What's happened to the LHC?

Originally posted by Teknikal
My own problem with it is I think no matter how small the odds the gamble is immoral, stupid and really there are safer ways of finding out these things.

What safer method, or any alternative method could there be?

I think there times that all we can do as lay-persons is to merely accept the professional consensus. There are literally thousands of scientists working on the CERN project, and we have not heard any significant scepticism from within the community.

As I know much less than they, I'm going to trust they have some idea what they are messing with. Besides, think of all the mind blowing discoveries they may make pertaining to the very fabric of the universe we are living in. I can't wait for them to flip the switch!

reply to post by The_Modulus


they used it to its full extent and found something that cannot be known to the public quite yet so they "shut it down" so they can study these amazing results to the utmost extent. to be honest... they have no idea what they just 'stumbled' upon. god does bless. (i forgot to mention that this is an opinion of mine- edit)

[edit on 4/4/2009 by pa.Frost]

reply to post by The_Modulus


Well as for a safer method the whole problem with the current method is thay both particles are being accelerated before colliding them head on this will mean at least some of the particles will lose escape velocity and end up bouncing around Earth forever.

I think the quickest easiest fix is only to accelerate one before introducing the other that should guarantee after a collision both will still have a high and safe speed.

Another possible way is don't collide them head on as long as there is a slight deflection again we should be fine even if something like a micro black hole or other heavy particle was created and stable it wouldn't remain on earth very long.

I still believe the safest way is observing them in the atmosphere as created by nature though the tricky part would be how but I think it's feasible if a bit hit and miss.

I think everyone would really like to see some attempted verification of Hawking Radiation before full collisions and if I'm not mistaken there are some attempts at this but none have yielded any success as yet.

Of course the risk does appear to be small but we don't know how right or wrong we are with current theories or what unknowns might be created.

reply to post by Teknikal


Good points.

I agree the risk is small but the consequences are enormous. This is why Hawking Radiation needs to be tested and proven before we take this risk no matter how small the risk is. This is earth and all life on earth at risk. So no matter how small, you have to be sure.

You can't put the Earth in jeopardy based an unproven theory.

These Cern scientist think Hawking is wrong when he says the LHC will not find the Higgs Boson but Hawkings unproven theory is foolproof when it comes to black holes.

This is blind desire. The consequence of them being wrong could be our planet.

We need to know what will happen if we do live in 4 dimensions of space instead of 3. If these black holes are created and they embed themselves in the 4th dimension of space what will happen?

These are questions that need better answers before we take a risk that could destroy the earth no matter how small the risk may be.

The Hadron Collider is completely safe physicists are experts you have more chance of being involved in a car crash than something going wrong. If anything we need far more of these machines so we can make better video game consoles with better graphics and super fast internet.

Even if it did go wrong we could take the black hole and keep it in a test tube till we know what to do with it Maybe we could post it to Iran and kill two birds with one stone.

I can't wait till they turn it on and find out if God exists.

What does the higgs boson have to do with god existing??? They are just looking for the first particle

reply to post by Maddogkull


I think it is called the God Particle because it explains mass in the universe. It is that which gives the strong electromagnetic forces their... force. It would therefore be an integtral part in understanding the most fundamental components of reality, ie something along the lines ultimate enlightenment, or God.

Although this term was only used by one author Leon Lederman and is disliked in the scientific world, proably because it's very 'pop' culture and sticky to the mind, without having any real explanatory value.

But yeah, this LHC might now only activate in 2010!

The LHC is doing fine...in fact se for yourselves here is the onsite cam link
www.cyriak.co.uk...