Quantum physics gives me a hadron.

PurpleTentacle

man and I have a test today and everything now I have to take it.

DAMN YOU HADRON COLLIDER NOT LETTING ME SKIP MY TEST BY KILLING EVRY LIVING THING ON EARTH!!!!!

DAMN YOOOOOOUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

pokebud

This should be stopped.

mhatti3000

The scheduled date for the actual test - to the best of my awareness - is October 21, 2008. The first particles were injected in mid-August, and tomorrow (today) will simply be the switch-on.

The primary cause for concern is that a miniature black hole could be formed in the core of the apparatus and gradually, for lack of better words, destroy the earth. However, these black holes must be of a certain size to overcome the inversely-proportionate decay from Hawking radiation, i.e. the smaller a black hole is, the more quickly it gives off mass in the form of particulate energy; this is why microscopic black holes rarely have lifespans of more than 2 picoseconds.

The other problem, one that is less likely to occur but far more dangerous if it does, is that the collisions may create strange matter, comprised entirely of quarks; one theory states that strange matter vanishes almost immediately, the other is that it would collide with and convert (in a chain reaction) any matter it comes into contact with. The rate at which the latter would occur is unknown as both theories are completely untested and cannot be observed for obvious reasons.

However, it's worth noting that neither of these scenarios is expected to have any more than a 1:5e9 chance of occurring, and the first and foremost is unlikely to cause devastation on a grand scale even so.

If you have any questions please ask in this thread and I will do my best to answer.

Hilo

Uma Thurman/Brad Pitt/Richard Simmons? That would be the trifecta of Jesus' creepy crushes?

smackswell

@PurpleTentacle: Waka Waka Waka...

Fuzi Lojak

For all the ignorant people in the world... and I guess there are quite a few...

You may still run across on the Internet examples of people talking about how Mars at this opposition is going to look as big as the Full Moon. Most of the purported problems that are associated with the LHC kind of fall into that same realm of people taking a little bit of knowledge and using it to advance far beyond what might possibly happen.

One of the things that people have talked about is the production of the mini black holes by the particle collisions, and that's not totally out of the realm of possibility. The thing about black holes it that they tend to evaporate over time, and the smallest black holes evaporate the most quickly. Any black hole created by these particle interactions would disappear within a small fraction of a second, something along the order of a billionth of a billionth of a billionth of a second. So any of these black holes would evaporate before they would have a chance to start devouring anything around them.

People have talked about [LHC creating] conditions that have never been created before in the universe, or not since the Big Bang, which is not necessarily true. We have things called ultra high-energy cosmic rays that rain down on Earth's atmosphere and these things, believe it or not, have energies far greater than the energies that we're going to have in these collisions.

Something on the order of a million times stronger; we've seen cosmic rays with those energies. Those cosmic rays run into molecules in Earth's atmosphere and so far haven't created any black holes that have swallowed Earth or created any strange particles that have developed into anything that could threaten Earth. The fact that the universe is creating experiments similar to what the LHC is going to do, just not in a controlled way, is the best proof that we don't have anything to worry about here.

Back when they exploded the first atomic bombs in the 1940s, there were a few scientists that predicted that it could launch a chain reaction that would essentially ignite the atmosphere of Earth and burn out all the oxygen in Earth's atmosphere. That probably had a bigger chance of coming true than this does.

Michio Kaku, a theoretical physicist and someone who has written for Astronomy before, said "These things may be possible, but, technically, so is the fact that the LHC could create a fire-breathing dragon, and they're about equally probable."

Rich Talcott (Astronomy Magazine Senior Editor)
Matt Quandt (Astronomy Magazine)

aussie

One could pontificate that a vagina is a hard-on Collider.

All the news channels that were covering thing had BIG NEWS and were throwing around theories, and now, NOW, we know that in two months.. (Halloween?) the end is coming. Awesome.

Stacky Botrus

1. Stephen Hawking is NEVER wrong (sarc)
2. Nuclear scientists had up to that point NEVER split an atom
3. We have Never fully powered up a device as powerful as the LHC
4. We THEORIZE.
5. Oh, and control.... yeah we THINK we have it. Light occurs naturally, but we control it and create lasers. Pew pew.

I just love how everyone including the scientists KNOW what is going to happen. People, we are exploring a field of science we DO NOT KNOW ABOUT !!!

Hahahaha fun times

Kevin

damn Uma Thurman, for keeping me up so late.

Dooosh

damn lack of sleep causing me to spell like a fool!

Dooosh

Bah! Damn dyslexia! Macking this title more interesting then it acctualy is!

