The actual (possibly dangerous) experiments start in about a week. Today they started shooting single entities to test how well the LHC works. Most important thing today was when they succesfully stopped it after accelerating it. For several days they will constantly test all the funtions and safety mechanisms, after which it becomes fully operational. (true, in the process they might make significant progress already) It will run for at least one decade and probably a lot longer, and it should gather enough information every year to fill enough cd's to reach a pile of 20 km. I'm not so much concerned about what critics are concerned about. CERN themselves never said it's impossible that small black holes will form, but in the unlikely event that they do they will also disappear very quickly. The chance of a creating a black hole(s) in the LHC is also a lot smaller than it happening with the particle accelerator that is being used in New York (or was it Chicago?), and that one has been working for many years now without a problem. What i am concerned about is what critics are not concerned about. The goal of some steps in the 27 km tunnel is to create unknown particles, make a mini big bang, ... who knows what effect unknown particles could have. Science knows a lot about black holes already so they can predict what happens when they form, but what about the other things that might form or be created, that they know nothing about? I probably only feel like this cause i know nothing about it though. Edit: I just read that actually having protons collide with eachother is only planned for october 21
Its making black hole that scares me. I heard them say they will simply drop right through the planet before the can gain much mass. I bloody hope so. If one doesn't, and just settles in the gravity neutral zone at the centre of the planet, it will just grow and grow. The planet will be fucked in a few weeks. Even if they do just fly off into space...is creating objects generally recognized as the most destructive in the universe and just flinging them out into the void are responsible thing to do? I know this kind of scientific shit get dumbed down completely for the public though. There is probably no danger. Remember the Y2K bug? Everyone who knew a bit about computers knew it would be a nuisance at worst. But the ignorant masses seriously believed nuclear plants would be blowing up and planes dropping out of the sky. Ignorant fools.
This is the Y2K hysteria all over again. "OMG, the giant hard-on will enter a black hole!" [Edit] Beaten to the punch with the Y2K analogy. Curse you, Hendar23 and your fast typing skills! [/Edit] [Edit 2] Oh, and this belongs in the "Black Hole" forum. *rimshot* [/Edit 2]
the latest edition of the string theory suggests that in the core of each planet at least dozen of "matchstick sized" black holes can be found, they will however not indulge the earth, nor will they grow because thats just silly and anyone thinking they might has probably no real idea what a black hole is besides pop culture presentations of it they will however increase the planets gravity slightly, and that correlates to the findings of astronomers that the earth weighs more then it should weigh and even though a black hole could be formed by the lhc ... "it will never be able to create a constant black hole, nor will it be able to create a black hole larger then an atom... matter is not created it is merely formed of the energy you put into it, and the kinetic energy output + matter of the propelled particles of the lhc does not grow larger then 50 times the power of 2 colliding muskeetos... = not many" from "science and nature"
It was on the news today. Some scientist said something about something going through the planet, but he also said that mini black holes would disappear in a very small fraction of a second. That makes me think he was talking about something else. Also that same guy said particles like those that would go through the planet, are very common in the universe and go through our planet constantly anyway. So i'm pretty confused on that matter. Edit: thanks blizzerd
They're going to initate the first collision at october 21st. Hold onto your spacesuits then, because you're going to need it if you believe in the lies that people post all over the internet. BTW: