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Atom-Smasher Could Open Black Hole, Reveal Secrets Of Science

Huffington Post   |   April 13, 2008 02:23 PM

Read More: Atom-Smasher, Black Hole, Cern, Europe, Geneva, Large Hadron Collider, Breaking Home News
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The LA Times reports on the hair-raising concerns raised by some about the Large Hadron Collider, Europe's giant atom-smasher:

Michelangelo L. Mangano, a respected particle physicist who helped discover the top quark in 1995, now spends most days trying to convince people that his new machine won't destroy the world...


...What the critics are in such a lather about is the $8-billion Large Hadron Collider, a massive assemblage of iron, steel and superconducting wire 300 feet underground in a 17-mile-long circular tunnel on the Franco-Swiss border...

...Scientists like Mangano believe that this instrument, when it begins operating as early as this summer, will peer into a looking-glass world that could contain entrances to extra dimensions and super-massive partners of the familiar particles that make up our world. One creature that must be hiding there, the scientists say, is the Higgs particle, one of the most exotic undiscovered objects since the yeti.

Critics think the collider could also spawn a black hole that will swallow Earth.

Keep reading here.

The Large Hadron Collider is searching for the so-called God particle, which some scientists believe could unlock the secrets of the universe. Read more here.

Scroll down for pictures of the Large Hadron Collider:

 

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collapse rixhex56 See Profile I'm a Fan of rixhex56

Heh, heh...,

It just dawned on me that the bar has been set so low in America at this juncture that I'm just happy to see that there are at least 2 pages of responses to this article. Heh, heh, heh...

favoriteFavorite Flag as abusive Posted 03:49 PM on 04/14/2008
collapse Boyarina See Profile I'm a Fan of Boyarina

It is not an atom smasher, it is not designed to create a black hole and it is not intended to do so, neither does it have the power to create a black hole, however microscopic, nor does it have access to the astronomical amount of energy it would need to do so if it were designed and intended to do that - this is silly fear-mongering by people who manifestly don't understand its purpose nor its principles.

favoriteFavorite Flag as abusive Posted 06:45 AM on 04/14/2008
collapse themodernleader See Profile I'm a Fan of themodernleader

To E,M,S,S bloggers. You are not the first to find unfounded my Theory of Aloneness and Godliness.
From the start of human consciousness, we have recognized our aloneness and never accepted it. Therefore, we created gods that gave us rationale. Those gods, concomitantly were used by traditional leaders to reach and retain power for themselves and their descendants. And the advancement of the the human species was continually contained and retarded.
There have been only short golden ages in the history of our species where extraordinary acheivement and performance was the norm for an organization. Then ideologues of control of human thought and action are instilled by monarchy and aristocracy.
Our democracy is reaching its last declining phase as the ideologies of control stamp out the independent thinking and self-sufficient individual. Therefore, I feel compelled to introduce a new religious dogma that recognizes our true status in the universe based upon the best scientific knowledge, not belief, available. My dogma does not need miracles and promises of eternal existence to keep it afloat. It is at the very least intellectually honest. And I sleep well at night as I prepare to go kicking and shouting into that cold, dark night. (If I were a politician, explaining this new religion would find me ostrasized and condemned for the rest of my days, unlike earlier times when religious beliefs were personal and beyond a criterion for public leadership.)

favoriteFavorite Flag as abusive Posted 11:12 PM on 04/13/2008
collapse ronday See Profile I'm a Fan of ronday

A black hole that swallows the earth? Mmmmm, reminds me of the chain reaction that followed the first atomic bomb and destroyed all life on earth.

At least we won't all die slowly because of global warming.

Oh well. The party had to end sometime.

favoriteFavorite Flag as abusive Posted 09:51 PM on 04/13/2008
collapse robbor See Profile I'm a Fan of robbor

as i look around the globe i think this would be a perfect time for a black hole

favoriteFavorite Flag as abusive Posted 09:38 PM on 04/13/2008
collapse SmellyOne See Profile I'm a Fan of SmellyOne

Really?

I think "the world" only seems worse than ever because we live in the information age and EVERY bad story from around the world is known minutes after it happens.

There is less war on this planet than there ever has been.

I think humans are becoming more enlightened all the time.

