A few scientists question LHC safety
In late 2009 CERN’s Large Hadron Collider (LHC) experiment will concentrate 5 times more energy than ever created at rest on Earth before.* CERN’s recent safety study concludes no possibility of danger from any novel particles that might be created.
* head-on collider collisions produce some slow moving results, unlike cosmic ray collisions with Earth.
* safety arguments are based on unverified theory, challenged by some scientists.
Concerns expressed by scientists:
Otto E. Rössler, Ph.D
Visiting Professor of Physics Dr. Otto E. Rössler, University of Türbingen, F.R.G, creator of Chaos Theory’s Rössler Attractor and founder of Endophysics
“miniblack holes as are expected to be produced soon at the Large Hadron Collider at CERN.” [1]
“To publicize the danger because time is running out is a big decision.” [2]
“ …after 50 months the earth to a centimeter would have shrunk. It would be nothing more there, not only no more life, there but also the earth would be… a small black hole.” [3]
[1] Abraham-Solution to Schwarzschild Metric Implies That CERN Miniblack Holes Pose a Planetary Risk, Prof. Dr. Otto. E. Rössler, Division of Theoretical Chemistry, University of Tübingen (2008)
[2] A Rational, Moral and Spiritual Dilemma, Prof. Dr. Otto E. Rössler’s (2008)
[3] “Biggest crimes of humanity”, Prof. Dr. Otto. E. Rössler, 20 Minuten News (25 June 2008)
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[4] Abraham-like return to constant c in general relativity: “Â-theorem“ demonstrated in Schwarzschild metric Prof. Dr. Otto. E. Rössler, (January 20, 2009) Revised Version for Chaos, Solitons and Fractals
Walter L. Wagner, Co-Plaintiff
Former Nuclear Safety Officer, Cosmic Ray Researcher and CBEST Math Champion, Walter L. Wagner
“there is at present a significant risk that has not been proven to be an impossibility, and that operation of the LHC may have unintended consequences which could ultimately result in the destruction of our planet.” [1]
“Perhaps cosmic-ray collisions really are creating tiny black holes or strangelets, but those little bits of doomsday zip by too fast to cause any trouble. In the LHC, they say, the bad stuff could hang around long enough to be captured by Earth’s gravity and set off a catastrophe” [2]
[1] Coast to Coast AM Interview, George Noory (8 May 2008), “LHC may cause mini black hole and swallow Earth”
[2] LHC Defense, Walter L Wagner (26 Sep 2008)
Luis Sancho, Co-Plaintiff
Video by Luis Sancho, Philosopher of science, Co-Plaintiff US Federal Lawsuit
“In layman terms, what CERN is doing is asking each of us, and all of mankind, to play a game of Russian Roulette with 2 bullets; one for the creation of black holes, and one for the creation of strange matter.” [1], page 24, part 47.
“my beliefs that CERN is acting with criminal negligence and it is not warning the public and the authorities that sponsor them of the real risks involved in the LHC experiment” [1], page 25, part 50.
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Other Scientists
Dr. Habil. Rainer Plaga, Astrophysicist
“At the present stage of knowledge there is a definite residual risk from mBHs production at colliders. This final conclusion differs completely from the one drawn by G & M.” [1] Part 6 Conclusion, page 9
“I put up for further [discussion] three [feasible] measures for risk mitigation, at least in the start up phase of LHC” [1] Part 6 Conclusion, page 9
[1] On the potential catastrophic risk from metastable quantum-black holes produced at particle colliders, Dr. Habil. Rainer Plaga (26 Sep 2008)
James Blodgett, Biometry and Statistics, (MS, MBA, MA)
“I would say that there is definitely a risk, and that the risk is considerably higher that was thought until recently. Most of the authors who have written on the subject agree that there is a risk” [1] Part 9, Page 5.
James Blodgett, MS, MBA, MA, is Coordinator of the Global Risk Reduction Special Interest Group (in American Mensa), Contact Person for Risk Evaluation Forum, a member of the ethics advisory board for the Lifeboat Foundation, and a member of the Society for Risk Analysis
[1] AFFIDAVIT OF JAMES R. BLODGETT, DISTRICT COURT DISTRICT OF HAWAII (2008)
Dr. Richard Webb (Ph.D. Nuclear Engineering)
“[Dr. Webb] agreed that the potential for an accidental thermonuclear detonation of those fusible materials from an errant beam might be present, and needs to be examined in detail.” [1]
[1] AFFIDAVIT OF WALTER L. WAGNER, DISTRICT COURT DISTRICT OF HAWAII (2008)
Dr. Raj Baldev, Theoretical Cosmology
“ … the scientists are fully aware that it is not a project without a grave risk to the life of the Earth.”
