Large Hadron Collider set to be switched on in May

[lilparp]

I was reading about CERN's Large Hadron Collider due to be switched on in May of this year, having been set back from 26/11 last year due to a technical fault.

It seems that, although some theories suggest turning this on will be a safe procedure, there are some concerns that disaster (for example black holes being created) might occur, although the chances of them becoming 'dangerous' are reportedly low (I don't understand enough about the physics of it to comment on the safety).

I was wondering what you all think as to whether there's a point at which one organisation can justify taking a risk like this, but NOT limited to this issue, based on theoretical probability, because of what science or civilisation might stand to gain.

[Taekwon-joe]

I read something about this awhile ago and I remember them saying that there was like a 1 in 10^40 chance of something like a doomsday blackhole occurring (How they worked that shit out is beyond me). By those odds it would definitely not kill everyone.

I don't claim to know the physics behind it either but the blackholes that we know of occured from collapsing stars. I dont think Large Hadron Collider thingy would be able to create a self sustaining blackhole. If i'm just talking complete cack then please correct me.

[Splush]

I've read that the whole "we might make a black hole!" scare was exaggerated, perhaps in a chinese whispers sort of way because people who don't really know anything about what CERN are doing (like me) enjoy oversimplification and sexing things up for maximum drama, and there's nothing more dramatic than black holes. Hopefully that's true and it's safe, but if the risk is that it will create a black hole that swallows up the earth then, for me, there's far worse ways to end the world than in pursuit of knowledge. If it was a mysterious, secretive corporation doing this there might be cause for alarm, but CERN is a big international organisation which I assume has a lot of people keeping an eye on it.

I tend to think that trying to explore and understand our environment is what being a human is all about, and while we need to be alive to do that, we shouldn't let safety concerns hold us back too much.

[retardedhell]

I'm sorry but I never thought I'd find a relevant topic for this:

http://i83.photobucket.com/albums/j297/justinwilkin/1199585332501.jpg

[four styx]

I made a thread raising these concerns a while back and am assured by people who know about this kind of stuff that any black holes that are created will be so small as to be insignificant.

I'm almost disapppointed.

What we need is for someone to invent a selective black hole that only scoops up people who get on your nerves

[Darkscull]

I can't wait till results start coming in.

the first usage of the LHC will be a make-or-break moment for so many of the current ideas in theoretical physics.

luckily, there are enough alternative ideas that are sufficiently different from eachother that breaking one probably means making another, if you get what i mean.

in the theories with the most popular support (among physicists), a few specific particles they've predicted will turn up, and a few other higher-generation composite particles that haven't been specifically worked out, because they are a side-issue really.

I'm hoping that something completely different will happen. so either loads of things pop up that no one had any ideas about, or nothing new appears (or a similar number of things appear, but not the sort of things they expect).

that will give me something to do in a few years time besides crunch numbers :D
well, i'm also not a big fan of the mainstream selection of theories anyway, and have spotted a few things left by the wayside when string theory seduced everyone that look quite interesting and could do with some more development to see where they go.


about the blackhole thing: it started because of the typical case of a scientist saying something completely hypothetical and not thought through that people latch onto as fact, for some reason.
I can't remember who it was exactly that has admitted to saying something that may have started it off, but they were explaining stuff about high-energy physics and how it can shed light on the early days of the universe etc. and was saying what sorts of random unexpected things could perceivably happen when the LHC was turned on, including the creation of blackholes.

after (or possibly parallel) to that, someone was actually looking into some models of the sort of things that could happen in the LHC and there was a small quirk that reflects the small chance that something could happen which, viewed in a certain way, could be interpreted as a small, transient singularity. I think that guy actually tried to get some fame and moolah by going to the press with it, but again i'm not sure.

essentially, although there may, possibly, be a possibility of blackholes being created in the LHC, they would be small and numerous, and above all transient.
no world-eating stuff.

[Ozzylator]

The worst that will happen will be that none of us will ever know what the hell happened.

[alexj9]

Thats what I'm afraid of.

