World’s Largest Supercollider Could Destroy the Universe

The Cernier Company or CERN, the world’s largest physics research firm, is currently in the process of building what would be the world’s largest working supercollider. Known as “Large Hadron Collider,” or LHC, the device is 27 kilometers (16.7 miles) long and resides in a tunnel approximately 100 meters beneath the Franco-Swiss border, just outside of Geneva.

By accelerating protons toward each other at 99.999999% the speed of light the LHC can recreate conditions similar to those that resulted from the Big Bang, ultimately alighting a great deal about the particles and forces that comprise our Universe.

These supercolliders have been around for awhile, but there has never been one on this scale. Scientists say this supercollider will have the ability to ability to create tiny black holes as well. I was quite stunned to hear they were considering creating one of these when this massive machine is completed.

And while Physicists have the logistics of the LHC well in hand ideas about its outcome are strictly theoretical. According to one scenario tiny black holes could be produced which hopefully would decay into what is known as Hawking radiation (the tinier the black hole, the faster it evaporates). If these black holes fail to decay, however, the consequences could be disasterous.

I know that when the first atomic bomb was built there were rumors/concerns of it starting off a chain reaction, in turn destroying earth. But this is a black hole we are talking about. There are no guarantees that it will decay after it's created. If anything went wrong, it could end up devouring our whole planet.

While I'm sure much could be learned from such experiments, I don't think the rewards outweigh the risks on this one. What do you all think?

Wow dude!

Now here is an example of the scary stuff that is forthcoming from our scientific advances. Bringing into existence the greatest destructive force that we know of in space. And, even knowing the potential consequences, we are to proceed at the speed of mind.

Cool, but very scary!!

yeah i think there is one here in the uk. i also know that physicists here are working on self perpetuating nuclear fission...

The balck holes that CERN are talking about are microscopic, but my problem with this project is that its thought that black holes merge giving of huge heat in the process which in turn could cause other elements to react.

If these tiny black holes merge, could it be possible for some of them to feed off each other and grow.

The scientists say that when these mini black holes are created they will evaporate almost straight away. But with the possibility of so many being created in such a confined space, is there the possibility that merging could happen, in which case no evaporation will take place and the hole will grow.

I'm no scientist but it scares the hell out of me.

I wouldn't worry much.

The risk is calculated at about 10 to the minus 40 - a 1 in 10,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 chance.

From:

www.nzherald.co.nz...

those odds still scare me, add quite a few more zeros onto (like maybe a few hundred or so) that and i will be happy.

nothing is improbable and scientists have been wrong in the past.

Originally posted by LockwithnoKey
Bringing into existence the greatest destructive force that we know of in space. And, even knowing the potential consequences, we are to proceed at the speed of mind.

I guess it's human nature to push the limits. One day we might regret that...

the funny thin g about it is that even if they succeed at destroying the universe , well you wont know about it

Very interesting concept on the black holes! I believe this experiment will bring forth new understandings about ourselves and the universe, but if your worries are true then maybe this is a new 2012 idea of what might take place. ie the black holes grow untill it devours the planet by 2012? who really knows but all we can do is sit back and watch.

I am thrilled to be a part of this project. I hope we don't destroy the Earth, but if we do... We will have achieved something very unusual. It's good science, in the end.

I wonder if scientists know all there is to know about this kind of experiment. All the "What ifs" are staggering. They may find out that some strange element or distortion is created as a by-product from the force needed to create the micro black hole that could tear a hole in our dimension and allow who know what to come through. (pure speculation I know)

Oh, well. It's not like this is the only Universe.

Easy come, easy go.

Originally posted by AcesInTheHole
I guess it's human nature to push the limits. One day we might regret that...

Be assured, if we don't destroy the universe with this particular experiment, we will just keep making improvements until we do.

Recall the Superconducting Super Collider? Cancelled in 1993, it was going to be built in Texas and have a third more power than the Large Hadron Collider.

It doesn't seem very judicious to be playing with this.

On the other hand, maybe it will reveal some long sought secrets of the universe. Maybe it will result in a new revelation about our place in the universe, meaning of life, sentience, morality, God. Wouldn’t that be nice?

