Are scientists about to switch on a machine this summer that could destroy the Earth?

Question

Here's the link.

Scary stuff...

http://www.cnn.com/2008/TECH/06/30/doomsdaycollider.ap/index.html

Answer 1

I think it's possible mathmatically.  Science can be scary...mathmatically and theoretically you can do many things...

Mathmatically you can pass through a wall...I'll show you...

1x10^9 = (6.63 x 10^-34) / {(85.0)(?)}

1x10^9 x ? = 7.8 x 10^-36

7.8 x 10^-45m/s

So that is how slow you would need to be traveling at to pass through the wall, but the problem is that a wall in a school for example is 12cm so it would take1.53 x 10^43 seconds or 487,800,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,... years... haha.  Not practical I know but it is possible! haha

Just like how it is possible for all the oxygen atoms to be on only one side of the room.  You could seriously walk through a door and there be no moles of oxygen and your blood would boil and your body would expand until it burst.  It's possible, but HIGHLY unlikely.

Now if they "mathmatically" or "theoretically" believe that it's possible to flip a switch and destroy the universe...you better believe it.  Anything is possible...the math is over my head I couldn't even begin to tell you...

But in all of our ignorance why mess with something that could possibly destroy us?

Answer 2

No.

Answer 3

There's always an Arquillian Battle Cruiser, or a Corillian Death Ray, or an intergalactic plague that is about to wipe out all life on this miserable little planet...

Answer 4

No, not really.

If you have a team of scientists studying something that the normal person can't understand...

Then one of them makes a joke how it could cause the end of the world...

Everyone freaks out.  Why?  Because people don't understand, simple as that.  And all the press does is inflame that fright, because it sells stories.

So then scientists make a group and study it.  They've come back and said that it won't destroy Earth, or the Universe, because these types of interactions happen daily in the cosmic scale, and we're still here.  We just want to see what it looks like.

But who is going to argue with the scientists?  People can't.  So... stop worrying about it and go about your happy lives.

Answer 5

No.

Why would scientists want to destroy the earth?  Think about it.

There's zero chance of destroying the earth.

Like it says in the article:

"The LHC is only going to reproduce what nature does every second, what it has been doing for billions of years," said John Ellis, a British theoretical physicist at CERN.

And that's completely true, and why you shouldn't worry.

It goes on further to say this:

"But micro black holes produced by cosmic ray collisions would likely be traveling so fast they would pass harmlessly through the earth.

Micro black holes produced by a collider, the skeptics theorize, would move more slowly and might be trapped inside the earth's gravitational field -- and eventually threaten the planet."

The skeptics have no idea what they're talking about.  The particles in the accelerator will be traveling over 99% the speed of light.  If it was to produce a black hole, it's going to be traveling just as fast as the ones produced by cosmic ray interactions.  They wouldn't 'move more slowly,' they're just making that up to try and sound scary.

Even if it DID get trapped and stay on earth, it's subatomic.  A pencil sitting on your desk has thousands of times more gravitational pull than a subatomic black hole.  Are you afraid of your pencil sucking you in and destroying the earth?

It's all just a bunch of nonsense brought up by people looking for something to ***** about.  Notice you don't see any actual physicists claiming anything bad is going to happen.  That's because anyone who knows enough about this to actually understand what's going on knows there isn't anything to worry about.

Answer 6

As long as I hear  afterwards " I told you there would be no problem" rather than "Oops , we screwed up, sorry"

People, scientists included are never wrong , relax :)

Answer 7

No, it's perfectly safe to operate.

Answer 8

No

Answer 9

I hope not, I'm still a virgin. predictions are for 2012.

Answer 10

No.

CERN and SLAC have been operating similar particle-accelerator devices for decades.

Answer 11

No, I doubt we are already able to build some kind of object that can spawn black holes.

Sounds pretty ridiculous to me.