[Ozzylator]

Thats what I'm afraid of.

Why? You won't be afraid when it happens.

[alexj9]

No but i'll be very releaved if everything goes ok.

[Turkey Sandwich]

Oh, I thought they'd aready done it, and the media had just forgotten about it as the world didn't implode.

Anyway, I'm quite looking forward to it as, although I'm no master physicist and as such don't understand the details, I'm under the impression that it will prove (or disprove of course) the existence of Hawking Radiation and teach us more about the theoretical Higgs boson. I also believe that they're pretty sure black holes will be created, but that it won't matter because they'll only exist for a moment as their own power destroys them.

Where's VoC when you need him? Too busy building his own particle accelerators presumably.

[katt]

meh im not worried. someone put it in perspective for me using some numbers that i have forgotten now

although i think the world should have some input if someone is doing something with a huge risk of blowing up earth.

if you have ever seen the movie 'the stand' you will remember the part where the scientists actually unleashed an extremely deadly plague. and one of the exposed but immune protagonists basically told the government that was keeping him under lock and key that it was their crazy meddling that did it.

i always liked that movie. can't say i have read the book

[gembird]

Yeah, it's unlikely that there's anything to worry about. I would assume that the LHC would have cost a ridiculous amount of money, and they wouldn't have been allowed to build it if it was likely to destroy us all. Not only that, but the scientists at CERN are well aware of some of the things that might happen- although with this kind of physics you can never be sure. It's all a matter of weighing up the pros and cons and deciding if the possible benefits to mankind are greater than the risk (which in this case is tiny).

If anything, I'm just really interested in what they can find out.

[skoo]

I know this is meant to be serious, but I keep wanting to rename this thread: Large Hardon Collider.

To save myself, here is a serious link for seriously cool documentary on the serious LHC:

http://video.google.co.uk/videoplay?docid=6454521153918323669

[dinnerbone]

I know this is meant to be serious, but I keep wanting to rename this thread: Large Hardon Collider.

To save myself, here is a serious link for seriously cool documentary on the serious LHC:

http://video.google.co.uk/videoplay?docid=6454521153918323669
That's what I keep reading the title as :p

I can't wait for it to be switched on, I want to see what happens. But I can't help but think of the discworld quote "Some humans would do anything to see if it was possible to do it. If you put a large switch in some cave somewhere, with a sign on it saying 'End-of-the-World Switch. PLEASE DO NOT TOUCH', the paint wouldn't even have time to dry."

[Mister Qwerty]

I remember researching the Large Hadron Collider for an advanced Physics course I took a few months ago, and personally, I'm not worried at all. If it benefits the world, then it benefits the world, if it does in fact create a self-sustaining black hole that destroys the Earth, then chances are that not many of us will have realised before we're all sucked in and killed.

[katt]

although I really doubt it is going to destroy the world (remember y2k and the computer software doom that was supposed to have caused) i still am somewhat skeptical of the mentality that the quest for knowledge is worth destroying the world for.

if the people creating it do think there is a serious risk of anything happening and are downplaying that in any way then that is immoral.

life on earth is not just about improving the knowledge of science. there is more to be enjoyed here than that. And i would say that one day under the sun on earth listening to a babbling brook or what have you is worth more than science experiments.

not that science is not important but so is life.

I would not want the world to disappear because some nerds (not that i dislike nerdisim) in a lab somewhere wanted to take a huge risk** to test something out

** and i doubt this thingy is gonna be a huge risk becaues the scientists probably dont want to die either

[Darkscull]

although I really doubt it is going to destroy the world (remember y2k and the computer software doom that was supposed to have caused)

the thing people forget is: the y2k thing would have been a problem if people hadn't been worried about it and fixed many things so that it wouldn't happen.
well, the cascade effect they thought would happen didn't turn up at all, even with the computers that did go wrong, so i suppose it was a bit exaggerated. but anyway, that's offtopic.

life on earth is not just about improving the knowledge of science. there is more to be enjoyed here than that. And i would say that one day under the sun on earth listening to a babbling brook or what have you is worth more than science experiments.

