They say one of two things will happen on Wednesday when scientists switch on the state-of-the-art, multi-billion-dollar atom smasher in Switzerland known as the Large Hadron Collider: either it will function as expected and physicists everywhere will break out champagne, or it will create a black hole that will destroy the planet and everything on it -- including you, me, and Sarah Palin.
Admittedly, the odds are very heavily against the doomsday scenario -- 50 million to one, according to one estimate often cited in news accounts -- but the fact that it's even conceivable lends an eerie, poetic resonance to the notion of a project designed to prove, among other things, the existence of a subatomic particle called "God."
Some folks are really scared, though. Last March, a group of concerned citizens filed a lawsuit in U.S. federal court to halt the start-up of the super collider on the grounds that CERN (the European Organization for Nuclear Research) hasn't sufficiently thought through the possible safety ramifications -- including, reports the Daily Telegraph, the "small chance of total annihilation of the planet and maybe the universe."
The court has yet to rule on the matter, not necessarily because it sees no urgency in the possibility of the world coming to an end, but because Wednesday's start-up of the Large Hadron Collider is really only a minor event -- the prelude, if you will, to full-throttle testing of the device slated to begin in October.
Updates:
• Collider Starts and We're Still Here - The Australian
• Fizzled Doomsdays - Urban Legends
Read more about it:
• The Large Hadron Collider - About.com: Physics
• World's Biggest Atom Smasher to Start Up - VOA
• Atom Smasher May Prove 'God Particle' - Sydney Morning Herald
• Collider Triggers End-of-World Fears - Time
• Courts Weigh Doomsday Claims - MSNBC Cosmic Log
• Apocalypse Not: Atom-Smasher Won't Doom Planet, Says Study - AFP
• Totally Fictional Doomsdays - MSNBC Cosmic Log
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Comments
Well, at least the post apocalyptic t-shirts are ready:
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tbh im quite annoyed about this bearing in mind i had 2 cousins aged 12 and 16 scared to death that they didnt want to leave the house because of stupid scientists that want to put everyones lives in serious danger tbh i think people should litigate after scaring the whole nation to death.
anything is possible….
I think you should change your smirking photograph on such articles. This is a planet a star. Do you understand what a star is? It’s not just something that you look at through a telescope, those are not habitable because something was out of balance somehow. What we have is delicate, messing with particles and radiation levels is not okey. Most of the space programs appear to be petroleum based to this day. Unless you have reservations on one of those things and they’re of course real sure again on their crazy mathematics based on some einstein theoretical mathematics…you might be concerned also. In addition to that you should take a tour of these facilities to see the so called medical facilities to treat things like cancers with proton therapies etc… This planet is inhabited by people, flora and fauna. You take a good long look at those other planets compostions on the chemical scales…the balance is precarious..to say the least..You have reservations on one of their rockets or something? They all sure about that also? their still oil dependent. A black hole is theoretical physical mathematics also….that’s called precarious mathematics. It’s like playing what they call russian roulette, you load a gun with one bullet, you put it to your head and you pull the trigger. I would not count on having all those chambers that are in those guns either…you have so many things going on at once, all over…supercolliders, chemical plants, oil drilling, mining, crops being planted, solar flares etc….billions of variables is not good. Nothing scientific about billions of variables….I think maybe we need to take another closer look at this space programs and how they controlled animals in space ships with no one there to instruct them or correct them,hmmmm….
Least of all if you’ve never vistied geneve suisse, which is near the laboratory. You may want to or not depending on how you feel about trees that have branches that end in spherical growth patterns with the leaves popping out of those spherical growths. literally a branch like a line ending with an O shape and the leaves protrude from the O shape. That’s near the harbor. I have photos.
Ithink that when they started messing with space races along with particles etc…something went awry….
Their drinking alcohol, is right about there with the drinking use of lab alcohol to spike their punch whne they developed the Atomic Bomb. Scientists? No…egomaniacs? madmen? Since when does possibly jeopardizing an entire planet with it’s entire population some science?