LHC Scientists getting death threats?

[conor]

According to this article (http://government.zdnet.com/?p=3984), scientists working on the Large Hadron Collider at CERN have been receiving anonymous death threats.

People are actually trying to ring CERN and ask them not to start up on Wednesday. As if they'd put a stop to it billions of euros and years and years later...

It's hard to believe that people who are convinced by reporters just fishing for a nice angle to liven up the field of particle physics that the world will end on Wednesday have gone so far as to make a threat against somebody's life. I think it's a disgrace that this has gotten out of hand. There is no possible way the world will end and it just goes to show what a sceptical view we have of our leading scientists.

[Nammy]

Never underestimate the power of utterly stupid people who fear something they don't understand.

[zakarius]

ive read a lil bit about that and the effort gone into that project is astonishing, i dont know enough about the subject itself but i presume no experiment that big goes without risk, tho scientist live by calculated risks so i doubt they are putting the human race in THAT much danger

as if a few complaints will shut down a 20 year long multi billion euro international project..

pfffft

[conor]

Yeah. Basically the argument goes "but they could make a mini black hole :(", to which anyone with some common sense says "black holes are formed from the implosion of giant stars, which don't exist underneath Switzerland. :gtfo:"

[Nammy]

Yeah, besides the entire human race could not produce the energy required to warp space let alone manufacture a singularity. Not to mention the high energy impacts they seek to make with this thing happens in nature in our upper atmosphere and on the moon. Still no black holes and nothing became strangelets.

[conor]

Exactly. It's amazing how much people fear that which they don't understand.

[Trollface.jpg]

they are infact trying to make a black hole
my dads a phisasist and tried making me understand
i didnt
there is even a small chance that they could cause the destruction of the entire planet
i understand that some people are afraid enough to send death threats

[conor]

They are in fact not. You're going to make me very angry very quickly with that. You need a hell of a lot of mass in one condensed area for a black hole. The only way you could get this is by creating mass with energy, and while the LHC will generate astronomical (literally) amounts of energy, it's not nearly enough to create a black hole. In fact, I wasn't able to find many figures in units I understand, but I believe the proton collisions would each generate an energy of less than 1 Joule. This means that there would be hardly any mass generated at all.. and considering you need a mass about ten times the size of our sun for a black hole, it's completely safe.

Some people are speculating about a new kind of black hole but they would disappear within a second and not really do anything in the first place anyway.

[Trollface.jpg]

sorry put myself across very badly it was those split second theoretical black holes i was talking about
and you cant say that isnt one of the things that they are trying to create

[ficti0n]

I don't mean this in an emo way at all, but I always thought that it would be fantastic if the world ended.
I dunno why it's just that if it did then we would all die together so it wouldnt matter at all!

[conor]

I can; they are not trying to create them. Most of them dismiss the idea of them as ludicrous.
They're trying to recreate conditions after the Big Bang, find the Higgs Particle, perform research into bombarding lead with protons to produce neutrons and try to use that to dispose of nuclear waste (which would be amazingly brilliant with the energy situation) and I'm sure there'll be myriad useful spin-offs (these are the guys who gave us the internet, after all).

In a weird way, I kind of agree with you ficti0n. It wouldn't really be saying goodbye.

[Trollface.jpg]

there is also the reserch into hawking radiation being done with the LHC
which would require the creation of a miniture black hole

[ficti0n]

It's all interesting stuff but even if they do find this particle, what good is it gonna do?
And does it justify the massive investment?

[Trollface.jpg]

could prove the existance of miniture subdimentions
or anything
i dont think the direction that the science is going in is an issue
i think the furtherment of our collective knowledge
and if nothing comes of it allowing these scientists to move on to something else
is definately possitive

[conor]

there is also the reserch into hawking radiation being done with the LHC
which would require the creation of a miniture black hole

Well the research into Hawking radiation would require a regular, gigantic black hole!
They may inadvertently create one and prove Hawking's theory right but that's not really what they're trying to do with it.

ficti0n, research into methods of nuclear waste disposal would easily be worth £3 billion and definitely useful.
There are also some theories on climate change they will be testing.. but don't really know anything about that.

[Trollface.jpg]

i bow down to your superior knowledge
thanks for the info btw
found it interesting

[Shane]

Death threats? What a Joke!
Do they not take into consideration that if it does all go awry then they people making the threats would be dead, as well as the scientists, along with everyone else! haha

I doubt anything would happen and , for the part I understand, I'm 100% supportive of this experiment and I shall be watching the post-research and analysis as closely as is available to the general public. :)

[Trollface.jpg]

as am i

[conor]

Haha.. It feels weird to be eagerly following the theoretical physics behind this, and yet not to see what you just pointed out, Shane! XD

[Shane]

Haha.. It feels weird to be eagerly following the theoretical physics behind this, and yet not to see what you just pointed out, Shane! XD
Huh?

[tf_arl_90]

Anyone who knows anything about particle physics knows there is 0 chance anything as catastrophic as the earth being eaten by a blackhole is going to happen.

I'll side with them :|

[conor]

Huh?

I meant I never stopped to think that if the world did end, they'd all die anyway!

[Leon]

I doubt anything would happen and , for the part I understand, I'm 100% supportive of this experiment and I shall be watching the post-research and analysis as closely as is available to the general public. :)Me too.

[Trollface.jpg]

not dead yet (Y)

[zakarius]

i think i might be?
im not sure

[Trollface.jpg]

im in the LRC of hillsbrough college death would be sweet relese

[Leon]

im in the LRC of hillsbrough college death would be sweet releseI hate that place, bloody LRC, well more the mardy arses that always came round telling you to be quiet.

Oh and, 4 hours 14 minutes until Thursday :)

[conor]

Maybe we are all dead now.
Anyway, they only did one lap forward and one back to test it...
In one second it can do 18,000 laps.
They're just trying to get publicity - publicity = funding.

[chicky1]

I don't mean this in an emo way at all, but I always thought that it would be fantastic if the world ended.
I dunno why it's just that if it did then we would all die together so it wouldnt matter at all!

Agrred noone would be mourning over anyone and noone would have anything to worry about anymore...

people believe what they believe....

although i didn't think the world would end..