Doomsday Fears Spark Lawsuit - The builders of the world's biggest particle collider are being sued in federal court over fears that the experiment might create globe-gobbling black holes or never-before-seen strains of matter that would destroy the planet. (Stranglets and micro black holes are the envisioned culprits.)The problem with this scenario is that even if the LHC generates micro black holes, the " black holes would be so weak that they could not exert sufficient gravitational force to pull in surrounding matter. As for strangelets, CERN points out that Earth is battered by cosmic rays of much higher energy intensities, but the planet is still here."
Doomsday events are often predicted when extreme tech is introduced to the world. One of the most famous was a sincere belief that the first A Bomb, due to the tremendous heat the device would generate, could theoretically ignite the earth's atmosphere, thus incinerating all life forms on the planet. Others too numerous to quote here involve natural as well as synthetic causes. To see a partial list, click here."...now I am become Death [Shiva], the destroyer of worlds..." - 16 July 1945 at 0529 HRS, in the Jornada del Muerto desert near the Trinity site in the White Sands Missile Range...quoting from the Bhagavad-Gita upon witnessing first atomic detonation by mankind. HRS Physicist Robert Oppenheimer, the supervising scientist of the Manhattan project.
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2 comments:
Why do people still use the same tired old cosmic ray + hawking radiation argument? The difference between cosmic rays and the LHC is cosmic rays are moving at near light speed and striking matter at relative rest. Anything they create would punch through the planet in a fraction of a second. Naturally occurring MBH's would be no danger.
The LHC could potentially create them at rest. If hawking radiation is not true (and there's a good chance that it is not, it is only a *theory*), then we'd be in for a bad time.
Great comment. Your take on the difference between cosmic rays and the LHC cosmic rays is right on. As far as End of the World types go, I think Nuclear war, an asteroid hit or some god forsaken virus, man made or otherwise, could do us in but not the LHC. Thanks for posting.
Bob Moran
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