THE LHC (WILL IT DESTROY THE WORLD)
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Posted by
Rico Suave
on 2008-09-11 21:53:48
We are still here. What does LHC stand for, anyway?!
Posted by
Predator
on 2008-09-12 16:44:12
LHC stands for Large Hadron Collider.
We are still here, because the thing is only warming up just now. They haven't started colliding the beams yet. This will not happen for a few weeks. Right now they are just aligning and fine-tuning the system. The LHC will be gradually powered-up over several months.
It is highly likely that quantum black holes will be created. We are told they will just evaporate in millionths of a second. Personally I remain uneasy about the whole thing.
Posted by
Rico Suave
on 2008-09-12 19:26:48
I just wish that I could remember what hadrons are. That tour of FermiLab was too long ago . . .
Posted by
totoro
on 2008-09-13 16:41:13
There is the question of these "microscopic" black holes deciding that they don't particularly want to be microscopic anymore, swallowing everything up in their path, OR, equally frightening, various things being "let out" of other dimensions. I am very pro-science, but certain things should probably be left alone.
Posted by
BJake
on 2008-09-13 21:05:42
Basically using immense magnets and a really silly amount of power, protons are accellerated around a huge circle in one direction reaching almost light speed. More protons are sent round it in the opposite direction at the same speed and when they collide they create a microcosm of the universe as it was right after the big bang. We hope to identify the Higgs boson particle which is the force which holds mass together.
This will be the greatest forward step in physics of all time.
Of course we've known that the Higgs boson particle should be there for the past 40 years but this is the first time we should be able to actually record it.
If it doesn't appear, then we have to go back to the drawing board and work out how atoms with their almost negligible magnetic pull can form together to produce mass. If we can't work it out all mass will start to unravel and we will fall apart.
Don't worry about black holes though, the LHC will not produce sufficiently powerful collisions to create a black hole, merely a microcosm of the universe after the big bang which may be sufficient (according to string/dimension theory) to create a brand new dimension or universe where everything will progress much like ours has!
God was a bunch of scientists in another universe smashing protons together to find a Higgs boson particle. We are god!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
