End of the world? Or new beginning to science?

Today CERN, a scientific research facility in Switzerland, fired up their particle accelerator (a machine capable of firing particles at close to light speed and energies of almost 7 trillion electron volts and smash them together).  It has been speculated that this machine may give us insight into exactly what happened during the big bang.  It has also been speculated that there is a 1 in 50 million chance that these collisions may open up a black hole that could very well destroy the earth.  Below is a link to one of the many articles following this story:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/11/science/11c ollider.html?hp

Any thoughts?

The nature of the question is WHO keeps suggesting that a particle accelerator would ceate a Black Hole? Someone with the knowledge to know as such?

I'm more curious if they can actually find anything about these strings Modern Physicists want to believe in.

Is this particle accelerator different from the other particle accelerators that already exist?  Wiki Synchrotron for a list of similar type facilities.  Why would there be such doomsday proclaimations now? 

Jillmenow: Because this is largest, most powerful particle accelerator ever built.

"I'm more curious if they can actually find anything about these strings Modern Physicists want to believe in." -hkellick
I just want you to know that I laughed for an unreasonable amount of time at this. That was good. =)

I, for one, am very excited about the possibilities that this new particle accelerator brings and I really don't believe that they're going to form a blackhole by accident.

Conversation from yesterday:

Me: I wonder what death by black hole would feel like.
Aric: ...really stretchy.

This LHC (Large Hadron Collider) is MUCH stronger than anything we have ever seen before, and that's why there's concern.  It won't be at full strength until mid/late October, so we will know more then...unless we are swallowed up into a black hole.

Original Post by cassrd05:

It won't be at full strength until mid/late October, so we will know more then...unless we are swallowed up into a black hole.

 This is why everyone must convert to the First Assembly of the Cocoa Cheese Puff as soon as possible, lest my bank account goes dry your soul is condemned for all eternity.  The ethereal nature of both chocolate and cheese puffs will be confirmed with the Higgs Boson - what are you waiting for?

Seriously - I'm really excited about this.  I'm gonna love seeing what they can get from this!

I wish it was a magic particle accelerator that we could aim at will sucking things like the 'why do guys lie' thread into blissful oblivion.

i guess it serves as a reminder to live life at the fullest and in the present...

I'm very excited to see what comes from this experiment.  That said, there is a little puff of thought in the back of my mind asking what if something went wrong.  I also don't know who exactly has said that it may lead to a black hole, but supposedly some of the predictions are coming from scientific minds.

at #8  I took an ungodly amount of time to read through that entire thread yesterday and i agree with you :)

The nature of the question is WHO keeps suggesting that a particle accelerator would ceate a Black Hole? Someone with the knowledge to know as such?

I suspect it's the same people who told us all our computers would die, all the power would go out, and bank accounts would disappear when the clock rolled over at midnight, 1999.

@#12  When one of those tiny Black Holes envelopes the earth, I'll be sure to remember you said that ;)

i believe i read about a particle accelerator in the united states that did spawn tee-tiny black holes (they are rilly rilly small) and they were "observed" to have evaporated

the 'observation' has to do with math

so, that's why the concern about this new bigger more powerful particle accelerator -- some scientists think that science isn't cautious enough since we don't really know if we'll get sucked into a black hole that, though tiny, wasn't tiny enough to evaporate and so instead grew

but we'll see

i think it will feel heavy

*sads about not reaching goal weight before becoming immeasurably dense in the new potential black hole of doom*

As macabre (Sp?) as it may seem...we all die at some point so if it's now or later, it's not much of a difference. Yes, I don't fancy dieing now when I have a few more stuff to do on this Planet but I cannot do anything abt it anyway

There's also a chance we'll all be blown away by Gamma Ray Bursts at any second.

Tiny black holes are nothing to worry about. Black holes aren't nearly as scary as we make them out to be. The smaller the blackhole, the smaller the field where matter/light can no longer escape it.

This morning my tweet read:
Dear CERN, thank you for knowing what you are doing, because I'm super glad that the Earth still exists!

Gotta agree with Cricket.

Besides, I'm sure if the black hole swallows us, we won't have time to know what's going on anyway.

A lot more peaceful then most will of

The thing is particles are smashing together at rates close to the speed of light all the time. There are 'ghost particles' are known to be passing through earth at this very moment. Capturing and analyzing these fractions of instances however is nearly impossible because of their incredibly high velocities. The higgs boson particle, is theoretical and highly elusive, but the existance of this particular particle which has been predicted may very well fill in many of the holes in the modern theories of quantum physics.

The black hole and what it might feel like or what it might implicate if one were created is debated. After all our galaxy has a black hole at its heart. According to Einstein, time matter and speed are all relative. The manipulation of one means the manipulation of the others. Hence 'the theory of relativity'. If you apply the same principle to matter, lets say a person and you could move him around the world at nearly the speed of light time slows down for that person but would continue at the same rate for everyone on earth. They've proved this with muons, who have a definite life span. Speeding them up makes them live longer. (don't want to get into detail, too exhausting, read brian green) Now, don't quote me on this but if a black hole were to open up, or if we were to be doomed to be sucked into one, it would feel like an eternity to get there. We havn't be swallowed up yet by the one in the center of the galaxy now after all , have we? As far and as simply as I understand it

Original Post by cpontifex:

 Now, don't quote me on this but if a black hole were to open up, or if we were to be doomed to be sucked into one, it would feel like an eternity to get there. We havn't be swallowed up yet by the one in the center of the galaxy now after all , have we? As far and as simply as I understand it

 sorry about the quote - i'm a rebel 

we haven't been swallowed up yet by the one in the center of the galaxy now after all, have we?

or have we????  *dun dun dun*  THAT'S why people are struggling to lose weight!  Extremely slow-acting infinite density.  You KNOW the scale should show that you're lighter, your clothes are looser, yet you weigh the same or even more.  It's because your density is increasing and it's seems to be taking a rilly rilly long time because of the black hole space-time continuum relativity thing.

No srsly, I am at peace with the way the universe is unfolding, if mid-october is the time to bite the big one, ok.  but I wouldn't agree that we should do away with scientific ethics which include some high level of certainty that an experiment will not harm any of humanity.