Dooosh

@Kevin: 6. Scientists working all their lives in one field, publishing peer reviewed journals and getting recognition from the scientific communities in general, probably knows more than you do.

tanvach

@Kevin: Yeah I agree. We have never seen or been able to find a black hole. We don't even know what they look like! So is it that these brilliant scientists know exactly what will happen is a mini black hole is created. I was reading a news article and the big safety advisor guy said "There is little chance something horribly wrong will occur." I don't know that scares the shit out of me "little chance" seems more like, "yeah we think we know what is going on and everything is under control. But again we only think. We are not sure." I doubt anything will happen but it is pretty scary stuff. I also read that we wouldn't see anything happen catastrophic until at least 4 years later. 4 years from now is 2012 around December just like the ancient mayans said. Pretty scary stuff. But at least we "might" get more info on how the universe was created 10 billion dollars later. Whoop-Dee-Doo!

pinball21

@Hilo: I have but one question. Have you seen this?

[www.hasthelargehadroncolliderdestroyedtheworldyet.com]

Ajh

Mila Jovovovich > Uma Thurmann

yogibimbi

I want twitter updates from CERN...

Wegmans

I knew something would happen, I'm not here anymore.

mikegriffin

If the world would end i certainly would get the message, but yet the world won't end anytime soon
not even in 2 months
so i say to all those doom minded people that the world would end to exist, it won't happen so go to your life and live it

TBM-Fan

I think you guys have played this crap out long enough already?.. guess not. (yes, ban please.)

noobtard

@PurpleTentacle: HA!

Themindtaker

twitter unto death

qbxk

@pinball21:

There's a higher possibility that Earth may be devastated by an asteroid collision. It probably won't happen, but then again we won't know for sure. We "might" be able to stop it if we find out early enough to jury rig some thermonuclear weapons together. But of course no one can be certain, and maybe something will go wrong. We only have the resource to actively monitor a very minute fraction of the sky with our telescopes, so such an undetected asteroid may strike Earth tomorrow without any warning.

Maybe you should worry about that instead.

DarkMirage

If they are wrong and we aren't around to blame them for being wrong, does it matter?

I mean, scientists are just like hicks just with bigger and geekier toys. So, later today you can just imagine a guy with a white lab coat saying :

"Hey y'all, watch this."

LoganSix

@Curves: You're the Chairperson of Vice? Awesome. I need more vice.

OMG! Ponies!

Are we dead? Or are in a state like death in which our consciousness survives? Can we ever really prove our existence? Is our existence even meaningful if it can be snuffed out in the blink of an eye?

OMG! Ponies!

@aussie: Thank you for setting us all straight in such a condescending manner.

Curves (Vice Chairperson, Ignorant People of the World)

Curves

Sex would be too awkward with Uma Thurman having that giraffe neck of hers. Gross.

XanderVincent

I wonder how fast it'd heat up a Hot Pocket?

AmishJohn

NERD ALERT!!!

ILoveToast

The Large Hadron Collider should not be turned on since it is contrary to small-town values.

artvanderbilt

@DarkMirage:

Yay! Something new to be paranoid about!

Asteroids! LHC! Bigfoot!

I'm never leaving my room. I'd go with the basement, but bigfoot is down there.

XanderVincent

Giz should offer WWSHD (what would stephen hawking do) bracelets to keep these bozos in check.

Muaddib1116

@Barcard: Every morning, in the psyche ward, after morning medications and breakfast.

ViperBorg

whew! i just came back from the other side and let me tell you, it's very cold over there! couldn't help but notice that greedy alien trying to eat me for lunch though!

hindsight2020

What happens to all the people who predict the end of the world, after the world doesn't end? Do they have reunions?

Barcard

@JChristopher: "is" = it = the black hole

JChristopher

@FredicvsMaximvs: I am guessing that is converts mass into gamma rays (energy).

JChristopher

@OMG! Ponies!: We all need more vice. All Hail Curves, Chairperson of Vice!

GadgetPlay

Next few weeks, not 2 months:
Today's success puts a tick next to the first of those steps, and over the next few weeks, as the LHC's operators gain experience and confidence with the new machine, the machine's acceleration systems will be brought into play, and the beams will be brought into collision to allow the research programme to begin.

krom

Uma, Oprah!
Oprah, Uma!

Mmmmmm, Uma...

FredicvsMaximvs

@AmishJohn: 0.0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000001 seconds.

Just a theory . ;)

ViperBorg

@aussie: Serious question: how does a black hole evaporate?

FredicvsMaximvs

@ everyone making penis jokes whenever they read the word "hadron":

0 points for originality. 0 points for wit. Please stop. Thank you.