This is a terrible time for a black hole.

favoriteFavorite Flag as abusive Posted 10:09 PM on 04/13/2008
collapse thicky See Profile I'm a Fan of thicky

the complete and utter annihilation of the planet earth is a small price to pay for scientific(and career) advancement.

favoriteFavorite Flag as abusive Posted 09:26 PM on 04/13/2008
collapse Earl See Profile I'm a Fan of Earl

The Hubble telescope was supposed to see back to the beginning of time and answer all our questions.

favoriteFavorite Flag as abusive Posted 09:02 PM on 04/13/2008
collapse Earl See Profile I'm a Fan of Earl

Oppenheimer wondered if his atomic bomb would consume everything.

favoriteFavorite Flag as abusive Posted 09:01 PM on 04/13/2008
collapse WorkingClass See Profile I'm a Fan of WorkingClass

This must be why the Mayan calendar ends in 2008. Oooops. My bad.

favoriteFavorite Flag as abusive Posted 08:57 PM on 04/13/2008
collapse SmellyOne See Profile I'm a Fan of SmellyOne

Yeah, like I trust the Mayans. Where are they today?

favoriteFavorite Flag as abusive Posted 11:02 PM on 04/13/2008
collapse AbdulScarface See Profile I'm a Fan of AbdulScarface

2012

favoriteFavorite Flag as abusive Posted 09:34 PM on 04/13/2008
collapse ceasenake See Profile I'm a Fan of ceasenake

I'm just glad to see the Europeans are doing some kind of research instead of leaving it all up to the USA.

Usually they sit in cafe's and wait for the USA to rebuild Europe after WWII, conquer space for them, take on the Soviets, or face Istlamic fundamentalist terrorists on thier behalf.

Good to see they are willing to do something on their own - maybe there is hope for OLD Europe, yet.

favoriteFavorite Flag as abusive Posted 08:28 PM on 04/13/2008
collapse veracity See Profile I'm a Fan of veracity

what a STUPID, chauvinistic statement. "Usually they [Europeans] just sit in cafe's and wait for the USA to rebuild themm" ??? !!
Oh, like WERNER von BRAUN & his NAZI scientist Rocket Team - who, sitting in their cafes, DESIGNED the mighty US APOLLO moon rockets???

Or , European sit-on-their-duffs PHYSICS and NUCLEAR SCIENTISTS, Fermi, Szilard, Wigner, and Teller and others - who all played vital roles in the US nuclear bomb program?
(To spell it out for you, some consider Szilard to be "the godfather of the atomic bomb"... it was he who urged Einstein to write the letter to President Roosevelt which led FDR to create the Manhatten Project a-bomb effort , which was so vast it consumed well over 10% of all US electric production. Fermi only created the world's first ever self-sustaining nuclear reaction, and Teller is known by some as "the father of the H-bomb.")
America's entire JET ENGINE INDUSTRY was started when Brits handed their working Whittle jet engines to GE to copy, & US computing industry was greatly boosted by British, French, and Polish inputs into codebreaking computers "Enigma machines" which led to US development of first big electric computer, EINAC. Same with Radar and Rocket sciences - greatly bolstered by WWII European research.
Well, in nature, all things move IN CYCLES - including America's growth and ascendency as a super-power - so thanks for the text-book exposition of the abject IGNORANCE which would be the cause for America's potential future decline.

favoriteFavorite Flag as abusive Posted 09:57 AM on 04/14/2008
collapse shockmagog See Profile I'm a Fan of shockmagog

The United States had its chance, so now as we fade into ignoble decline, we look to "OLD Europe" to lead the way. The U.S. had its chance:

'The Superconducting Super Collider (SSC) was a square particle accelerator which was planned to be built in Texas. It was planned to have a ring circumference of 87 km (64 miles) and an energy of 30 TeV per beam, potentially enough energy to create a Higgs boson, a particle predicted by the Standard Model, but not yet detected.'
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superconducting_Super_Collider

'The Superconducting Super Collider Laboratory project at this site was canceled by the federal government in 1993, after 14 miles of tunnels were completed and two billion dollars spent. The project was directed by the US Department of Energy and was to include a 54 mile long particle accelerator loop. The $11 billion project would have been the largest experimental facility ever built.'
http://ludb.clui.org/ex/i/TX3155/

