Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Lawsuit to stop black hole producing atom smasher

Let's see, it's being brought by a physics minor who went on to teach elementary school and a Spanish citizen residing in the States with no apparent qualifications? :confused:

Where's that link to the lawsuit by that crazy guy who wanted to sue a bunch of random celebrities (living and dead), governmental bodies, historical figures, and entire nations? :D
 
If the device itself is being constructed on the Franco-Swiss border, how does this court (US District 9) even have jurisdiction? :confused:
 
LOL I've been to the atom smasher by Geneva and met some of the scientists working on the project, they seem very, very smart, I think they know what they're doing.

TBH the guy has no leg to stand on. There have been numerous particle accelerators on site at CERN since the 50s, and not once has anything major happened. The most they've done was to allow particles to go off course and smash into the magnets which make the whole thing work (which subsequently melted).
 
Leave it to Fox News to be on the forefront with this article. :rolleyes:

I went to the guy's Web site - the Quicktime movies really give it an aura of credibility - NOT.

Something tells me that this kind of lawsuit is the eventual outcome of teaching Creationism in our schools.
 
faintember said:
I'm no physicist, but it smells like typical FUD to me.
Click to expand...

It seems that many physicists don't outright reject the possibility, just that it is extremely improbable. At what point is the risk worthwhile at what point is not worthwhile? 1 in 1,000,000,000,000? 1 in 1,000,000,000? 1 in 5?

Just curious what everyone's thoughts are on this.
 
If a black hole formed, it would quickly evaporate. There is no way that that accelerator would be powerful enough to collide a large enough mass to produce a stable singularity of any meaningful size. Even the possibility of a black hole forming from such a collision is purely theoretical at this point.
 
I just read about this project in last month's National Geographic and it was quite fascinating. I say just let these guys do their thing, play around, have fun and see what kind of funky stuff happens! ;) If they manage to accidentally destroy the fabric of space and time or create a black hole, we won't even have time to realize it, so it's all good... :D :cool:
 
~Shard~ said:
I just read about this project in last month's National Geographic and it was quite fascinating. I say just let these guys do their thing, play around, have fun and see what kind of funky stuff happens! ;) If they manage to accidentally destroy the fabric of space and time or create a black hole, we won't even have time to realize it, so it's all good... :D :cool:
Click to expand...

I bet you were a hoot during the cold war?!
 
Particle collisions of these energies happen ALL THE TIME in nature, as ultra-high-energy cosmic rays impact the Earth. I'm not too concerned about the LHC going online.
 
This is the only cataclysmic event that I wouldn't consider a tragedy. There would be no one left to grieve for it, and there would be no evidence left for aliens to find out and feel sorry for us. If a tree falls in a forest... ;)
 
Didn't the Manhattan Project have a panel that seriously examined the possibility that atom bomb testing would cause a runaway chain reaction and explode the earth's atmosphere?

There were several good scifi short stories written around that possibility in the 1950s.
 
RedTomato said:
Didn't the Manhattan Project have a panel that seriously examined the possibility that atom bomb testing would cause a runaway chain reaction and explode the earth's atmosphere?

There were several good scifi short stories written around that possibility in the 1950s.
Click to expand...

Again, I believe the odds of this happening where concluded to be infinitesimally small, but at what point does it become an unacceptable risk?
 
I hope you guys are all joking. If your life is so pointless that you can't see any harm in the world being destroyed, why are you even still around wasting my air??

Just kidding, and while it is the kind of thing that makes me think "Oh man, what if..." I hope these guys know what they're doing, and think they probably do. I mean, they're alive too with families and children, so they have as much to lose as I do, if not more.
 
Hi everyone,

I don't understand why the possibility of this happening is so hard for people to believe. My guess is that most people do not, and cannot see what I see. None of this matters anyway. Xenu will save me.


Love,
Tom Cruise
 
RedTomato said:
Didn't the Manhattan Project have a panel that seriously examined the possibility that atom bomb testing would cause a runaway chain reaction and explode the earth's atmosphere?

There were several good scifi short stories written around that possibility in the 1950s.
Click to expand...

They'd have to be short, because the event certainly wouldn't have lasted too long. ;)

I like this line:
Sancho's qualifications are even murkier, but the lawsuit identifies him as a Spanish citizen residing in the U.S., even if his presence makes the entire case a bit, um, quixotic.
Click to expand...
:D
 
"[A]ny matter coming into contact with it would fall into it and never be able to escape. Eventually, all of earth would fall into such growing micro-black-hole, converting earth into a medium-sized black hole, around which would continue to orbit the moon, satellites, the ISS, etc."
Click to expand...

Can you imagine how awesome it would be to be on the ISS when that happened?

"Why is... why is the Earth bending?"
"Well f*ck me..."

edit: damn, I so could have written a great Lovecraftian rant here. Another opportunity missed, and for what?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back