FredicvsMaximvs

Other than the fact collisions more powerful than anything this can create have been happening for millions of years with our atmosphere, and nothing has happened... well no, that's all I needed to say.

Onouris

"So all those stupid morons writing to us and CERN scientist will probably keep rambling for two more months."

The first collisions won't be full power, so I expect we will get ignorant panic even well beyond that date.

Bakkster_Man

Considering I have accumulated all of my scientific knowledge from Star Trek: The Next Generation and comic books, this experiment sounds really cool to me. Something bizzare will definately happen, but I don't know if it will be the opening of a parallel dimension where everything is just a bit "off", or whether some innocent scientist at the collidor will exposed to some type of particles that will make him insane and grant him unbelievably cool super powers. Either way it sounds cool.

And thank God it won't happen until the 21st, so I can at least enjoy my birthday on the 19th before the world goes to hell.

elvindeath

GUYS, GUYS, GUYS!!! You forget that the LHC has ALREADY managed to create a REALLY BIG black hole...

...in taxpayers' pockets!!!

Diplomate

hhehe, i was wondering what the hell all this, "weez gonna die" shit was...damn Giz, I thought ya'll knew today was just a test of shooting the bean around without any collisions...thats later, then we'll die

weeee

mangamonster

What do you mean we all got it wrong? This was discussed the last time you posted on this matter...

[gizmodo.com]

Kaveh

@FredicvsMaximvs: Black holes evaporate, even the big suckers like the one in the center of our Milky Way Galaxy. The LHC's black hole will contain such a tiny amount of matter that it will evaporate almost immediately.

aussie

@Curves: Hahaha... sorry! Please find it in your heart to forgive me.

aussie

I thought the first full-power test wasn't until 21st December, 2012?

BeowulfRex

@pinball21 You're countering mathematical probability with the Mayan calendar? Well played. (P.S. Even in that system, 2012 does not really signify an "apocalypse."). For anybody horribly concerned, I'd highly recommend http://arxiv.org/pdf/0807.3349v1 as reading. My favorite excerpt: "It turns out that it would take 10^36 years for a mini black hole to accrete the earth, which is 10^26 times longer than the age of the universe. More conservatively one should say that it would definitely take longer than 10^19 years for the black hole, to grow to the size of a proton... which is still a billion times longer than the age of our universe."

SheridanWoodpecker

@yogibimbi: Heidi Klum > Mila Jovovich

dambo29

Sorry, what? Am I the only one that finds Uma Thurman grossly unattractive?

Honestly, I'd have sex with Brad Pitt before EVER considering Uma.

Now, where's Jessica Alba when you need her before the world ends?

G-Ram

@OMG! Ponies!: If I'm already dead, and this is some form of consciousness on another plane of existence, then I'd really like to leave work and continue playing Devil May Cry 4. I believe it should qualify me to at least take a sick day.

Chromeo

@Ajh:

Anyone notice anything funny with the source code for that link?

"--- if the lhc actually destroys the earth & this page isn't yet updated please email mike@frantic.org to receive a full refund ---"

white-and-nerdy

@Segador:

Particle Man, Particle Man
Doin' the things a particle can
What's he like?
It's not important.
Particle man

Is he a dot,
or is he a speck?
When he's underwater, does he get wet?
Or does the water get him instead?
Nobody knows,
Particle Man.

FredicvsMaximvs

@FredicvsMaximvs: A black hole with the mass of 502,654 pounds will evaporate in 1 second according to the laws of Hawking Radiation, so a black hole created in the LHC will but of such tiny mass that it will evaporate in a flash.

aussie

@aussie: Yes, but how? Do they convert mass into energy and radiate that, as JChristopher said? The idea is that gravity is so strong within these things that even light cannot escape, ja?

FredicvsMaximvs

I think the LHC should have some sort of collider-shaped mascot- let's call him Captain Collidy for now- that dresses up and goes on TV and to schools to explain why the LHC is wonderful and won't destroy earth.

Segador

@G-Ram: As a lesbian...... let me just say that Uma was very hot in that movie where she had a giant thumb!

robinandtami

@FredicvsMaximvs: What happens is that the space around the event horizon radiates both particles and anti-particles; the particles radiate into space (which we observe as Hawking radiation) and the anti-particles are drawn into the black hole, which I guess cancels it out. Eventually.

That's what I got from A Brief History of Time. The illustrated version. (Mmm, pictures.) For Dummies.

crashfrog

@Barcard: They reunite and then they plan for the next ending of the world. Makes sense, really. I bet they are the type of people who read the last page first, just incase they die before they reach the end (When Harry Met Sally reference).

