News Articles
Thursday, June 12th, 2008Another’s Commentary
This Washington Times article seems pretty fair. Even though he is quoting the 1 in 50 Million statistic which is as old as the RHIC controversy 8 years ago.
PRUDEN: Something else to worry about
Friday, July 11, 2008
Blaming George W. for everything from the dog’s mange to an itch in places impolite to scratch is summer fun for a lot of people. So is listening to Barack Obama’s gaffes, blunders and splutters. But repetition can make anything boring.
So here’s something new, scarier even than the Rev. Jesse Jackson’s scheme to surgically alter Sen. Obama to make him eligible for the Ladies Auxiliary Choir. This doomsday would be the result of a misunderestimation beyond the ability of George W.
Physicists will fire up something called the Large Hadron Collider in Switzerland next month and if everything goes wrong we’ll be reduced to atoms, quarks and strangelets floating out there among the stars. Except that there won’t be any stars. They’ll be reduced to the ashes of infinity, too.
The odds against anything that bad actually happening are estimated by one eminent physicist as “only” 1 in 50 million.
Another’s Commentary
This story on AOL News is a week old, but the stats it’s generating are not. 259, 121 votes and 61% believe the LHC is not worth the risk. 6,614 comments as of today. Amazing.
Critics Fear Collider Could Doom Earth
AOL News - June 29, 2008
MEYRIN, Switzerland (June 29) - The most powerful atom-smasher ever built could make some bizarre discoveries, such as invisible matter or extra dimensions in space, after it is switched on in August.
But some critics fear the Large Hadron Collider could exceed physicists’ wildest conjectures: Will it spawn a black hole that could swallow Earth? Or spit out particles that could turn the planet into a hot dead clump?
Another’s Commentary
Funny. I guess Dennis Overbye of the New York Times was waiting with bated breath to find out if the new LSAG report would spell out safety or doom.
Earth Will Survive After All, Physicists say
New York Times - June 21, 2008
That black hole that was going to eat the Earth? Forget about it, and keep making the mortgage payments — those of you who still have them.
Another’s Commentary
This Russian reporter obviously talked to a physicist, and if you read between the lines they are clearly looking forward to micro black hole creation!
There will be no Armageddon
Russian News and Information Agency 18/06/2008
Black holes are expected to appear (or be detected appearing) in the LHC every second or so. As they evaporate they will leave a trail of radiation that will be registered by the accelerator’s monitoring devices. Such holes pose no threat, even in theory. On the other hand, they should help improve our understanding of the relationship between quantum mechanics and gravitation, because evaporation of black holes is a quantum mechanical process.
Another’s Commentary
Two quotes of interest in this article from the Jerusalem Post. It seems the author may be getting bad and premature information.
Israeli scientists to smash particles at super speeds
Like Etzion, Duchovni will be there when the “mini-Big Bang” takes place sometime within the next two months
So big and groundbreaking is the project that lawsuits
have been filed against it, alleging everything from a potential “environmental catastrophe” to fears that the world would be sucked into a tiny black hole created by the extreme energy in the accelerator.The suits were all rejected, and “the particle collision will not cause all of Europe to be sucked into the tunnel,” laughs Duchovni.
Another’s Commentary
This is so typical of news stories on this subject. First they marginalize the “concerns” by using terms like “gobble”, then they repeat the old, defunct safety argument of Cosmic Rays and the less-than-sure-thing argument of Hawking Radiation. You know these reporters are talking to physicists, so if that’s still the best they’ve got, that’s scary!
Inching Toward Perfect Harmony
Telegraph India - Tuesday , June 3 , 2008
Some doubting Thomases suggested that the LHC will produce nature’s most bizarre yet perfectly structured objects, the black holes. And the black holes, they claim, created in the LHC will eat up not only CERN but entire Europe, and eventually our planet. Black holes are known for their bottomless capacity to gobble because of their infinite gravitational attraction.
Cosmic rays consisting of fundamental particles hit the earth from all over the cosmos with energies even upto a million times the energy of the LHC. But nothing like the black hole phenomenon has happened, proving the physicist’s prediction right. Even if a mini black hole is fleetingly produced, it will “pop” in no time, bursting with finite energy that is easy to handle. Mini black holes (less than a few centimetres in size) do not have the gravitational appetite to “gobble” anything. They “pop” very very fast.
Another’s Commentary
The markets are taking notice. Stock in companies that stand to profit from the LHC could take a hit in price if the hearing on Monday in Hawaii goes well. Traders place your bets!
Tech giants use controversial project as test bed
Thu, 12 Jun 2008 13:51:59 - From MarketWatch.com:
Known as the Large Hadron Collider, or LHC, the project is composed of a 17-mile circular tunnel beneath Geneva, containing thousands of magnets meant to send beams of sub-atomic particles hurtling toward each other. The resulting collisions are expected to release matter similar to that present at the “Big Bang” that created the universe.