to me, finding out about the nature of the universe and how it all works is equivalent to sitting listening to a babbling brook.
that is, wondering at and appreciating the magnificent beauty of the universe and the things in it.
unless you just meant lazing about doing nothing is worth more, rather than the implications that usually go along with the 'sitting under the sun listening to a stream' scenario, in which case, nevermind.

however, i agree that the pursuit of knowledge is not worth any risk, and certainly any chance above a very tiny threshold that something catastrophic would happen would for me straightaway deny the possibility of doing that experiment until that probability can be lowered.

In the LHC case, of course, the possibility of world-ending disaster is practically the definition of negligible, and so it is deemed worth it
(remember, there is always a possibility of world-ending disaster occurring at any time, eg. random asteroid, a stupidly large solar flare.* the probabilities of those happening are around the same as the LHC causing the end of the earth, yet you still carry on with life as if they won't happen)


I suppose we should try and consider our reactions to something where the probability of world-ending disaster (or something on a smaller scale, but still harms people who had nothing to do with the experiment) is quite near the boundary between acceptable and not acceptable.

I have no idea what i think about that yet. it's tricky.
my first thought was, if it's near the boundary, put it as too likely to do, but that would just move the boundary lower, wouldn't it?




*i don't know whether this ones actually realistic, i was just randomly hypothesising (although I should learn not to do that if i ever get to a position where journalists will believe what i say :p ).

[doctor_fruitbat]

although i think the world should have some input if someone is doing something with a huge risk of blowing up earth.
I'd agree if 98% of the human race actually had any real idea about the scientific principles behind something like this (and I'm in that 98% on this issue). The Y2K thing is a good example; I heard so much bullshit about toasters exploding that I became truly worried about the grip that many people have on the world they live in.

I'm fine with an elite having authority on an issue, so long as it doesn't become disconnected from the wider world and that any person can become part of that elite, and as long as members of the non-elite can access the appropriate knowledge and get the basic facts across to the masses. Since science operates roughly like that, I'm happy. Plumbers can fix my leaking tap, and scientists can fiddle with the workings of the universe. I trust their sense of self-preservation not to seriously risk the very existence of the planet.

[lilparp]

I have been educated by all of you, your views are all interesting and informative, and as a result the LHC no longer bothers me.

But along the knowledge-risk train of thinking, if there was another experiment, totally made up in my head, which had a 50-50 chance of either destroying a country or filling in all of the gaps in our understanding of the universe, would you support it or be against it?

[Darkscull]

But along the knowledge-risk train of thinking, if there was another experiment, totally made up in my head, which had a 50-50 chance of either destroying a country or filling in all of the gaps in our understanding of the universe, would you support it or be against it?

I would say it was too much of a risk to ignore. and it should be postponed until that risk could be reduced.

so if you define the risk as not the probability that it will explode (or whatever), but the probability that it will explode and injure people/destroy things that had nothing to do with it, then you could lower that risk by doing it in a sufficiently unpopulated area or, ideally, on the moon or in orbit or something (if practical/possible).

the only time i would say an experiment of such potential for knowledge should never be done is if the bad consequences were that the entire universe would completely cease to be. but that's really a special case of the above, where there are no sufficiently unpopulated areas.

[Splush]

I have been educated by all of you, your views are all interesting and informative, and as a result the LHC no longer bothers me.

But along the knowledge-risk train of thinking, if there was another experiment, totally made up in my head, which had a 50-50 chance of either destroying a country or filling in all of the gaps in our understanding of the universe, would you support it or be against it?
I suppose it depends what the payoff would be were the experiment to be successful, although it's hard to imagine what payoff could be that good. If it would grant us the secrets of unlimited energy and bring about a technological singularity I'd be kinda tempted, but we'd need to have the mother of all referenda to see what the world population thought about it.

Although finding out everything there is to know at once could be the intellectual death of our species, what would we do once we'd discovered everything?

