[Iria]

The Large Hadron Collider is just a few days from being switched on, but the scientists in charge of the 17-mile long super collider are already getting impassioned pleas to stop their work, some of the scientists have even received death threats. According to a Telegraph UK article, CERN, the organization that is in charge of the LHC, has been inundated with emails and calls from concerned citizens, part-time scientists and others. James Gillies, CERN’s public relations spokesperson, says many of the people want to delay or stop next week’s test, but there’s no chance of that happening.
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Source: TG Daily

[mike2h]

hopefulyl non of those people harassing the scientists are breeding.

[Necrosis]

Last weekend on SciQ Sundays (Science Channel) there was a good show on this project called "The Big Bang Machine". There was even brief mentions on the show about people's fears.

[Vikingod]

People sure do like to panic, don't they.

[OmegaRED]

Frankly, I know jack squat about the science behind this but I trust the scientists over a bunch of religious crackpots who make comments like this:

Please save people on our planet! People who love make nuclear, or largest machine will destroy our Earth. I see on YouTube about that. They people are laughing same as devil. Sound like laughing similar to Satan! Stop!! I hate them! God will sue people who are laughing same as Satan! Please ban Large Hadron Collider machine to save Earth and people! Report all over world and listen from news on internet and TV. This really scare me out! A lot of people are still worry and yell out so hard! I have bad stress to hear from this bad news what will happen to our earth on Sept. 10, 2008. My heart is hurt right now! I can feel from there will kill us on whole world. :-(

[BlueMak]

If the planet isn't destroyed on the 10th I will be very pissed off.

[OmegaRED]

If the planet isn't destroyed on the 10th I will be very pissed off.

Well, at least this gets me out of going to some party on the 11th...

Also, if this does open some sort of black hole and kills us all the cool thing will be that it'll be kinda like "Half Life" don't you think? Maybe aliens will come through that hole and one of the scientists will fight them off with a crowbar

[Iria]

And also that movie ... what was it ... The Mist.

[Vikingod]

Good quote. But what better reason than fear to not learn anything new or attempt something which has never been done before. Heaven forbid we change or adapt, right? It's not like humans have ever had to evolved.

[Matth]

Once upon a time, a man with a red flag had to walk in front of a car, and we'd die if we exceeded 30MPH.

Can we have a man with a red flag standing in the path of scientific discovery?

Mind you, to take another "once upon a time", once bathing in radium water, or even drinking it, was thought to be a healthy thing to do.

There have been "big rings" at CERN for as long as I can remember, smashing atomic particles together at sci-fi speeds (two streams with a closing speed > C)

[Just Learnin']

OMG!!!

[Vikingod]

Originally Posted by Just Learnin'

OMG!!!

Ha! Good find.

I was just reading this from CNN:

Fears have emerged that the collider could produce black holes that could suck up anything around them -- including the whole Earth. Such fears prompted legal actions in the U.S. and Europe to halt the operation of the Large Hadron Collider, alleging safety concerns regarding black holes and other phenomena that could theoretically emerge.

Gives me a headache to think that my government works this way, not that it surprises me though.

[OmegaRED]

How exactly will this collider benefit us if it does work, or is it just one of those "oh, so that's what would happen..." kind of thing?

[Vikingod]

Other than giving insight as to how the universe was formed, and potentially showing additional forms of matter (including the famous Higgs boson), it could reveal the existance of additional demensions beyond the 3 we currently understand.

As an example , think about it like the discovery of the electron. And before that, the discovery of the atom, and before that, the discovery of bacteria and so on. It's just another grand step in the progression of science. Considering the three examples I listed, the potential benefit is pretty unlimited, actually.

Or, we could discover that we already figured everything meaningful out and have been right all along. My bet in on the former though.

[mike2h]

Gives me a headache to think that my government works this way, not that it surprises me though.

not government(s) doing this but individuals/groups inititating legal actions in these countries legal systems.

[Mousey]

But for anyone who’s thinks the LHC will end the world, Professor Brian Cox of Manchester University said, “Anyone who thinks the LHC will destroy the world is a t***.”

Aaaaahahaha xD

[BlueMak]

Originally Posted by Just Learnin'

OMG!!!

Anyone else noticed the almost crowbar that guy is holding?

[Callandor]

Originally Posted by OmegaRED

Well, at least this gets me out of going to some party on the 11th...

Also, if this does open some sort of black hole and kills us all the cool thing will be that it'll be kinda like "Half Life" don't you think? Maybe aliens will come through that hole and one of the scientists will fight them off with a crowbar

Originally Posted by Just Learnin'

OMG!!!

