Is the Big Bang Going to Happen Again?
 
By Ian O'Doherty {Monday August 04 2008}
 
 
Okay people, listen very carefully, because this might well be the most valuable piece of information you will receive -- We are all GOING TO DIE.
 
And, typically, it's all the fault of those pesky scientists. Yup, those bloody boffins and their insatiable desire for knowledge have brought the world to the brink of oblivion.
 
I'm referring, of course, to the CERN project in Switzerland, a pan-European adventure into the heart of particle acceleration.
 
The largest scientific experiment ever conducted, the project has seen the construction of the world's biggest Large Hadron Collider which will produce extremely high-energy collisions between particles of Hadron -- large, fundamental particles largely composed of Quarks -- in a huge, 27 kilometre subterranean circular tunnel which winds its way through France and Switzerland.
 
The experiment is designed to spin these particles in opposite directions, gathering speed with each circuit of the tunnel before the scientists smash the oncoming particles together at huge speeds, as they search for greater understanding of the inner workings of the particles.
 
So far, so ho-hum, but what's the danger posed by what is a fascinating, if rather baffling, experiment?
 
Well, the scientists are actually hoping to discover the so-called 'God particle', the Higgs boson, which grants mass to all other particles. Oh, and they will also create a mini-black hole every second during the experiment. And this, not surprisingly, has some people completely freaked out.
 
Critics of the project are convinced that creating so many black holes in such a confined space could accidentally engineer a perfect storm of black holes, where rather than appearing and disappearing within a micro-second of their creation, they actually start to attach themselves to each other.
 
Then, gaining cumulative strength and intensity, they would eventually become large enough to be self-sustainable and then, of course, they would expand, first sucking the CERN research facility into the abyss before ultimately gaining exponential strength and devouring the entire world.
 
Of course, the fact that you're reading this on a Monday morning means the prospect of the entire world being sucked into a black hole might not seem such a distressing idea.
 
But as far as retired nuclear safety engineer Walter Wagner is concerned, this deliberate creation of arguably the most powerful form of energy, black holes, is a global threat. He also points out that even if they can't create the micro black holes, they might inadvertently create 'strangelets', matter-changing particles that will change the fundamental nature of everything we touch.
 
It's a delightfully bonkers idea, of course, and reminds me of an old short story {by Rod Serling, I think, but if any reader knows the author, I'd love to hear from them}, about a boy who accidentally creates a mini black hole and then drops the container, thus allowing the thing to expand until it swallows the planet.
 
But opposition to the experiment, which starts later this month, also comes from German professor Otto E. Rossler, who has rather hyperbolically accused CERN of committing "the biggest ever crime against humanity".
 
What's interesting about the opposition is the fact that so many former scientists, who can hardly be described as Luddites, are against it.
 
On the flip side, however, far more scientists support it, with one of them reminding people that back in the '40s, plenty of them were convinced that the first nuclear explosion would actually set fire to the atmosphere, reducing the earth to a charred lump of coal.
 
Fascinatingly, the boffins also reckon they could gain an insight into the existence of other dimensions.
 
And that's the bit that worries me. After all, as anyone who has seen "The Mist" {movie} recently, will tell you.. scientists messing with inter-dimensional portals will allow horrific creatures from the other dimension to come into our world and kill us all in numerous and gruesome ways. Probably.

Intersting articel, and yes, with the first nuclear reaction ever by enrico fermi in chicago, there was that fear that the chian reaction would keep chaining and blow up the earth. So I don't put much stock in this creation of earth swallowing black holes.
 
One of my biggest disappointments ever by our government is when they cut funding for the SCSC - super conductor - super collider, in Texas, which was over 1/3 completed (total expected cost, $8 B), and that too, was supposed to fince the "God particle", the Higs bosin. Higs is a theoreitcal physacist from Scotland.
 
anyway, it will be nice to see if they find that particle one day

 
Isn't that the plot for Howard the Duck?
 
--SoCo

"RAPTOR," said: "You are a little late. This has been on TV for several months now. It has been repeated so often I no longer watch that station. I would guess posting radio interviews and 'u' tube stuff keeps you busy."
 
 
.. And I.. in turn, would observe that your 'nitpicking' of my posts, apparently "keeps You busy."! -- I can take criticism, incidentally, if its' 'well founded'!; ..For example, No one has brought me to task, for posting the 'decapitation' video; which Was a type of pandering to peoples' cruder tastes, {ie. there was some 'gallows' humor, and unrelated 'Bush'-bashing}, which is/was in contrast, to some of my more {arguably} inspired, synoptic Bible expositories.
 
Ps. I guess that makes myself, and the "Irish Times" online, in your same 'doghouse'{!?}.. Not bad company I keep, if I may say so, myself!!..