(Comment removed by request)
Dr. Paul J. Werbos, National Science Foundation
“… stake the very survival of all life on earth on the truth of their ZPE stuff! … a gamble.”
Cambridge Professor Shahn Majid, author of On Space and Time” with contributions by Roger Penrose
“I’m only not worried because I do not think that step 1 [micro black hole creation] will occur in the first place. But this is just my personal skepticism.“
LHCFacts salutes scientists who dare to voice an independent opinion
“serious reprisals and negative repercussions for their careers if they were to speak out about perceived dangers of the LHC. Denial of tenure, unaccepted manuscripts, and ostracism by peers are among the penalties an academic in such a situation might plausibly face.“
Dr. Eric Johnson, Associate Professor of Law [1]
[1] Culture and Inscrutable Science, Dr. Eric Johnson, Assistant Professor of Law (24 Oct 2008)
Other Concerns
Huang-Superatom in Pfau-Bosenova: A Falsifiable Prediction A recent experiment by Tilman Pfau, Masahito Ueda and colleagues [1] achieved a first Bosenova implosion [2] using magnetic atoms. According to Kerson Huang and Ueda [3], who predicted indistinguishability-based implosions before they were actually observed [2], a magnetic superatom must have formed in the Pfau-Ueda experiment. Owing to its giant magnetism, this superatom ought to be discoverable in the residuals of the Pfau experiment. Hereby the superatom’s diameter could be found to range from 30 atom radiuses (liquid droplet) over 10 to the -14 m (large atomic nucleus) to 10 to the -18 m (potential black-hole radius). Thus for the the first time, the controversial question of whether or not a compact relic is generated in a Bosenova implosion, and whether superatoms exist, could be answered empirically. This is important because despite their early prediction [3], relics are still not generally believed to exist nor is the associated new form of matter, superatoms. A second reason which makes this empirical check important is monitoring: By down- and up-grading the initial atom number while recording the magnetism of the corresponding relic, nature’s unknown black-hole threshold could be determined empirically from the onset of a decrease in magnetism caused by gravitational redshift. The Pfau experiment is therefore a maximally important tool for the avoidance of inadvertent black hole formation. For J.O.R. Authors: O.E. Rössler, D. Hoffmann and J. Tankersley Jr., University of Tubingen, F.R.G.
References:
[1] T. Lahaye, J. Metz, B. Frohlich, T. Kich, M. Meister, A. Griesmaier, T. Pfau, H. Saito, Y. Kawaguchi and M. Ueda, d-Wave collapse and explosion of a dipolar Bose-Einstein condensate. Phys. Rev. Lett. 101, 080401 (2008).
[2] E.A. Donley, N.R. Claussen, S.L. Cormish, J.L. Roberts, E.A. Cornell and C.E. Wieman, Dynamics of collapsing and expanding Bose-Einstein condensates. Nature 412, 295 (2001).
[3] M. Ueda and K. Huang, Fate of a Bose-Einstein condensate with attractive interactions. Phys. Rev. A 60, 3317 (1999).
POLLS
AOL News Poll: Is the giant particle smasher worth the risk? No: 61%, Yes: 39% with 259,307 total votes.
BBC on-line Poll: Is it Worth the Risk? Yes 54%, No: 46%
QUESTIONS
Q: What is the Large Hadron Collider?
The ‘LHC’ is the largest, most expensive scientific experiment ever created. It is located along the French and Swiss border and it will collide tiny particles at nearly the speed of light to create conditions that may not have existed since the first fraction of a second after the big bang almost 14 billion years ago.
Q: Why all the concern now?
When funding for the LHC was approved decades ago, scientists believed that there was no reasonable danger. A few years ago CERN scientists predicted the LHC might create tiny particles called micro black holes at a rate of 1 per second.
Q: What is a micro black hole?
A micro black hole is a particle thousands of times smaller than an atom but it is so dense that any other particles it touches will be collapsed into it.
Q: Are micro black holes dangerous?
Unknown. CERN believes that micro black holes would either evaporate or grow too slowly to be dangerous. Other scientists believe micro black holes would not evaporate and might grow quickly. One scientists believes micro black holes might create dangerous radiation as it grows.