[Callandor]

Originally Posted by BlueMak

Anyone else noticed the almost crowbar that guy is holding?

Didn't notice that, they're almost perfectly prepared for aliens coming out of a black hole or a anything to that degree .

I for one don't think the world's gonna end when they fire up this thing and all, if you ask me these religious nut-jobs always want to dramatize up their lives with some doomsday world ending story or other at any given time.

[swimtech]

...and the US started to build one 3 to 4 times more powerful over 15 years ago (Superconducting Supercollider - lovely alliteration too!) but an unknown dark energy anomaly influenced those in charge of the budget.

Rumours abound that sometime in late 2007 or early 2008, a resident of the European Union, where the competing Large Hadron Collider is based, used dark matter to travel back in time and apply the aforementioned energy burst to members of the US Congress in 1993. The person responsible reportedly won a video card from DriverHeaven.

Fire it up!!!

The data coming in the next couple years should be very interesting.

[kris23]

if this thing succeeds and doesnt kill us all....... we may find ways to expand our periodic table........

then build one 100x as big somewhere in space when were all old.... lol

[BlueMak]

You know what would be hilarious? If the people who cry wolf get "lucky" on this one. Imagine some major shit going on and having a scientist on tv saying, "we didn't see that coming, btw, you have 1 hour to enjoy life before the end of it all, oops!"
I will be laughing and laughing and laughing all the way to the underworld.

[Callandor]

That makes two of us.

Religious wackos might actually be justified in a way for not wanting this thing fired up, I think I know what they're all afraid of....the truth. That's pretty much why most normal religious people including the religious zealots who take religion too far don't really fancy science/like or support science, because they believe that one day mankind might eventually cross the threshold of knowledge that will lead to their religion/beliefs etc being disproved. And believe you me that might be a bad thing/cause the end of the world as there are alot of religious people, even some of the normal ones who won't be able to function normally/live well in society if they don't have something to believe in.

Edit: it's like being told everything you were taught as a kid was a lie.

[BlueMak]

Originally Posted by Callandor

Edit: it's like being told everything you were taught as a kid was a lie.

I was "told" that when I was 9.

[Callandor]

I "found" this out when I was 19. Well, it's a long story but my parents had alot of stuff that they didn't tell me till later on, at first was a shock for me but after a long while it was more bearable and I learned to live with it, though it must have been hard on you as well finding stuff like that out when you were only 9.

[Vikingod]

Originally Posted by Callandor

That makes two of us.

Religious wackos might actually be justified in a way for not wanting this thing fired up, I think I know what they're all afraid of....the truth. That's pretty much why most normal religious people including the religious zealots who take religion too far don't really fancy science/like or support science, because they believe that one day mankind might eventually cross the threshold of knowledge that will lead to their religion/beliefs etc being disproved. And believe you me that might be a bad thing/cause the end of the world as there are alot of religious people, even some of the normal ones who won't be able to function normally/live well in society if they don't have something to believe in.

Edit: it's like being told everything you were taught as a kid was a lie.

Well, it won't "disprove" god and it's not trying to. I think to the majority of the men/women working on the project, that's really a non-issue. Science is much more useful than trying to prove something to someone who doesn't want to understand it anyway. It become much more interesting when that's not the purpose of it as well (at least it did in my case). If history is an indication, theism will adapt in some way to the changing world. I don't see it going away in my time here, regardless of what mankind discovers.

btw: it's not going to create a super-massive black hole, theres no way it can generate that kind of gravity. it could potentially create incredibly small black holes, but they sort of evaporate quickly. Hawking proposes that black holes don't grow without limits, energy does radiate from them, and given the size of the ones potentially created, they wouldn't pose risk.

edit: It should be noted as well that the chances of this thing even coming close to creating a super-small black hole are really next to nothing. It would be facinating though to see if what we know about them is correct. I bet Hawking (and the entire scientific community) would be interested to see if he was right.

[Judas]

anyone hear about gravity being "faster" then the speed of light.......

[Vikingod]

Originally Posted by Judas

anyone hear about gravity being "faster" then the speed of light.......

Huh?

[cozumel]

If the world ends at GMT 0000 hours September 10 then we only have 3 hours left. So guys, you better get shagging and quick. I've just had mine. But I may have to return for more just in case. She can be quite supportive like that.

[cozumel]

Originally Posted by Judas

anyone hear about gravity being "faster" then the speed of light.......

Originally Posted by Vikingod

Huh?

Well, the gravity of a black hole does pull in light. So I guess it might be true. But I wouldn't want to bet on it...