Large Hadron Collider

I had to spend 30 minutes today explaining to my parents, who were terrified of the Hadron Collider and its experiments, just why it won't end the world. I'm actually really annoyed and disappointed in the media in general for scaremongering to the extreme. It's good work, by dedicated and incredibly intelligent scientists, yet they are being put down by the vast collective ignoramus. I don't even want to imagine the crushing disappointment or annoyance the people at CERN feel when faced with a barrage of 'the world's going to end, I'm right, you're wrong, stop the experiment NOW' from the Idiot Brigade that 99% of the public is a member of.

It's a good thing the top brass is simply ignoring them. To anyone who thinks its going to cause harm and wants it stopped: go away. You're an idiot. Sometimes I wish the Hadron Collider actually could blow up the world along with this sorry excuse of a species along with it.
 
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i slightly disagree there knives , people are not idiot but informed ill. They have in one hand the scientists who declare "we might have black holes" and on the other hand scaremongers who declare "its going to destroy civilization because scientists say they will produce a black hole".

IMHO the scientists have a share in this , given that the chances are so small for a black hole to emerge(and evaporate instantly)and chances for a self sustained BH to occur they should have never mentioned it , they should go forward and say "no it will not produce black holes and such phenomena occur in atmosphere every second, we are just reproducing them under controlled circumstances"

Unless you feel that everyone of us should know about hawkings radiation and deep knowledge of physics
 
No but all it would take is one person to read about the potential for black holes and the media would create a cluster-**** about SCIENTISTS HIDE DEADLY POSSIBILITY OF BLACK HOLE etc.
 
Iraklis F.C. said:
they should go forward and say "no it will not produce black holes and such phenomena occur in atmosphere every second, we are just reproducing them under controlled circumstances"
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I couldn't disagree more. Scientists should never feel they have to lie or cover up the research they're doing just because some people might get the wrong idea.
 
but scientists DONT KNOW if black holes are going to be produced , why talk about something that it is highly unlikely to happen when you do know that the masses have a knowledge on black holes as "something" in the sky that will suck anything in its path.

So who is to blame for the current concern about the LHC? The media and fearmongers are mainly to blame; but physicists are as well, because we have failed to adequately convey the purpose and the scope of the LHC to the public and the media.
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http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2008/jun/30/cern.particlephysics1
 
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Iraklis F.C. said:
but scientists DONT KNOW if black holes are going to be produced , why talk about something that it is highly unlikely to happen when you do know that the masses have a knowledge on black holes as "something" in the sky that will suck anything in its path.



http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2008/jun/30/cern.particlephysics1
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they failed because the general public are a bunch of mallets, not because they didnt put in enough effort. i dont remember them announcing they could end the world, either - they only answered the questions they were asked. Is it possible to produce a black whole? yes it is.
 
All they did today was run stuff through the ring, that's all, nothing impressive, really.
As far as I know the collision is going to happen in 2009, is that correct?
 
Iraklis F.C. said:
but scientists DONT KNOW if black holes are going to be produced , why talk about something that it is highly unlikely to happen when you do know that the masses have a knowledge on black holes as "something" in the sky that will suck anything in its path.
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I think you're missing the point of experiments, we do them because we don't know what will happen and we want to find out :p

Quite a few scientists think black holes will be produced, Stephen Hawking has even made a 50pound bet with John Preskill that the LHC will produce black holes as described by his theories. If they are produced in the way described by Hawking then he'll be a dead cert for the Nobel Prize.
 
yak.h'cir said:
Quite a few scientists think black holes will be produced, Stephen Hawking has even made a 50pound bet with John Preskill that the LHC will produce black holes as described by his theories. If they are produced in the way described by Hawking then he'll be a dead cert for the Nobel Prize.
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Link please? That's ace, want to quote that :)
 
well one of the biggest things to come from CERN is the Internet (mostly), which kinda makes the 5bn worth it alone (thats 5bn over the last 15 years don't forget!)
 
yak.h'cir said:
I think you're missing the point of experiments, we do them because we don't know what will happen and we want to find out :p
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i know very well the point of experiments dude , and i know that LHC is looking for anything but black holes. If they are created and IF they can be observed it would be a welcome discovery, thats what some scientists have failed to deliver to the public. ofcourse i am not blaming the scientists for this , i have said that scientists have a share for this mess.
 
Talk about a damp squib.

At least the fireworks were decent at the olympics lol.

A lot of money just to get to the egg and chicken question.

Well where do protons come from?:rolleyes:
 
I just heard on the news that some 16 year old girl in India killed herself today because she thought that she was going to get sucked into a black hole made by the LHC.
A whole bunch of people are all rushing into temples praying that the LHC doesn't cause the end of the world! :eek: :confused:
 
If you know the point then why do you think scientists she lie and try to cover up what they think might happen?

None of the blame lies with the scientists at all, for science to work well they need to be able to openly talk about their ideas and theories, not cover up what they're doing. They've made it plenty clear that the risks of something going wrong are extremely low and there's nothing more they can do then that. It's a combination of selective reporting and everyone just jumping on the bandwagon as well as this level of Physics being quite complicated so in order to explain it properly you'd have to send everyone to university for a few years.

Also from the link you posted "The media also correctly reported that physicists, when pressed, cannot completely dismiss the chance of being eaten alive by these mini black holes from the LHC." So under direct questioning are they supposed to lie?
 
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