Dr. Otto Rössler’s theory is that when an mBH (micro black hole) accretes a charged particles they will not go straight into the mBH, but will circulate around the mBH creating magnetic fields that would strongly attract other charged particles thus accelerating the growth rate.
Nuclear Physicist Walter L Wagner discovered that cosmic ray impacts with Earth do not prove that LHC created micro black holes would be safe. CERN promised to produce a new safety report in response.
Q: Do physicists believe that micro black holes would evaporate?
One Delphi study found that opinions of physicists differ significantly on their belief that micro black holes might evaporate or not.
Scientist James Blodgett conducted a survey of physicists in 2004 that found that physicists’ estimates that Hawking radiation would fail ranged from 0% to 50% (0%, 0%, 0.000000001%, 0.1%, 1%, 1%, 1%, 2%, 2%, 7%, 10%, 10%, 30%, 35%, and 50%).
Q: Dr. Hawking believes micro black holes could evaporate, could he be wrong?
Yes. Several theoretical scientists studied Dr. Hawking’s theories and concluded that Dr. Hawking was mistaken, micro black holes would not evaporate.
“black holes do not radiate” [1]
“The possibility that non-radiating `mini’ black holes exist should be taken seriously; such holes could be part of the dark matter in the Universe” [2]
“the effect [Hawking Radiation] does not exist.” [3]
“2) infinitely delayed Hawking radiation; 3) infinitely weak chargedness of black holes” [4]
“it is possible that… the behavior of the black hole is stable” [5]
[1] arxiv.org/abs/gr-qc/0008016, Trans-Plankian Modes, Back-Reaction, and the Hawking Process, Prof. Dr. Adam D. Helfer (2000)
[2] arxiv.org/abs/gr-qc/0304042v1, Do black holes radiate? Do black holes radiate? Prof. Dr. Adam D. Helfer (2003)
[3] arxiv.org/abs/gr-qc/0607137, On the existence of black hole evaporation yet again On the existence of black hole evaporation yet again, Prof. VA Belinski Paper. (2006)
[4] www.wissensnavigator.com/documents/OTTOROESSLERMINIBLACKHOLE.pdf Abraham-Solution to Schwarzschild Metric Implies That CERN Miniblack Holes Pose a Planetary Risk, Prof. Dr. Otto Rössler (2008)
[5] arxiv.org/abs/0808.2631 On the Stability of Black Holes at the LHC, M. D. Maia, E. M. Monte (2008)
Q: Would scientists purposefully risk danger to Earth?
Scientists have been willing to take calculated risks in the past. CERN scientists believe that the Large Hadron Collider is an extremely important experiment and they might be willing to accept some level of risk.
Q: Have any of CERN’s particle physicists experssed any concerns?
Some CERN particle physicists may have some concerns [1] but they have been asked to represent LHC safety as zero risk regardless of personal opinion. [2]
“We don’t want to know if it’s possible we will blow up the world–because, quite frankly, we already know the answer. And the answer is, quite frankly, despite all the testing we will ever do–yes. It’s possible. That doesn’t help us.
What we want to know is if we are going to destroy the world. And we can’t know this with certainty, but in reality, we don’t really care about certainty. We care about whether or not it’s probable–that is, likely, that we will destroy the world. So again, possibility–irrelevant. Likelihood–key.” [1]
“Chief Scientific Officer, Mr. Engelen passed an internal memorandum to workers at CERN, asking them, regardless of personal opinion, to affirm in all interviews that there were no risks involved in the experiments, changing the previous assertionof ‘minimal risk’ ” [2] Part 34, Page 18.
[1] RE: LHC Dangerous? by yy2bggggs on Sat Apr 12, 2008 5:27 pm UTC , XKCD (12 Apr 2008)
[2] Affidavit of Luis Sancho, US District Court Hawaii, Luis Sancho (March 2008)
CLOSING
A century ago the radical theories of a young and inexperienced Dr. Albert Einstein were arrogantly rejected by the established physics community until proven correct by experimentation.
Today the genius of Professor Dr. Otto. E. Rössler is an inconvenient truth and his concerns similarly largely ignored as are calls by other senior scientists for independent safety review and to proceed slowly.
Nobel winning scientist Frank Wilczek recently joked (paraphrase) “If this does cause the end of the world, I will not only be very surprised but very embarrassed!”. That pretty much sums it up!
Administrator
See also: Global-Risk-SIG.org