[Ozzylator]

I would not want the world to disappear because some nerds (not that i dislike nerdisim) in a lab somewhere wanted to take a huge risk** to test something out

Do you *actually* live in the 1920s? I'm beginning to wonder.

[katt]

Do you *actually* live in the 1920s? I'm beginning to wonder.

well no, actually i do not. Although, i might add that the 1920s were relatively recent in the whole scheme of things.

You do not have to live in the 1920s to disagree with the idea of an 'elite' minority having the power to potentially end the world by tinkering with stuff that has a beyond negligible change of going kaput. If they are doing something like that on behalf of the 'unwashed' masses they should bother asking what the 'unwashed masses' acutally want rather than being arrogant enough to assume. unless they assume they are inherently superior which is BS.

The LHC thing going wrong is probably akin the the y2k exploding toasters. so it does not really bother me that much




to me, finding out about the nature of the universe and how it all works is equivalent to sitting listening to a babbling brook.
that is, wondering at and appreciating the magnificent beauty of the universe and the things in it.
unless you just meant lazing about doing nothing is worth more, rather than the implications that usually go along with the 'sitting under the sun listening to a stream' scenario, in which case, nevermind.



My point was there are people who enjoy life on earth and do not want a minority taking a huge risk of destroying it.

there is a difference between the courage to pursue knowledge and being a fool who disregards danger and the larger picture.

And try and see how much you can appreciate knowledge of the universe if there is no earth for you to sit on

[Darkscull]

You do not have to live in the 1920s to disagree with the idea of an 'elite' minority having the power to potentially end the world by tinkering with stuff that has a beyond negligible change of going kaput. If they are doing something like that on behalf of the 'unwashed' masses they should bother asking what the 'unwashed masses' acutally want rather than being arrogant enough to assume. unless they assume they are inherently superior which is BS.


don't quite know where that came from (this stuff about 'elite' and 'unwashed masses' and inherently superior).

sounds like plato's republic in slightly rougher terms.

anyway:

the problem with such things in science is that due to the complex and counter-intuitive nature of the realm of high-energy physics, full understanding of the processes involved and their possible outcomes requires a lot of specialist training in the mathematics involved, and the various constructions they've made to interpret the maths in terms of real-life systems.
I certainly can't get very far into the analysis yet, and it's my subject.

and without full understanding you can't really be said to have made an informed decision.
it's like in House M.D when they have to persuade a patient (or their family) to agree to a risky procedure, all they can do is spout probabilities, and say that they think it's worth the risk.
of course, the analogy doesn't go very far since in medicine a risky procedure is often necessary, whereas not much in the line of advancing scientific knowledge can be said to be necessary (maybe understanding the dynamics of the climate a bit better and such), and what little is necessary is unlikely to have high risks involved.

The solution i would propose is that the public (well, it would be governments, but you know what i mean) should be involved in deciding the criteria used for risk-assessment, and said risk-assessment being done by an independent group of some sort being advised by peers of the scientists making the proposal (but that are independent from them, you know the drill for these sorts of things).

It would require international cooperation on an unprecedented level though, otherwise it would all fall down when one country is willing to risk more than others.
such cooperation would be a good thing anyway, and would hopefully be the result if some experiment were to go wrong (although obviously in a non-world-ending way)

edit:My point was there are people who enjoy life on earth and do not want a minority taking a huge risk of destroying it.

there is a difference between the courage to pursue knowledge and being a fool who disregards danger and the larger picture.

And try and see how much you can appreciate knowledge of the universe if there is no earth for you to sit on

I see, and i agree with you.

however since either extreme is bad (both abandoning all such experiments and disregarding even large risks), a way must be found to keep the balance and make sure too risky things aren't done, and that people don't get too cautious. see the rest of this post^

[Ozzylator]

well no, actually i do not. Although, i might add that the 1920s were relatively recent in the whole scheme of things.

You do not have to live in the 1920s to disagree with the idea of an 'elite' minority having the power to potentially end the world by tinkering with stuff that has a beyond negligible change of going kaput. If they are doing something like that on behalf of the 'unwashed' masses they should bother asking what the 'unwashed masses' acutally want rather than being arrogant enough to assume. unless they assume they are inherently superior which is BS.