Strong Arm

If we agree there is a posibility of human kind creating a black hole and we also think about the posibility of other dimension we could also think as possible that a far more advanced race would come to earth and stop this little virus called mankind from destroying the whole universe. Sh1t, i should have taken the blue pill, not the red one.

Eimor

@artvanderbilt: Oh snap! I'm following you for that one.

NagChampa

@aussie: Serious question here also, What fuels a Black hole??????? If you don't know what fuels it, how can we be so sure it's going to disappear instantly????? i mean once you detonate a hydrogen bomb for example you can't just flip a switch and make the radiation go away, can you???? that shiet sticks around for years

snitch29

@aussie I love you

TrueSkool

@snitch29: Black holes are fueled by cosmic gas and the remains of the collapsed star that created it. The smallest black hole recorded is only 15 miles in diameter, that's tiny, but is contains more mass than 3 and a half of our suns. Any star that strays too close will be pulled in and absorbed by the black hole (being torn apart in the process).

Black hole mass dissipates at a great rate, and since there is no where near enough matter near the particles at the point of collision there is nothing to feed it.

The LHC is working with such tiny amount of matter that the radiation created will be minimal. Radiation from atomic explosions usually remains in the immediate vicinity, in the soil etc. (some is airborne). Nuclear power plants seem to contain radiation relatively well. You can visit this famous city of Hiroshima today, it was cleaned up.

aussie

we weren't all fooled.

stre

and, of course, when I said "whole", i meant "hole", thats the second time in 24 hours I've done that . . .

unibrow4o9

I think these fellows at the LHC should set up a webcam when they do the tests. That way, I can watch live, and if they form a giant black whole, or when a spaghetti monster emerges, I can run out and tell everyone exactly how I REALLY feel, before we all die.

unibrow4o9

Just check link every now and then if you're not sure the Earth is still here.

[hasthelargehadroncolliderdestroyedtheworldyet.com]

dukemang

The way the universe works is that a big bang takes place which forms stars and planets. Life develops on some of those planets and evolves into intelligent beings. The first organisms who reach a level of intelligence and technology to create a big bang restarts the universe again.

dbx

so how soon before a sequel to contact is created, only involving LHC? could re-cast gary busey's son to try to stop the experiment.

toyotaboy02

Whether it will or won't destroy the planet is not as important as whether or not it will blend.

ackthbbft

Did you know black holes are birthed?
[www.space.com]

JChristopher

As long as we all die after Android comes out...

delmuerte

@dukemang: I lol'd.

So they're colliding them on my birthday. Sexy. Thanks for the present, LHC. :D

FFMMCLXIV

I remember when I woke up this morning. I looked at my hands, looked around the room, and concluded that we did not all die.

videoCWK

Has anyone not seen the sci-fi movie Event Horizon? Unless we has Laurence Fishburne to save us, we're all doomed. DOOMED I say!

Joetimek

hasthelhcdestroyedtheearth.com

marcee

Yay Uma!

DJTripleRRR

WTF......I want my own black hole!!!!Dark matter is better than dark alone...Enough!!!! We have another two months guys!

cosmoath

Had to realize today's only the powering on of the machine too. I was thinking today was rather dissapointing until I realized the fact.
For some reason, I'd think you'd know when that thing is actually working, so maybe that's why I spent most the day over-analyzing every little odd happening and getting annoyed nothing was happening!

Mr.Wilson

Ah, well this is reassuring! Now I don't have to rush out and fulfill my life in an insanely small amount of time! Good thing too...I was having quite the awkward conversation today about what would happen if you did something you knew you'd regret...and then the world just didn't end. Oh well, at least this gives me more time to plan out all the things I need to do in order to feel complete before I'm Large Hardon Collided.

Katoejoe

Ah, I got through the whole post and no one asked, "Does it blend?"

Ah shi....

Jrsy

@delmuerte: I 2nd that.... I have been waiting to long for Android

JackMatt

So we have two out comes..... 1st; it works, nothing bad happens and all is good. 2nd: the world ends in a mater of seconds and we die.

LMAO sounds like every other leading edge experiment. Fission, fusion, the world is flat, who will be the next president.

JackMatt

Stüll

uli

@aussie: My take on all this is that the argument tends to be "sure it's possible, but it's so unlikely it will never happen."

Isn't that the exact probability of the big bang in the first place though? Sure it was always possible, but so thoroughly unlikely... well, guess what...

I'm not stocking my bomb shelter with soup and batteries, but when dealing with the big bang I don't think anyone can use "unlikely" as a probable argument for "won't."

phool

@G-Ram: I am with you buddy. Uma Thurman - way past her prime (not sure if she was sexy in her prime either). Bring on Isabella Adjani anytime!

jallopy