More on the SSC's obituary:
http://www.lbl.gov/Science-Articles/Archive/ssc-and-future.html

favoriteFavorite Flag as abusive Posted 09:35 PM on 04/13/2008
collapse Earl See Profile I'm a Fan of Earl

We were supposed to build one of these in Texas a decade or so back, but it wasn't built because of the typical excuse -- money. Like Bush and his buddies don't throw that around like candy. They probably didn't build it because the fundamentalists figured it would disprove god once and for all.

favoriteFavorite Flag as abusive Posted 09:13 PM on 04/13/2008
collapse donaldw6 See Profile I'm a Fan of donaldw6

Fears of this sort of thing are ridiculously exaggerated, but neither do I think we need to be in such a hurry. I'd like very much to hurry. There is a possibility that machines such as this can answer fundamental questions about the universe, important answers that could spur us to achievements we'd never dreamed possible. It's so exciting that it's too easy to get carried away, and perhaps even careless at some point. When so much money goes into a project, there are financial backers to please, schedules to keep, and somewhere along the line we might allow those concerns to take precedence, instead of proceeding at just the right pace to feel confident.

This is a great project. If you have a serious interest in quantum physics, cosmology, and many other fields, this is fantastic. I just hope we leave ourselves time to catch our breath whenever we need to. Make no mistake: when you start messing with the fundamental principles of the universe, you don't want to be playing games.

favoriteFavorite Flag as abusive Posted 08:22 PM on 04/13/2008
collapse NoMoFearNoMoHate See Profile I'm a Fan of NoMoFearNoMoHate

sure whatever dude.

HURRY!? HURRY!?!?!? World War III might be enough reason to hurry but THIS PROJECT HAS PLODDED ALONG FOR MORE THAN A DECADE!

and

"Critics think the collider could also spawn a black hole that will swallow Earth."

morons.

COME ON! There's not enough mass on or in THE ENTIRE EARTH WITH THE MOON COMBINED to form a black hole with an event horizon larger THAN A BASKETBALL! For the uninitiated, a black hole only acts as to the mass that it contains outside of its event horizon. Thus the near-infinitely small black holes that have the most absurdly, minuscule probability of occurring would have such a hard time capturing new mass over extraordinarily long periods of time and would much more likely be like Stephen Hawking's 'white holes'.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hawking_radiation

As to how big it is.

http://discovermagazine.com/2005/aug/cover/string-particle.jpg

favoriteFavorite Flag as abusive Posted 09:46 PM on 04/13/2008
collapse NoMoFearNoMoHate See Profile I'm a Fan of NoMoFearNoMoHate

Here, listen to this guy, at least he knows what he's talking about.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14923900/

favoriteFavorite Flag as abusive Posted 10:04 PM on 04/13/2008
collapse ultramagnetic See Profile I'm a Fan of ultramagnetic

I'm not laughing. A three years ago. There was an incident at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider at Brookhaven in New York where test yielded an explosion that had the characteristics of a micro black hole. Here's a link to the story as it was covered by the BBC.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/4357613.stm

favoriteFavorite Flag as abusive Posted 08:11 PM on 04/13/2008
collapse SonofLiberty1 See Profile I'm a Fan of SonofLiberty1

Sheesh!

If a Black Hole was created..NONE OF US WOULD BE HERE,

NOW, could this create one?

NOPE, but if you believe it could then I have several dozen bridges to sell you:

Good deals too on Lunar Land...

DIRT CHEAP!:)

Don't ask me how you get there to stake your claim:)
All I do is sell real estate...I'm not into Rocket Science:)

favoriteFavorite Flag as abusive Posted 09:29 PM on 04/13/2008
collapse bushisgannonsbitch See Profile I'm a Fan of bushisgannonsbitch

It would seem that there is a theme developing at HuffPo. The other day there was an item about Rosanne's rejuvenated vagina and today it's an item about a black hole.

favoriteFavorite Flag as abusive Posted 07:58 PM on 04/13/2008
collapse wmbear See Profile I'm a Fan of wmbear

"ATOM SMASHER IS IGNORAMUS JOURNALISM-ESE for a device that doesn't smash atoms. Genuine atom-smashers, aka cyclotrons, etc. are so last century....

favoriteFavorite Flag as abusive Posted 07:57 PM on 04/13/2008
collapse wmbear See Profile I'm a Fan of wmbear

Q: WHAT DO YOU HAVE WHEN TWO GAY MEN MEET?...