The LHC thing going wrong is probably akin the the y2k exploding toasters. so it does not really bother me that much

I take offence to calling these people at the cutting edge of particle physics "Some nerds" who want to "just test something out." It's incredibly ignorant.

If they find the Higgs Boson, that puts us one step closer to Grand Unification. When we have a Grand Unified Theory, that puts us a significant step closer to finding out how everything works. When we find out how everything works, these "nerds" (as you so eloquently call them) will develop a plethora of scientific advances to further the quality of human life manifold. With a GUT who knows what heights we can achieve?

[katt]

don't quite know where that came from (this stuff about 'elite' and 'unwashed masses' and inherently superior).

sounds like plato's republic in slightly rougher terms.

it came from someone putting forward this :

I'm fine with an elite having authority on an issue

And my feeling is the 'masses' (ie whoever is 'unwashed' (i am being sarcastic) or 'not elite' might not understand the , as you put it, "complex and counter-intuitive nature of the realm of high-energy physics" but they could understand something like "greater than 50 percent chance of destroying earth"

Just like the people who don't know how a nuclear bomb works still can understand the basic idea that they destroy shiz on a huge scale.

And i think many people not working on projects like the LHC can understand materials on them if they desire to read up on them so i hate to think of people blindly putting their trust in any sort of 'elite' .

I feel confident that things like the LHC are read up on in detail by people in science all over the world and i am sure if a large number of these people thought it was extremely nutty/dangerous they would come forth and complain. that is part of why it doesn't bug me

I take offence to calling these people at the cutting edge of particle physics "Some nerds" who want to "just test something out." It's incredibly ignorant.



well boo hoo go have a cry then oh sophisticated one :P

I was saying nerds/over-simplifying in humor. i actually like nerds/geeks and think the terms are sometimes marks of honor to some people. personally i enjoy being called a geek/nerd by other geeks/nerds in a friendly type way

[Kiwi Man]

This isn't really the topic, but it was brought up before: Y2K.

I don't understand why the hell that was supposed to be a problem. So computers may have thought they were 100 years in the past. So what? People were concerned nukes would go blow themselves up and things like that - but why did anyone think that would happen? Were computers programmed to blow themselves up at a certain time? No.

Anyway, there's no point discussing that now because it was in the past and nothing happened. But I still wonder why people thought it was going to be a problem. I can't think of any programs where the date would significantly change how they work.

[Darkscull]

I think it was more that some computers would have the date switched, and others wouldn't (also some would be affected, but rather than switching would just crash), and computers use time and date signals a lot to coordinate their activities, and that would mean that all sorts of things would go haywire because old systems and new systems are all mashed together in many key things.

[doctor_fruitbat]

And my feeling is the 'masses' (ie whoever is 'unwashed' (i am being sarcastic) or 'not elite' might not understand the , as you put it, "complex and counter-intuitive nature of the realm of high-energy physics" but they could understand something like "greater than 50 percent chance of destroying earth"
But it's never that simple, and dumbing things down to such simplistic terms can utterly destroy the meaning and relevance of what is being said. While "XX% chance of the world blowing up" may be technically correct, it does absolutely no justice to the incredible complexity of these matters.

My use of the term 'elite' wasn't in an Orwellian, dystopian sense; scientists ARE an elite of sorts, because they are knowledgeable about a particular subject on a level that most people are not. And there's nothing wrong with that, nor with the 'non-elite' having an opinion, but whether their opinion is valid or not is another matter. Being opposed to nuclear power, for example, on the grounds of actual inherent risks is a whole different kettle of fish to being opposed because maybe they'll blow up somehow, without knowing even vaguely how this might occur. Plus science is drenched in so many differing opinions that I don't think we have any worries about them following any particular agenda; if anyone thought the risk of doom was massively high in regards to the hadron collider, they'd probably have said something by now.

