Ski

I found out the LHC a few weeks ago, and at first it gave me a lot of anxiety. I literally was obsessed with the idea of the end of the world. I blame this on fear mongering. However, I have looked into it more, and have found out that there is nothing to worry about. I know the chances are infinitesimally small, and if I am going to worry about the LHC, then I should worry about a lot of other things. One thing I noticed is that the fears are very similiar to the ones that surrounded the RHIC: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RHIC The LHC is not a completely new type of collidor, it is just more powerful. As for the Fermi Paradox mentioned earlier, you cannot simply say that "we see no other civilizations because they built a LHC." There are a plethora of reasons for the Fermi Paradox, and of course people are going to flock to the most ominous one. Alarmists say "Maybe all other space civilizations built an LHC and got sucked into a black hole!" This argument is not valid. People probably made this argument when the RHIC came on, and when the Tetravon came on...you just can't make this assumption. I would like to post a link to an article from the skeptical inquirer about the fear mongering surrounded the RHIC (although I feel that it is applicable to the LHC, since they are both the same, the LHC is just more powerful): http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m2843/is_3_24/ai_62102225 Here is a link saying that even if we make 10 million black holes a year, only 10 will be captured by earth, and that's asuming if (a very big IF) Hawking Radiation doesn't work. Mark, where did you hear these references that a black hole could suck in the earth in 5 minutes? Did you hear that from the MySpace anti-LHC group? That hardly qualifies as a scientific calculation. I'm going to believe Landsberg from the livescience article instead. I know we should be careful about doing this, but science says that it is an infinitesimal chance. I have not heard of any physicist or particle physicist concerned about this project. It's not a big conspiracy to destroy the world. Scientists are not so reckless where they'd say "Oh, there's a probable risk, but we'll go ahead with it!" There is a difference between "probable" and "possible." You say that scientists are basing this off of theory, but think of how much theories are studied and tested before they become theories! There is a difference between hypothesis and theory. Also, scientists are fully aware of the risks and are investigating the validity of doomsday claims. They have written 3 safety reports! The 3rd one should be released shortly. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/29/science/29collider.html?_r=1&oref=slogin There are many good scientific reasons on why the LHC does not pose a threat to Earth. I am not a scientist, just someone who has been investigating these claims, but if I am understanding correctly, this is what would have to happen: -Black holes would have to be formed in the first place -Hawking Radiation would have to be wrong. Please note tht Hawking Radiation is not just a "theory" is has been studied for over 30 years. -Black holes would have to produced with less escape velocity than earth. -These black holes would have to accrete matter fast enough to pose a threat to earth before the sun expands. And this is all ignoring the fact that high energy collisions from cosmic rays occur in the earth's upper atmosphere millions of times a day, and the surface of the moon too. Factoring in all of these things, I think it for it is safe to say that there is nothing to worry about. People say that the risk is too large to run the LHC, but let me remind you that there are plenty of things that can end life on earth: -Meteor/Asteroid/Comet Impact -Magnetic Poles reverse themselves -Massive volcano eruption -Global epidemic -etc. When the chances of anything bad happening at LHC are minute compared to other things that can end life on earth, it is time to stop worrying about them. I agree, it is all fine and dandy to play devil's advocate, but physics says there is nothing to worry about. And unless everything we know about physics is wrong, then there is nothing to worry about. Here is some more reading on the subject if you are interested: http://forums.xkcd.com/viewtopic.php?f=18&t=11690 http://twistedphysics.typepad.com/cocktail_party_physics/2008/03/doomsday-redux.html http://www.astroengine.net/?p=161 http://motls.blogspot.com/2008/02/lhc-alarmists.html http://physicsworld.com/cws/article/print/30679 http://www.physforum.com/index.php?showtopic=4830