Edit: See this ATS thread on quantum mechanics. What kind of answers might this experiment provide that could close that thread down?

[edit on 11-1-2008 by Buck Division]

reply to post by Rhain


LoL if we do open a new dimension for something to come through i think we should all run to the movies and watch "The Mist" so we can all be prepared. lol

What confuses the heck out of me is that we supposedly already have free energy. Maybe this is just another lame and greedy attempt at creating something we still have to pay for anyway.

Maybe they need this amount of power for other things such as creating stargates or defense purposes. Makes me think of the Death Star from Star Wars. Until these guys can perfect time travel or a real crystal ball, it seems more like suicide when you don't know for sure. Michio Kaku says it's not a problem though. I guess he owns a Tardis?

Yeah, I'd like to see the 'math' where they calculated this 10 to the minus 40 probability.

Sounds bogus to me.

In fact, I'd like to see them publish a position paper where they detail the positive and negative possibilities in toto.

Maybe they will start using black holes for future warfare
It is pretty amazing how far science has come; now humans are able to create black holes....

reply to post by Spaxz


Hey you are right, that is what happened there lol. I seen that movie too.

Sharp memory I don't have, am jealous of those who do. (sigh)

reply to post by Buck Division

Recall the Superconducting Super Collider? Cancelled in 1993, it was going to be built in Texas and have a third more power than the Large Hadron Collider. It doesn't seem very judicious to be playing with this . . maybe it will reveal some long sought secrets of the universe. Maybe it will result in a new revelation about our place in the universe, meaning of life, sentience, morality, God. Wouldn’t that be nice?

We could have been doing this in America instead of France and Switzerland. Here follows a brief account of the SCSC - Super Conducting Super Collider we almost had. We could still do it if we had the will!

The Superconducting Super Collider (SSC) was a ring particle accelerator which was planned to be built in the area around Waxahachie, Texas. It was planned to have a ring circumference of 87 km (54 miles) and an energy of 20 TeV per beam, potentially enough energy to create a Higgs boson, a particle predicted by the Standard Model, but not yet detected.

The system was first envisioned in the December 1983 National Reference Designs Study, which examined the technical and economic feasibility of a machine with the design capacity of 20 TeV per beam. After an extensive Department of Energy review during the mid-1980s, a site selection process began in 1987. The project was awarded to Texas in November 1988 and major construction began in 1991. Seventeen shafts were sunk and 23.5 km (14.6 miles) of tunnel were bored by late 1993.

During the design and the first construction stage, a heated debate ensued about the high cost of the project. In 1987, Congress was told the project could be completed for $4.4 billion, but by 1993 the cost projection exceeded $12 billion. A recurrent argument was the contrast with NASA's contribution to the International Space Station (ISS), which was of similar amount. Critics of the project argued the US could not afford both of them . . in 1993, Clinton attempted to prevent the cancellation by requesting that Congress continue "to support this important and challenging effort" because "abandoning the SSC at this point would signal that the United States is compromising its position of leadership in basic science..."

After the project was canceled, the main site was deeded to Ellis County, Texas and the county tried numerous times to sell the property. The property was sold in August of 2006 to an investment group led by the late J.B. Hunt. While owned by Ellis County, the site was used for several different purposes, including the production of Jean-Claude Van Damme's 1999 movie "Universal Soldier: The Return."
en.wikipedia.org...

If God created the universe and we wind up destroying it, then that makes us... (?)



Sort of like how many of us already don't care about the flora and fauna on Earth, but on a larger scale, right?

A new black hole is just another black hole among millions of others already in existence in this universe, so I don't see it destroying much more than our planet and eventually our solar system. The galaxy we're a part of is likely already host to a black hole, so it won't be a huge issue to the Alpha Centauris.

In the grand scheme of things, as Earth and all its inhabitants are stretched infinitely wide and time slows down to a standstill as we cross the Event Horizon, we'll all still be bickering over global climate change and the price of a barrel of oil. Imagine really long pinkish lines squabbling in super slo-mo... that's what I think we'd look like to an observer

Be happy. Don't worry. The scientists have morals too... don't they? It's all for getting the PROOF so many of us here are clamouring for.