[Midget]

I know this is meant to be serious, but I keep wanting to rename this thread: Large Hardon Collider.

To save myself, here is a serious link for seriously cool documentary on the serious LHC:

http://video.google.co.uk/videoplay?docid=6454521153918323669
aw man i came in here to mention the thread title, hoping nobody else already had

i've been having a little giggle every time i've seen it today

and holy shit, the thing about micro black holes is scary

[Pilk Man]

I, personally, think it would be friggin' awesome if the world got sucked into a black hole. It beats dying of cancer or old and drooling in a home..

Also, what happens if it works and creates a miniature yet stable universe inside it? Would that make us gods?

[katt]

ah i was thinking this device was going to be switched on in march. but apparently i am mistaken.

well....that gives me a few more months to occasionally ponder this matter.

[Lawrence]

Come on, even the name is awesome.
(Although if we all get sucked into a blackhole it'll cause alot of work for the Darwin Awards guys...)

[Ozzylator]

Not really, because the beauteous thing is that if we get sucked into a black hole chances are none of us are ever going to know about it.

[MamboCat]

Oooh, so they've set a date for this?! I for one, am very anxious to hear of the results they get...

Anyways I've had this conversation with my fella, he read that they were creating an "artificial black hole" and started to panic, thinking the whole of Europe will descend into a singularity and suck the rest of the Solar System into it! I doubt very much that will ever happen! First of all, yes they are creating numerous, very tiny black holes, essentially but this is not the first particle collider and they've been in use at various magnitudes for years. Any Physics student in College will know that! :D Anyways, even if we do get mashed into a black hole, we won't feel it: we'll be instantaneously smooshed into a lovely singularity! :) It will at least be pwetty! XD

[wayland jr]

Not really, because the beauteous thing is that if we get sucked into a black hole chances are none of us are ever going to know about it.

I agree entirely.

If it's sucsesful - wayhay!

If it swallows the Earth, noone's going to know anyway.

[Lewiji]

Not really, because the beauteous thing is that if we get sucked into a black hole chances are none of us are ever going to know about it.
I dunno about that. As you get closer and closer to the event horizon of a black hole, time slows down, possibly even stopping when you reach it. Chances are you'd know about it for a very, very long time :p

[albie_123]

http://img329.imageshack.us/img329/7469/resonancecolliderbh9.jpg

[wayland jr]

http://img329.imageshack.us/img329/7469/resonancecolliderbh9.jpg

Time to sharpen your crowbars.

I dunno about that. As you get closer and closer to the event horizon of a black hole, time slows down, possibly even stopping when you reach it. Chances are you'd know about it for a very, very long time :p

Awesome. I can live forever!

[Ozzylator]

I dunno about that. As you get closer and closer to the event horizon of a black hole, time slows down, possibly even stopping when you reach it. Chances are you'd know about it for a very, very long time :p

Relativity: To us time would seem to be passing normally. It's only to an outside observer that time would slow.

[MamboCat]

*looks at piccies*

Noooooooo! I'll get HeadCrab hair!!

[monkyvirus]

Actually it would be incredibly painful (obviously depending on the size of the black hole and your relation to it) but I mean if it was the right size some people could experience the being stretched to the point where they twang and die (yay!). So for us it would suck. Also if they made a small one what would they do with it? I mean seriously it's not like they could move it out the way and if you went too near your eyes would be sucked out or something...

i think that even if there was the minutest possibility they wouldnt do it because I mean even nukes just destroy large areas but not the planet itself. So those are used and we blow up countries and crap even in a nuclear armaggedon something would survive (even its just our history preserved in ruins) but a black hole would wipe out EVERYTHING EVER and I don't think scientists who must value their planet as much as the next guy (and their own lives) to risk annihilation of our entire history not to mention the countless living creatures. That is just too ludicrous to entertain and is just a media scare.

BTW if we do all die cause of they make a black hole, sorry my bad...

[Nuclear Spoon]

Relativity: To us time would seem to be passing normally. It's only to an outside observer that time would slow.

