Philosophy
"Fear and trembling"...shades of Y2K?
by
Jon Cartwright
June 23rd, 2008
physicsworld.com
A report from the CERN laboratory near Geneva has restated the conclusion that the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) — the biggest experiment in particle physics — poses “no danger” to humankind. CERN hopes the report will dispel public fears that the accelerator will produce black holes or hypothetical particles known as strangelets that could destroy the Earth.
If all goes to plan, CERN expect to inject the first proton beams into the LHC in August. These beams will collide at energies close to 14 TeV — enough to generate a hoard of new particles and possibly even the highly anticipated Higgs boson. However, amid all the excitement about the discovery of new physics, some of the public have worried that particle collisions at the LHC might create other, more sinister entities. Recently Walter Wagner, a trained nuclear physicist, and colleague Luis Sancho filed a lawsuit in Hawaii to prevent the LHC from starting up based on these worries.
In 2003 CERN’s LHC safety study group produced a report that concluded that there is "no basis for any conceivable threat" of either dangerous black holes or strangelets. The new report — written by the LHC safety assessment group (LSAG) including John Ellis, Gian Giudice, Michelangelo Mangano, Igor Tkachev and Urs Wiedemann of CERN — has come to exactly the same, though "reinforced", conclusion.
"With this report, the laboratory has fulfilled every safety and environmental evaluation necessary to ensure safe operation of this exciting new research facility," said Robert Aymar, director-general of CERN, in a statement.
No danger
The LSAG report draws attention to the fact that cosmic rays collide continually with the Earth and other astronomical bodies at much higher energies than the LHC, yet do not appear to create either large black holes or strangelets. "We estimate that the universe is replicating the total number of collisions to be made by the LHC over 1013 times per second, and has already done so some 1031 times since the origin of the universe," the report states.
With regards to black holes, the report maintains that "if they can be produced in the collisions of elementary particles, they must also be able to decay back into them." If the black holes do not immediately decay, however, "they would be unable to accrete matter in a manner dangerous for the Earth."
The report compares the likelihood of strangelets being produced at the LHC with the likelihood of them being produced at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC), which came online at the Brookhaven National Laboratory, US, in 2000. Given experimental measurements taken at the RHIC, the report claims that "in the event they exist, strangelets would be less likely to be produced at the LHC than at [the] RHIC."
A simple summary of the LSAG report can be read here.
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Philosophy
"Fear and trembling"...of the unknown
"Fear and trembling"...shades of Y2K?"CERN hopes LHC report will dispel doomsday fears"
by
Jon Cartwright
June 23rd, 2008
physicsworld.com
A report from the CERN laboratory near Geneva has restated the conclusion that the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) — the biggest experiment in particle physics — poses “no danger” to humankind. CERN hopes the report will dispel public fears that the accelerator will produce black holes or hypothetical particles known as strangelets that could destroy the Earth.
If all goes to plan, CERN expect to inject the first proton beams into the LHC in August. These beams will collide at energies close to 14 TeV — enough to generate a hoard of new particles and possibly even the highly anticipated Higgs boson. However, amid all the excitement about the discovery of new physics, some of the public have worried that particle collisions at the LHC might create other, more sinister entities. Recently Walter Wagner, a trained nuclear physicist, and colleague Luis Sancho filed a lawsuit in Hawaii to prevent the LHC from starting up based on these worries.
In 2003 CERN’s LHC safety study group produced a report that concluded that there is "no basis for any conceivable threat" of either dangerous black holes or strangelets. The new report — written by the LHC safety assessment group (LSAG) including John Ellis, Gian Giudice, Michelangelo Mangano, Igor Tkachev and Urs Wiedemann of CERN — has come to exactly the same, though "reinforced", conclusion.
"With this report, the laboratory has fulfilled every safety and environmental evaluation necessary to ensure safe operation of this exciting new research facility," said Robert Aymar, director-general of CERN, in a statement.
No danger
The LSAG report draws attention to the fact that cosmic rays collide continually with the Earth and other astronomical bodies at much higher energies than the LHC, yet do not appear to create either large black holes or strangelets. "We estimate that the universe is replicating the total number of collisions to be made by the LHC over 1013 times per second, and has already done so some 1031 times since the origin of the universe," the report states.
With regards to black holes, the report maintains that "if they can be produced in the collisions of elementary particles, they must also be able to decay back into them." If the black holes do not immediately decay, however, "they would be unable to accrete matter in a manner dangerous for the Earth."
The report compares the likelihood of strangelets being produced at the LHC with the likelihood of them being produced at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC), which came online at the Brookhaven National Laboratory, US, in 2000. Given experimental measurements taken at the RHIC, the report claims that "in the event they exist, strangelets would be less likely to be produced at the LHC than at [the] RHIC."
A simple summary of the LSAG report can be read here.
"God particle"/Higgs boson--knowledge of the universe
- Higgs Boson Announcement...the Drama Is Not Effective
"Physicists to Make Major 'God Particle' Announcement Next Week" by Jeanna Bryner December 8th, 2011 LiveScience Scientists at the Swiss lab that hosts the world's largest atom smasher, the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), will announce their...
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"First atoms reported smashed in Large Hadron Collider" November 23td, 2009 PHYSORG.com In a statement, the European Organisation for Nuclear Research (CERN) said two beams circulating simultaneously led to collisions at all four detection points during...
- Lhc--no Problem So Far
Pinching validates existence... I pinched myself... Therefore, I exist The LHC was successful today but understand that this was just a linear experiment and that particle collisions won't occur until next month. "Scientists' joy after world's...
- Still Fussing In The Courts About The Lhc
ENOUGH! If the naysayers are correct, then there won't be anyone around to point a finger and say "We told you so". But then, will the naysayers assume any responsibility for anxiety for some, waisted court time, and maybe some bad science if nothing...
- Eleventh Hour Legal Wrangling
"Twists in the doomsday debate" by Alan Boyle August 19th, 2008 msnbc Preparations for starting up the world's largest atom-smasher on Sept. 10 are proceeding smoothly, but the legal tussle over whether it should be stopped is facing new twists....