As CERN gets ready to flip the switch on its new toy, some people are worried:

The world’s physicists have spent 14 years and $8 billion building the Large Hadron Collider, in which the colliding protons will recreate energies and conditions last seen a trillionth of a second after the Big Bang. Researchers will sift the debris from these primordial recreations for clues to the nature of mass and new forces and symmetries of nature.

But Walter L. Wagner and Luis Sancho contend that scientists at the European Center for Nuclear Research, or CERN, have played down the chances that the collider could produce, among other horrors, a tiny black hole, which, they say, could eat the Earth. Or it could spit out something called a "strangelet" that would convert our planet to a shrunken dense dead lump of something called "strange matter."

          

Comments

[Cunningham]

There's passage in Slaughterhouse Five where the Tramalfadoreans discuss how in the future one of their technicians destroys the universe testing a new rocket fuel. It's heartening to see that in this case, the damage will be on a much smaller scale.

[RBM]

Well, it would be nice to have some real, raw data, to keep the theorists honest.

Besides scientific consensus has yet to even address the source charge problem.

It's ironic to see NYT's piece talk of symmetries when that is the cause of the source charge problem. The answer lies in the asymmetrical nature of the cosmos.

See Maxwell's 1864 paper and read how his full set of calculations were cut up and only the symmetrical portion kept so that investors could readily recoup their investments.

[RBM]

Edit:

"some real, raw data" to
"some new real, raw data"

[Anthony]

"Dr. Arkani-Hamed said concerning worries about the death of the Earth or universe, “Neither has any merit.” He pointed out that because of the dice-throwing nature of quantum physics, there was some probability of almost anything happening. There is some minuscule probability, he said, “the Large Hadron Collider might make dragons that might eat us up.”"

Awesome. They should focus on this aspect of the thing, and maybe they can come up with a real-life Infinite Improbability Drive.

[David Wharton]

I'm excited about the new collider. From what I understand, some of the proposed experiments are crucial to confirming (or not) Big Bang cosmology.

If it's confirmed, it's a great step forward for modern cosmology. If not ... wow. The whole Origin of Everything thing is back up for grabs.

[Ged Maheux]

Just more liberal hippies spending my hard earned tax dollars on stupid scientific research like we did with going to the moon or putting rovers on Mars. We've got floundering missile defense systems and non-lethal lasers to develop and then not use people! That's where I want my money going, not answering the age old questions of the universe! Besides, I already know the answer, it's 42.

[David Wharton]

"Just more liberal hippies spending my hard earned tax dollars on stupid scientific research..."

That's the beauty of it, Ged. It's the Europeans who are paying for it!

But just so that no thread on Ed's blog should be free of gratuitous political arguments, you might remember that it was W. who proposed that we send a manned mission to Mars.

[RBM]

Ged, would the new Army BigDog make you happy ?

BigDog

[Anthony]

Big Dog is amazing, yet disturbing. Its movements are so organic and life-like that I actually feel sorry for it when the guy kicks it in one of the videos.

[Ged Maheux]

Re: Big Dog... that's both one of the most amazing yet disturbing things I've ever seen. It's like a cross between an animal and some giant mutated insect complete with mutant fly noise. I agree that it almost seems alive, almost *too* alive. Very, very spooky. But to answer your question, yes I feel better now that I've seen where my tax dollars are going. To help U.S. troops carry 350lbs of stuff over snow, ice and cinder blocks all while eliciting compassion for a bunch of circuits and hydraulics.