But what would it be like if it stopped, I wonder?

[Shadow_Keeper]

I won't even pretend to understand particle physics, thats not my job. I just hit PC's with hammers, or is that the users? *shrugs*

Regardless, the apparant chance of a black hole coming along due to this and killing us all is apparantly small. Would probably be funny for a brief moment, the fact that searching for more answers to things is the death of us (hi curiosity, we're the cats.) A friend of mine doing his PhD will be working over there however, so I'll get him to ring ahead so there's a brief advanced warning.


I'm more scared about the fact I've handled the beam screens and coolant tubes.

My plans to hold the world to ransom shall soon be complete.


p.s. If anyone wants to team up for those headcrabs, you bring the crowbar. I'll bring a laser, and the "Torch that can MELT FACES"(™)

[wayland jr]

But what would it be like if it stopped, I wonder?

You'd be reduced to elementary particles by the time you "hit" the surface of the black hole. Your neutrons and electrons would enter the black hole but your protons would hover just outside, as they have just enough energy to repel the negativity of the black hole.

So I reckon you wouldn't really know what it's like, unless of course that train of though that your concious lives on in an elementry particle and can be rebuilt into something else, possibly another human, is true.

[shrubbery]

Also if they made a small one what would they do with it?

From what I gather (second hand information here, not to be trusted) the point is to see if they are made by these processes, which would prove certain theories, which would please several scientists immeasurably, and I think they aren't supposed to last very long, milliseconds I think. But if they are detected by the clever science thingymajigs, then Dr Hawkings book was incredibly right. I think. Maybe. I need a physics person to help me before I descend into the ravings of a lunatic.:shock:

[woobi]

Slightly off-topic, I was scouring /x/ a while ago (10 minutes) and something came up about paranormal activity arsing up the LHC. Apparently, a worker was crushed to death by a crane while building it and /x/-philes are scared of his ghost being a complete arse and killing us all.

I had a bit of a giggle.

[edit] I also saw "Event Horizon" pop up a few times.

[crunchynut93]

well, they're going to open up the lhc for a picosecond, or to put it in readable context:

0.000 000 000 001th of a second.

So , there are two major possibilities from this:
It will work as planned, we will know more about the universe.
Or - it doesn't work, nothing else will happen.

[Fozma]

Does anyone know the actual date they're turning this thing on?
I'd imagine they're doing it gradually, so there won't be one spectacular revelation that reveals the mystery of the life, the universe and everything.

All the same, it will prove/disprove some of the most important theories of the twentieth century. Historically speaking it has the potential to be like Einstein's explanation of the perehelion processions of mercury in 1915; general relativity proved to be far more competent in this instance than Newton's laws of motion.
citing!

[dinnerbone]

From wiki:
The first beams are due for injection mid June 2008 with the first collisions planned to take place 2 months later.

[CoX]

Bump, because...

They're turning it on at 00:00GMT this Tuesday! (http://www.lhcountdown.com/?p=1)

Nice knowing you all. :D

[Sebas]

.o>

[Norbington]

Bump, because...

They're turning it on at 00:00GMT this Tuesday! (http://www.lhcountdown.com/?p=1)

Nice knowing you all. :D

Hurray for the end of existence \o/

[wayland jr]

It's on isn't it?

They're injecting beams on tuesday.

[Nuclear Spoon]

Anyone else have an image of a doctor trying to poke the thick metal with a syringe?

[Ronbert]

I'm sure black holes have been created through particle acceleration before? Apologies if mentioned before, but this thread is long and wordy.

[Midget]

nsfw (http://img395.imageshack.us/img395/8246/largehardoncolliderme5.png)

[gembird]

Well it's Tuesday and I'm still here, I dunno about you lot.

This probably means it's not doing what they want it to :(

[wayland jr]

Well it's Tuesday and I'm still here, I dunno about you lot.

This probably means it's not doing what they want it to :(

They're only shooting beams around it to test it. No actual collisions until Autumn.

[El Fisho]

Hurray for another few months of existence.