LHC researchers 'set to create a mini-Big Bang'

Researchers at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) are getting set to create the Big Bang on a miniature scale. Since 2009, the world's highest-energy particle accelerator has been smashing together protons, in a bid to shed light on the fundamental nature of matter. But now the huge machine will be colliding lead ions instead. The experiments are planned for early November and will run for four weeks. The LHC is housed in a 27km-long tunnel on the Franco-Swiss border and is managed by the European Organization for Nuclear Research (Cern).

WOW! That's certainly interesting for many obvious reasons, but my question is, if we really have no idea of what triggered the big bang, or what happened at the moment of the big bang or if it even happened at all, then how could we accurately re-create it? I don't think we can.

Also, as has been discussed on ATS many many times before, what are the risks involved with these experiments? Are the LHC scientists punching above their weight and putting the rest of us at risk?

Link to news story: www.bbc.co.uk...

EDIT to add: My personal opinion of what might possibly occur is irrelevant. I'm not a scientist. For all I know you might get the same effect by colliding two cabbages together at high speed. But what I do know, is that the term "mini big bang" worries me. You can't put the words mini and big together. Is it going to be a mini bang, or a bang that's tiny in comparisson to the one that supposedly started the universe but still be potentially dangerous?

Something else that I know is that the LHC is a hot topic on ATS, so I thought it might be worth posting a link to the story for those that may be interested.

I look forward to reading your comments.

a little big bang? Isnt that sort of the smallest oxymoron ever? or the largest? either way thats pretty moronic...

Originally posted by Myendica
a little big bang? Isnt that sort of the smallest oxymoron ever? or the largest? either way thats pretty moronic...

Took the words right out of my mouth.
I don't understand why you would try to recreate that. We don't even have the technology to see to the farthest reaches of space, which the big bang supposedly created. So what makes them think that making even a "mini" one, underground on a planet, not even out in space, is a good idea?? Just because you have the technology to do it doesn't mean you should. Scientists need to stop playing God before they possibly end up killing us all.

Don't worry....
Everything is going ahead as planned.

What does mini-Big bang mean? I thought the original big-bang was smaller than the head of a pin. How can you get smaller than that?

reply to post by xizd1


Yep, scientific progress is GOOD. These people are dealing daily with things most of us here couldn't even begin to understand, I think we're in safe hands. They wouldn't have built the thing in the first place if they thought there was any danger in doing so.

I can't wait for the latest 'The LHC is being sabotaged from the future!' theories if things don't go smoothly though.

Just imagine if this "mini big bang" creates a whole new "mini" universe the size of say...the Earth? Haha, well that would be a small universe but very large from a microscopic point of view.

Oh and we would be screwed!

Originally posted by Nventual
What does mini-Big bang mean? I thought the original big-bang was smaller than the head of a pin. How can you get smaller than that?

Yeah they should call it a mini bang. All the energy that created the big bang might have come from a point smaller then the head of a pin (singularity) but the resulting bang was BIG.

There's no way the LHC could generate anywhere near that sort of energy, in fact far higher energies in cosmic-ray collisions happen all the time in nature.

Isn't it just smashing particles together like they would have smashed together after the big bang?
In a way it's kind of recreating the big bang, but with less energy than most things in space.
Don't worry, it won't harm us.

This article (dated: Nov 07, 2010) implies LHC success of miniature 'big bang' creation:

"UK Scientists Celebrate Mini Big Bangs As Lead Ion Collides"
www.spacedaily.com...

in the article is stated:
"The collisions generated mini Big Bangs and the highest temperatures and densities ever achieved in an experiment."

All they mean by "mini big bang" is that for a very short time and in a very small area they will create an energy density comparable to the early universe. This energy is rapidly dissipated as fundamental particles, allowing us to study particle synthesis in conditions similar to the early universe.