next Wednesday! The collider is contained in a circular tunnel with a circumference of 27 kilometres (17 mi) at a depth ranging from 50 to 175 metres underground. The 3.8 metre diameter, concrete-lined tunnel, constructed between 1983 and 1988, was formerly used to house the LEP, an electron-positron collider. It crosses the border between Switzerland and France at four points, although most of it is in France. UC Santa Barbara Physics Professor Steve Giddings has co-authored a paper documenting his study of the safety of microscopic black holes that might possibly be produced by the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), which is being switched on September 10th 2008. The paper, co-authored by Michelangelo Mangano of the European Center for Nuclear Research (CERN), which is building the world's largest particle collider (and remember- never totally trust a scientist funded by the same group their results support), investigates hypothesized behavior of tiny black holes that might be created by high-energy collisions in the CERN particle accelerator. If they appear at all, these black holes would exist for "about a nano-nano-nanosecond," Giddings said, adding that they would have no effect of consequence. However, the paper studies whether there could be any large-scale effects in an extremely hypothetical situation where the black holes don't evaporate. The Giddings/Mangano study concludes that such microscopic black holes would be harmless. In fact, he added, nature is continuously creating LHC-like collisions when much higher-energy cosmic rays collide with the Earth's atmosphere, with the Sun, and with other objects such as white dwarfs and neutron stars. If such collisions posed a danger, the consequences for Earth or these astronomical objects would have become evident already, Giddings said. "The future health of our planet and the safety of its people are of paramount concern to us all," Giddings said. "There were already very strong physics arguments that there is no risk from hypothetical micro black holes, and we've provided additional arguments ruling out risk even under very bizarre hypotheses." The LHC, near Geneva, Switzerland, will begin operations this September. It will collide proton beams at levels of energy never before produced in a particle accelerator. Those results will then be studied for clues to new forces of nature, and possibly even extra dimensions of space. The first collision of beams is 10th September. The $8 billion project has taken 14 years. Concerns have been raised regarding the safety of the Large Hadron Collider on the grounds that high-energy particle collisions performed in the LHC might produce dangerous phenomena, including micro black holes, strangelets, vacuum bubbles and magnetic monopoles. On 21 March 2008, a complaint requesting an injunction to halt the LHC's startup was filed by a group of seven concerned individuals against CERN and its American collaborators, the US Department of Energy, the National Science Foundation and the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, before the United States District Court for the District of Hawaii. Following the publication of the LSAG report, the US Government called for summary dismissal of the suit against the government defendants. On 26 August 2008, suit was filed against CERN in the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg alleging the Large Hadron Collider poses grave risks for the safety of the 20 member states of the European Union and their citizens Two men have filed a federal lawsuit in Hawaii in an attempt to halt the LHC due to their concerns about the safety of black holes. Giddings' study has been cited by CERN as evidence of the safety of the LHC. Some of their fears are based on recent developments in physics which suggest the possibility that an experiment, scheduled to begin at the European research facility at CERN 10/9/08, will destroy the Earth. CERN is installing a new high-energy particle collider, the Large Hadron Collider. It is expected to produce particles scientists have not seen before. Two of these particles could be dangerous:

Black Holes - Several string theorists have published papers predicting that the LHC will produce mini black holes. In the worst case, a mini black hole could swallow Earth.

Strangelets - another potential collider product, might catalyze conversion of normal matter into more strangelets, turning Earth into a small ball of strangelets.

CERN has published a paper asserting several safety factors. Black holes are supposed to dissipate via Hawking radiation. A collection of strangelets is supposed to be electrically positive on its surface, and therefore not attract other matter. However, new studies have put these safety factors in question. New physics papers question the existence of Hawking radiation. A recently published paper finds that a collection of strangelets can be negative on its surface. Other safety factors also seem subject to question.

Oh, and BBC4 Radio will be broadcasting "Big Bang Day" on 10 September to coincide with LHC being switched on.

So, to recap: "On September 10th, CERN - the largest centre of particle physics research in the world, will switch on the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) and in the process begin arguably the most ambitious science experiment ever undertaken. This "Big Bang Machine" will recreate conditions just a billionth of a second after the big bang and in the process may answer some of the most profound questions about our universe and how it all began. By smashing particles together at speeds 99.99% the speed of light, scientists hope to answer some of the greatest mysteries in particle physics. What is mass? What is dark matter - the invisible but massive substance that fills the universe? Why is there no antimatter ? Are extra dimensions and parallel universes science fact rather than science fiction? In order to answer these deep questions about the cosmos, the LHC will whiz tiny subatomic particles, known as protons, around a giant ring-shaped tunnel, 27km in circumference that runs 100 metres below the Swiss/French countryside. The particles will then be smashed together 600 million times per second, and the results recorded and observed by four huge detectors that sit in cathedral-sized chambers, deep underground. The experiment will generate 40,000 gigabytes of data each day, which will be analysed by a virtual supercomputer made up of 100,000 processors around the world, linked by the Internet. It's taken 20 years of preparation, 10 billion dollars and has involved more than 10,000 scientists from 70 countries. Many of the technologies it uses hadn't even been invented when scientists started building it. Scientists have called the LHC the greatest scientific endeavour since the Apollo moon landings, and it heralds a new era in our understanding of the universe we live in." http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/bigbang/programmes.shtml

An interesting BBC clip showing what might happen: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SndbB8hA0UQ

So, what's it to be, do you think? The opening of a gateway that will allow our lord satan to enter our world, as foretold by the same people who once believed that the atom bomb would ignite the atmosphere, or that train travel was imposible due to the human body being unable to withstand speeds of 24 mph?
Messin'round playing god?
Or "the greatest scientific endeavour since the (disputed) Apollo moon landings ?

And anyhoo, who doesn't like a good scare, eh?
Still, best not put anything in your diary for 11th September this year.

Just in case.