The End of the World?

[johnriley1uk]

Well the Physicists will be switching it on next Wednesday, crashing sub-atomic particles together with all the glee of a three-year-old smashing bricks.

If they do create a Black Hole that destroys us all then I will be most annoyed if it disrupts Dungeon Night. Personally I'll favour a slow growing cataclysmic event that gives us all time to think about what we've done. "I've got all day, and no-one goes anywhere till you admit all scientists are idiots..." will say the Black Hole. The trouble with Black Holes is that they always want the last word.

But seriously, as the White Coats reckon there is no real danger then we'll all be OK won't we? That is, until one day. The experiments will get bigger and bigger and it will always be claimed there will be no danger until the day they are wrong.

Global Warming will then be seen in proper context and perspective.

[Mike]

At least the French will be sucked into the black hole first!

[johnriley1uk]

But they'll get to the other side first and build a wall to stop us getting in. Ah, on reflection that won't matter, we'll walk round the edges.

[Mike]

The BBC have an article about this facility and explain it more fully. I wonder what archaeologists would think of the gigantic circular system in years to come? I would be strange when you uncovered 27km of tunnels with no obvious purpose.

[mr_e]

*puts on tin-foil hat*

Possible spoiler: reminds me of the novel Slaughterhouse 9 (shockingly, I've only read part of it) where they know they're going to wipe out the universe when testing a new type of spaceship propulsion.

There was also an interesting article on the BBC examining the whole human fascination with doomsday scenarios here.

[Mike]

If the world does end today. How will we know?

[mr_e]

I didn't manage to read all the BBC articles, but they seemed to imply that they were only going to do the full-speed collisions in 2009 after some testing before winter arrives.

...said Prof Brian Cox of Manchester University, adding: "Anyone who thinks the LHC will destroy the world is a tw*t." from this Telegraph article. Apparently some people have decided to send death threats to the scientists.

[Mike]

Colourful choice of language from that Professor. The famed powerup from this morning was spinning particles one way around the accelerator. Anyone else wanna put their hand up for media hype over nothing. Killing a scientist will not do anything and is a horrible way to repay their many benefits brought to society.

[stimpsonslostson]

it was never going to destroy the world... atleast not until they start doing the collisions. They've only turned one loop on thus far, it worked so they'll try the other soonish.

We'd never know if it did anyway! I read somewhere that some bloke put a bet on at the bookies that the world would end on a specific date.... how exactly did he intend to collect his winnings- as grannies everywhere like to say "there's no pockets on a shroud!"

p

[Mike]

I suppose he would have the satisfaction that he was right? Can't really see any financial benefit for him. Unless it was just society ended and he was still alive to gloat!

[Mike]

Has the large hadron collider destroyed the world yet? this website lets you check and it has a RSS built in feed too to make sure you can check back repeatedly to double check.

[Andy]

I read somewhere that some bloke put a bet on at the bookies that the world would end on a specific date.... how exactly did he intend to collect his winnings

I wonder if he's gone back in and said ''Double or Quits?''

[Lizzie]

I didn't manage to read all the BBC articles, but they seemed to imply that they were only going to do the full-speed collisions in 2009 after some testing before winter arrives.

...said Prof Brian Cox of Manchester University, adding: "Anyone who thinks the LHC will destroy the world is a tw*t." from this Telegraph article. Apparently some people have decided to send death threats to the scientists.

Interestingly -I read somewhere that this very same professor used to be in the 90's band D;Ream (Of 'Things Can Only Get Better Fame'). Hope he's sufficiently qualified to make these comments

[stimpsonslostson]

Nah, you're all wrong. Brian Cox is an actor.
He's in the bourne films, xmen, braveheart etc. Based on that resume, don't mess with him- If he says some one is a tw*t (difficult things to pronounce midword asterisks) then rest assured, they ARE!

[Mike]

The end of the world has been postponed for about 3-4 months whilst they repair the super magnets that are within a section of the tunnel. I did not realise that the CERN collider was actually set at near absolute zero! That is impressive. I guess it would have to be for them to immitate the start of the Universe.