Nightmare Zero 4 years 6 months ago wrote:

Yes, you read it right folks! Now, I thought it would've been this month, but various difficulties have pushed it to May of next year.

Now, you have probably little idea of what I'm ACTUALLY talking about, so let's get right to it, eh?

Ever hear of the Large Hadron Collider? I bet you haven't. I mean, I didn't even THINK about it until my friend brought it up!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_fJ6PMfnz2E

Basically, the LHC is the world's largest and highest energy particle accelerator. As with previous particle accelerators, people birth fear of its terrifying possibilites, such as annihilating all of existence!

But science is hardcore! Its tough! Hellz yeah! We gots to have our questions answered! I mean, reality is testin' our gangsta!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Large_Hadron_Collider
When in operation, about seven thousand scientists from eighty countries will have access to the LHC, the largest national contingent of seven hundred being from the United States. Physicists hope to use the collider to enhance their ability to answer the following questions:

* Is the popular Higgs mechanism for generating elementary particle masses in the Standard Model realised in nature? If so, how many Higgs bosons are there, and what are their masses?
* Will the more precise measurements of the masses of baryons continue to be mutually consistent within the Standard Model?
* Do particles have supersymmetric ("SUSY") partners?
* Why are there apparent violations of the symmetry between matter and antimatter?
* Are there extra dimensions, as predicted by various models inspired by string theory, and can we "see" them?
* What is the nature of dark matter and dark energy?
* Why is gravity so many orders of magnitude weaker than the other three fundamental forces?

WORD!

Now, I'm sure that these questions are of some very grave importance to science and our future, and, should these questions be answered, we may very well be on our way to lightsabers, Enterprises, alien sex, and ridding the world of the ever-growing zombie threat!

But is it worth it?

Though the standard model predicts that LHC energies are far too low to create black holes, some nonstandard theories lower the requirements, and predict that the LHC will create tiny black holes, with potentially devastating consequences. The primary cause for concern is that Hawking Radiation - a postulated means by which any such black holes would dissipate before becoming dangerous, remains entirely theoretical. In academia, the theory of Hawking Radiation is considered plausible, but there remains considerable question of whether it is correct.

Other disaster scenarios typically involve the following theoretical events:

* Creation of strange matter that is more stable than ordinary matter
* Creation of magnetic monopoles that could catalyze proton decay
* Creation of a strangelet

CERN has pointed out that the probability of such events is extremely small. One argument for the safety of colliders such as the LHC states that if the Earth were in danger of any such fate, the Earth and Moon would have met that fate billions of years ago due to their constant bombardment from space by protons, other particles, and cosmic rays, which are millions of times more energetic than anything that could be produced by the LHC.

Quantum calculations presented in the CERN report predict that:

* Any black holes created by the LHC are not expected to be stable and will not accrete matter.
* Any monopoles that could catalyse the decay of matter will quickly exit the Earth.

Ok, let me point out a few things. Strangelets, basically, have the potential of turning the planet into another Venus, sort of. Although its unlikely and probably wouldn't happen, the possibility of it actually happening still exists. Strangelets are composed of strange matter.

Proton decay, while merely hypothetical, is a form of radioactive decay in which proton decays into subatomic particles. While hypothetical, given that we're attempting to go through a process that was ONCE considered hypothetical, ensures that proton decay might just be another possibility in this entire episode of scienfuck!

And we have those black holes! You have to understand black holes in order to actually fear them. You cannot escape them. You cannot stop them. You cannot hope to ever live through them. The second matter, even light, touches its event horizon, its over. You're dead. All that's left is that you get shoved into the singularity and no longer have anything left of existence.

Of course, these scientists state that the probability of all of this happening is smaller than the budget of The Blair Witch Project. I mean, these are scientists, right? That means that they HAVE to be smart enough to not wipe out all of existence...RIGHT?!



Don't get me wrong. I love science. And all of the grand things its done in making me understand life, the universe, and everything, but they are merely human, and our species is notorious for making mistakes.

Then again, no longer existing might have its bonuses! I no longer have to sit through bad movies and games. Ummmmmm...everyone I hate or have ever hated will be killed like I said they would! Ummmm...I no longer have to deal with high gas prices! And I'll never have to know that MTV will make another Saw movie! Ha ha! Go for it scientists! Make mine nihility!

Nah, I'm kidding. I wouldn't want to stop existing. If I did, I'd be dead by now. But what are your thoughts on all of this?

And I don't blame you if all of this seems completely unbelievable. I'm still having trouble believing it.

Oh yeah, one more thing...

SCIENCE ROCKS! HELL YEAH! *random mouth noises*

tuikyuo 4 years 6 months ago wrote:

tl;dr

kalajel 4 years 6 months ago wrote:

Dibs on alien sex!

Nah, seriously, between dying by being sucked in a man-made hypermass (the pc term for black hole) and global warming… I guess I'll take the hypermass; at least there is the hypothetical possibility that we'll simply be shoved out a white hole into some sort of proto-universe (which lets hope, will be a better place…).

Israel 4 years 6 months ago wrote:

kersheys 4 years 6 months ago wrote:

I'll read the other half later.

And isn't that picture from Half-Life?

Nightmare Zero 4 years 6 months ago wrote:

Yeah, just used it as a tiny little fictional example!

IdyotAko 4 years 6 months ago wrote:

I just went blind looking at this post, and I haven't even read it yet...

@.@

kalajel 4 years 6 months ago wrote:

It's long but its worth it… kinda like alien sex i guess…

Nah, but really, makes you think. It really puts another perspective on man-made disasters.

raywindz64 4 years 6 months ago wrote:

Oh boy... Half-life all over again.