A: A large hardon collider....

favoriteFavorite Flag as abusive Posted 07:49 PM on 04/13/2008
collapse wadenelson1 See Profile I'm a Fan of wadenelson1

ROFL. I don't care if it's politically correct its funny.

favoriteFavorite Flag as abusive Posted 09:42 AM on 04/14/2008
collapse wndrwrthg See Profile I'm a Fan of wndrwrthg

Exactly how big is a giant atom?

favoriteFavorite Flag as abusive Posted 07:49 PM on 04/13/2008
collapse americandiaspora See Profile I'm a Fan of americandiaspora

i could not tell you an answer but this may be where size does matter

favoriteFavorite Flag as abusive Posted 07:51 PM on 04/13/2008
collapse peachfuzz See Profile I'm a Fan of peachfuzz

I'm dying to know if the critics are worried about our planet or themselves
in other ways: pollution for instance. It's just that i always see contradictions
in people; like staunch environmentalists who smoke.
Save a tree, but to hell with my lungs! Just a curious thought.

favoriteFavorite Flag as abusive Posted 07:35 PM on 04/13/2008
collapse BarnE See Profile I'm a Fan of BarnE

I'm betting my bottom dollar on the black hole outcome!

favoriteFavorite Flag as abusive Posted 07:33 PM on 04/13/2008
collapse americandiaspora See Profile I'm a Fan of americandiaspora

hey E you got it all wrong!!
i bet $1oo,ooo that all will go without a black hole: think about it you cannot loose that bet

favoriteFavorite Flag as abusive Posted 07:53 PM on 04/13/2008
collapse loki See Profile I'm a Fan of loki

The way things are going in the world these days, A black hole might be an improvement.

favoriteFavorite Flag as abusive Posted 07:32 PM on 04/13/2008
collapse wmbear See Profile I'm a Fan of wmbear

DEPENDS ON WHOM IT SWALLOWS, dun it?

favoriteFavorite Flag as abusive Posted 07:51 PM on 04/13/2008
collapse Paul See Profile I'm a Fan of Paul

Looks like this thing has already created a black hole that swallows money...

favoriteFavorite Flag as abusive Posted 07:17 PM on 04/13/2008
collapse themodernleader See Profile I'm a Fan of themodernleader

You bloggers are a weird, sometimes brilliant bunch.
Doing the experiments may introduce us to understand the substance and operation of gravity. Then we will begin to understand the nature of everything, except, of course ourselves. However, unlocking the operating mechanicisms of the Universe will transform us into gods. We will be the only beings in the universe that are able to explain and record it. For we are all alone. We are the greatest anomaly in nature. Nothing like us ever was or ever will be. The chances of our existence are a ratio of one in trillions.
The chances of our successfully surviving for a million years are as infinitisimal. The universe was not originated for intelligent enquiry nor any other form of life.

favoriteFavorite Flag as abusive Posted 07:09 PM on 04/13/2008
collapse Earl See Profile I'm a Fan of Earl

If the chances of our existence are one in trillions, then that means there certainly must be others like us, as "trillions" is such a small number in our universe. Science always teaches us that we are not unique.

favoriteFavorite Flag as abusive Posted 08:59 PM on 04/13/2008
collapse moderationsmuse See Profile I'm a Fan of moderationsmuse

themodernleader,
As to beginning to understand everything, I don't think even the most fervert supporters of the CERN project are making THAT claim. As to "except ourselves," we really ought to take a little more trouble about THAT, don't you think?
"For we are all alone." Forgive me, but could you provide some proof of that? Seems a little over-reaching to me. The odds of their being "others" is quite good.
As to the meanings of the everything, as in your comment "The universe was not originated for intelligent enquiry ...." Do you know something the rest of us don't? For what was it originated?
We're really getting ahead of ourselves here.

favoriteFavorite Flag as abusive Posted 07:37 PM on 04/13/2008
collapse shockmagog See Profile I'm a Fan of shockmagog

"We will be the only beings in the universe that are able to explain and record it. For we are all alone."

Thanks for the speculation.

favoriteFavorite Flag as abusive Posted 07:16 PM on 04/13/2008
collapse ShawnMichel See Profile I'm a Fan of ShawnMichel

Thank you, shockmagog. themodernleader's little exposition there is complete speculation--and horse hockey.

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