We survived the end of the world again

[sleepyowl]

Yes we are still here & not been sucked into a blackhole

[Penny Lane]

I must admit... I was slightly worried!

[Merry]

My daughter`s a TA in a secondary school and she said the kids were really anxious, some almost hysterical.
A physics teacher tried to explain it to them but she said that made them worse!
Having said that, if I remember rightly it would have been considered more fun to have a scary fit about the world`s end than get on with your school work.

[jim]

Had a junior class last Friday, they were scared too, and no amount of rational explanation would reassure them. Just goes to show the power of unreason and hysteria that can be unleashed by mass media. Educated people who should know better!

Love and Peace
Jim

[Ellendra]

Not sure if this will help or make things worse, but, the collider was just brought online for testing. They got the clockwise proton stream working, after fine-tuning that for a few weeks they'll do the same with the counter-clockwise. It'll be a couple of months, at least, before they actually start the atom-smashing.

[Rod in Japan]

Indeed, they haven't started 'making black holes' yet, as anybody who has read an article longer than 3 paragraphs ought to know.

I'm surprised that I haven't seen any concern expressed, not for black holes, but for what human knowledge of 7 dimensions of existence beyond the 3 that we're currently familiar with might wreak. There seems to be plenty of scope for calamity there.

[The Riff-Raff Element]

Or are we already familiar with four? The three of space and one of time in the sense of duration. Or am I still waking up?

I think it is complete fascinating and I await the results with great anticipation. OK, perhaps not the bit about being crushed into my component quarks or whatever by a black hole but the other stuff.

[old tree man]

How dare these people deal with something so dangerous, they realisticly do'nt know the power that they are dealing with. You only have to go back 60 years when oppenheimer made "THE" bomb and what were his words "my God what have i done" !!!!!!!!!!!!!
here's to living in peace

Russ

[Rod in Japan]

Asked whether the results of the LHC experiment would offer immediate practical benefits for our day-to-day lives, Prof Hawking urged patience.

He said: "Throughout history, people have studied pure science from a desire to understand the universe, rather than practical applications for commercial gain. But their discoveries later turned out to have great practical benefits.

"It is difficult to see an economic return from research at the LHC, but that doesn't mean there wont be any."

Prof Hawking made clear that the LHC project is one of the most important in the history of scientific endeavour. Asked to choose between it and the space program, he said: "That is like asking which of my children I would choose to sacrifice.

"Both the LHC and the Space program are vital if the human race is not to stultify and eventually die out. Together they cost less than one tenth of a per cent of world GDP. If the human race can not afford this, then it doesn't deserve the epithet 'human'."

Which just suggests to me at least that scientists are still having grave little lapses when it comes to understanding important matters of humanity. What utter bull==== about "stultifying and dying out"!

[MikeM]

Indeed, they haven't started 'making black holes' yet, as anybody who has read an article longer than 3 paragraphs ought to know.

I'm surprised that I haven't seen any concern expressed, not for black holes, but for what human knowledge of 7 dimensions of existence beyond the 3 that we're currently familiar with might wreak. There seems to be plenty of scope for calamity there.

what calamities? You know, specifically?

[Rod in Japan]

I thought somebody might ask that.

Calamities like most of the world losing the philosophical basis (such as it is) of their lives in a rude awakening, specifically. Most people have fixed and probably incorrect ideas about their place in the universe and if all the goodies promised of the LHC come about, the consequences are ... unforeseeable. But potentially exploitable for calamitous ends. You might think of a few possibilities yourself.

It'll also be interesting if these scientists have foreseen all of the potential applications to warfare of their likely findings. Governments don't generally throw that much money at things just because they're fascinated by physics and philosophical questions.

[MikeM]

so we should deny knowledge just because some people won't be able to accept that the world isn't flat or that there isn't a god? Sounds a pretty poor reason to me. If we all had that attitude we'd still be back in the medieval times.

[The Riff-Raff Element]

... some people won't be able to accept that the world isn't flat or that there isn't a god? Sounds a pretty poor reason to me. If we all had that attitude we'd still be back in the medieval times.

Perhaps. Equally it could really upset other people's apple carts if evidence is found that suggests an outside hand in the creation of our universe

We won't know until we go looking, which for me is a jolly fine reason to do science.

I have no idea whether or not there will be any economic benefit from this work, but previous work at CERN gave us t'internet and the space programe gave us velco and, admittadly less usefully, sat nav.

Collisions such as those planned happen around us all the time without our even noticing. The difference is that at CERN they will know where they are going to happen and will have detectors in place to monitor what comes to past. Really, I don't think for a moment that the LHC is going to bring about the end of the world, but it might help us understand it a little better.

[MikeM]

... some people won't be able to accept that the world isn't flat or that there isn't a god? Sounds a pretty poor reason to me. If we all had that attitude we'd still be back in the medieval times.

Perhaps. Equally it could really upset other people's apple carts if evidence is found that suggests an outside hand in the creation of our universe

I know some hardcore atheists (Dawkins' Witnesses a friend of mine calls them) whose noses will be well and truly out of joint by that .

[The Riff-Raff Element]

... some people won't be able to accept that the world isn't flat or that there isn't a god? Sounds a pretty poor reason to me. If we all had that attitude we'd still be back in the medieval times.

Perhaps. Equally it could really upset other people's apple carts if evidence is found that suggests an outside hand in the creation of our universe

I know some hardcore atheists (Dawkins' Witnesses a friend of mine calls them) whose noses will be well and truly out of joint by that .

Could be a laugh - the fragments hit the detector and spell out something like "if you can read this then you're too close!"