CERN

[Ragnarok]

Personally I would say the number of people that have the qualifications to back up their doomsday predictions is closer to .84 than 0.

You will excuse me, I hope, if I won't take the word of someone who qualified in medicine as law when the discussion is about particle science and quantum physics.
I have no doubt that he knows more than I do, but equally, I have equally little doubt that the genuine physicists at CERN know more than he does.

Put it this way - you take millions of times more risk of being killed when you get into a car than the LHC creating a black hole that's going to eat you, so what's the fuss?

PS: Do you mean "weary" (as in tired of) or "wary" (cautious of) in your last sentence? I wasn't 100% sure. (No, it really is a serious question, but I couldn't resist the joke.)

[BC Pneumatics]

While it is true that Rossler is probably more capable of talking about the reasons behind this 'fear' than he is qualified to talk about the actual happening, I still trust he knows more about it than we do. As far as I can tell he knows at least some of the mathematics, and has a bit of formal training in theoretical physics.

As inept as Rossler is, we are no better, though perhaps more conventional.
Now that I think about it, I bet Hall could give the guy an intellectual run for his money on the subject. If not off the top of his head, after some research to be sure...

As I have never before seen a site calling quantum mechanics a sure thing, I was not at all tired of it. I have corrected my previous post

I would also like to point out that I do not think Rossler is at all correct. It is just a fun subject to chat about.

[jimmy101]

I would hate to be one of the CERN physicists being asked this question. The problem is you are talking about quantum physics and nothing is certain and nothing is impossible in QP.

There is a possibility of the experiment destroying the earth.
There is a possibility of a pig flying out'a my ass.
The probability of the two events is probably similar, and neither probability equals zero.

[SpudFarm]

Jimmy: pigs does fly out'a your ass, just don't in the right color/smell/shape

well since i am going to bed now i just says "that is really interesting" and "C yallater "

[turbohacker]

If you are interested in this subject then i highly recomend "Angels and Demons" by dan brown, it is a fictional story about this very topic. Part of the story even takes place at CERN.

[Fnord]

You have more to worry about in regards to being killed by a meteorite strike than by a particle collider.

You could always accidentally stick your head in the particle stream.

There is a possibility of the experiment destroying the earth.
There is a possibility of a pig flying out'a my ass.
The probability of the two events is probably similar, and neither probability equals zero.

You should probably stay away from Rag's place. I imagine he's developed some type of improbability drive by now.


Sorry, but this article isn't worth making a useful comment about

[Ragnarok]

You should probably stay away from Rag's place. I imagine he's developed some type of improbability drive by now.

I did, but I stopped using it when I fed it the number for the technical help desk at Microsoft as a probability seed.

What I'm going to do with these infinite monkeys and typewriters is beyond me - I mean... they can't even proof read.

[TurboSuper]

There's also a chance this thing will open up some kind of inter -dimensional rift, allowing a malevolent race of space cows to conquer Earth.

[Pilgrimman]

There's also a chance this thing will open up some kind of inter -dimensional rift, allowing a malevolent race of space cows to conquer Earth.

Man, get your physics right. Space MONKEYS not cows! Gosh, what do they teach in schools these days??

[spuzi14]

Could it open up other dimensions?


I somehow see "The Mist" occuring. I work at a grocery store in a small town with a lake nearby and tall trees in the backyard that could fall down. Maybe that movie was meant to predict my life O_O.

That's totally not true. But I am still amazed by this contraption. I think my main fear came from not understanding it exactly.

[rp181]

this is some dude making up crap, same with the saltwater burning. They leave out essential facts to make it sound scary. Alot of people think black holes are actually holes, there just really dense chunks of matter. Since the gravity of an object depends on its mass, they have immense gravity, drawing things to it. As more stuff goes on it, the weaker it gets (density becomes less, density is a ratio of mass vs. volume).

As for high speed particles destroying the world, there are constantly millions of neutrinos passing through the world and us, with out damage (it does some, but its neglible, running your hand across paper would be more damaging). Particle accelerators make them faster, and more focused. If there was a "leak" they would deaccelerate and disperse too fast.

To detect black holes, you dont look for light, but rather the abscense of light (i think Electromagnetic sensors can be used too)

[BC Pneumatics]

rp- I believe when something is pulled into a black hole it obtains (what is the right verb?) gravitational singularity, thus making the overall hole 'stronger'

[SpudFarm]

our teacher told us that it compresses things so hard that in a powerful black hole our earth would have been as big as a neadle head :S

[Ragnarok]

Man, get your physics right. Space MONKEYS not cows! Gosh, what do they teach in schools these days??

Actually, it's not limited to monkeys.

It's reasonably common knowledge that spacetime rifts allow evil aliens to cross dimensional barriers, create zombies and all kinds of havoc. Ultimately, it's all left to a bespectacled scientist with surprising firearms and combat aptitude to sort it all out.

[pat123]

There was a thing in Popular science about this. It has the probabilities for different things to happen when this is fired up. i'll try to find it.