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Large Hadron Collider - read at own risk

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EHM-1883 Matt:
The Large Hadron Collider is a massive tunnel being built on the Swiss-French border. It is the biggest scientific project ever, and has cost approx. $4 billion! What it is, is a tunnel with thousands of electromagnets down it. The experiment is to send protons down the tube, and then electrons. Eventually, they will change the course of the electrons, and they will smash into the protons. This recreates moments before the big bang.

What the scientists are trying to do is make a type of reaction, and if the reaction is successful, they can learn a lot about our universe, and possibly, learn how the universe is created. The problem is this, When the protons and electrons crash, it may create a black hole, which can be microscopic, but starts growing as it sucks in small objects. The Black hole could then grow, and eventually suck in the Earth, thus destroying the planet, and eventually, the entire solar system.

Scientists have a theory called the Hawking theory, made by Stephen Hawking, saying that if microscopic black holes are created, they will simply evaporate. However, this theory has not been tested, and cannot be proved until we actually have a black hole. So if the theory does not work, and a black hole is created, the Earth is in trouble.
However, there have been cosmic rays hitting our solar system for a very long time, much more powerful then what this machine is going to make, and Earth has coped with those rays. You could also say the same about the Atomic Bomb chain series or Y2K. They never happened, and a lot of this worrying is led mainly by the media, but scientists have said that they can't say that the machine is safe.

The scientists plan to switch on the machine November 26-27th 2007. Construction of the Large Hadron Collider has begun, and there are not many petitions out there to get rid of it. I am personally against this machine, but the main argument is if it works, our technology will become very advanced.

The only petition I could find to stop the assembling of the LHC is here:

http://www.petitiononline.com/stopLHC/petition.html

I have signed the petition. If you are against this project, please do what you can to help stop it being built, as there is not much being done.

EHM-1671 Ben:
I think we need to think about the monetary loss associated with the complete halt and deconstruction of the project since, of course, we live in a world of money giants and corporations. If you say it's cost $4 billion so far to build (heck, it's not even finished yet), why would the CERN throw that all away on the count of 18 anonymous signatures in an online petition?

The Large Hadron Collider, despite whatever arguments there may or may not be as to the safety of the machine, is going to be built. And it's going to be tested. A lot of money has been put into this and they're not going to throw it all away.

I don't pretend to be a great scientist (couldn't even pass chemistry last year ;D) but if Stephen Hawking, one of the most brilliant scientific minds of history, says that a microscopic black hole, if one is even created at all, will evaporate...

...maybe we should trust him?

Edit: I just read the petition itself - sounds like it was written by a 13 year old!

EHM-1883 Matt:
I know, but I signed it anyway, because you never know. Weird things happen!

As for Stephen Hawking, Newton had theories about time, and how it was all fixed, and nobody questioned him for an odd 200 years, until Einstein made the theory of relativity and discovered that Time and Light can be distorted, and is not fixed lines.

However, I think Stephen Hawking is right on his theory. I looked up on it, and it makes perfect sense.

EHM-1001 Robert:
It is interesting to hear that somebody who fears about this project tries to torpedo it.

I think we do not need to worry about microscopic black holes. The Earth does not fit into a microscopic black hole, so we just will not disappear if scientist want to play with that machine. ;D

It is said that "classic physics" is discovered already. F=m*a simply works. But there are much much more in our world that we need to discover at abnormal circumstances to discover something new. Like the ITER project. If they succeed, mankind will have a brand new energy source, that is absolutely safe. I think if we do not let scientists to discover these things we are going to use all the available amount of resources, and maybe find ourselves back in the stoneage...of course not in our life, but sooner or later. ;D

EHM-1821 Javier:
i feel this experiment although should be carried out, it should not be carried out in this time period, its best to know more about everything first before we take this step that would either answer one of the biggest questions or suck us u into a black hole.

one question i have is, if a blackhole was created but it vapourized, since it sucks even light in, how can the scientists see it? :s

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