Less than five hours until the Large Hadron Collider greets the world

[derby378]

I'm a little weary of all the predictions that this atom-smasher is somehow going to destroy the world by generating a black hole that's going to swallow the planet. Last I heard, the researchers are looking for the Higgs boson and maybe some dark matter, not trying to suck Earth into a zero-dimensional grave.

Actually, I'm excited to see what happens with the test. Only a few hours left!

:bounce:

[Kittycat]

1. I'm so excited I can't stand it... The inner geek in me is escaping

:lol:

[Warpy]

23. My inner geek is right out in the open

and eager for the show to get on the road to find out whether they're right or I am.

Whoever is right, it should be quite a show when it finally happens.

[coffeenap]

2. Can't wait! A "kid" I used to babysit for is part of this--so cool

Brains! I love brains!

[derby378]

10. Is he or she a researcher? Engineer? Particle physicist?

Please share...!

[Bright Eyes]

3. I'm going to bed soon.

If I never wake up, I'll know it destroyed the earth.

[Newsjock]

4. Every time I see the phrase "Large Hadron Collider"

... I have a dyslexic reaction to the middle word.

[mcg]

61. "non-Euclidean prime spot" - my favorite math term. nt

[FatDave]

65. Yes, you have to be very careful typing that word. (nt)

[eowyn_of_rohan]

75. Not surprising that violent penetration of the cosmos or the earth

with a rocket or tubular-shaped object make you think of a hard-on.

[wtmusic]

5. If I hide under a blanket with Fritos and a flashlight

will the black hole get me? :scared:

[derby378]

13. If it's just a microscopic black hole, you've got nothing to worry about

Zero-point energy will erode a microscopic black hole in no time at all, causing it to evaporate via Hawking radiation until whatever's left of it vanishes in a pop in less time than it takes to digest a review of Sarah Palin's foreign policy experience.

[berni_mccoy]

17. As far as we know...

[JanusAscending]

41. Right.......

If we wake up tommorrow, and see all of the planets whizzing by, and the moon and sun moving, it ain't them...IT'S US !!! Isn't anyone worried that this could throw the earth off it's axis, or mess up the pull of gravity?? See ya'll out there, "somewhere"!:scared:

[MannyGoldstein]

19. Some Folks Disagree With You

They say that a teeny black hole will go to the Earth's core and accrete by sucking everything up - in a few years, the entire planet will become a black hole.

That makes no sense to me - I don't see how a black hole can stay a black hole unless it has sufficient mass - but my understanding is pretty rudimentary.

[derby378]

26. It all depends if the mass can resist its own gravitational pull

That's where stuff such as the Chandrashekar limit comes into play. Any star with sufficient mass will collapse into a black hole upon death. But theoretically, any lump of mass can be turned into a black hole if it somehow loses its perpetual tug-of-war with gravity.

Even still, that's where zero-point energy and Hawking radiation kick in, although I know a few scientists dispute that observation.

[MannyGoldstein]

30. So These Teeny Black Holes Of Doom (If They Existed)

Would they somehow have different gravity for a given mass, or less "pushback" at the same gravity. Or am I totally off base?

[derby378]

36. They would have extremely tiny event horizons

The basic rules would still apply - anything that enters the event horizon will be crushed out of existence by the singularity. But if the event horizon is the size of a molecule, there's plenty of opportunity for Hawking radiation and ZPE to do their thing. Just as long as someone doesn't do anything stupid like driving a truck into the microscopic black hole, of course.

[MannyGoldstein]

39. But Why Would The Event Horizon Be So Small?

Don't you need a heck of a lot of mass to have an event horizon at all?

(Sorry if my questions are annoying - feel free to stop answering if you have anything better to do.)

[derby378]

47. This might help...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schwarzschild_radius

I'm actually falling asleep at the keyboard - only got two hours of sleep last night, so I better hit the sack. Take care!

:hi:

[MannyGoldstein]

51. Thanks!

Have a good schloof!

[MannyGoldstein]

66. Thanks Again - that *Was* Helpful

So if we can somehow smush the Earth down to 9mm, it will be a black hole. Incredible.

[derby378]

72. You're welcome!

That's a good thing to include on the "Never Do This" list - shrinking Earth into a 9mm lump. Not good. :evilgrin:

[Zhade]

62. As I said elsewhere, some people believe in unicorns, jesus and atlantis too.

NT!

[wtmusic]

78. You were right - the threat was as formidable as Palin's FPE

but what are these particles? Remnants of the big bang, or my bag of Fritos? :shrug:

[rurallib]

6. I am thinking this will be the rapture I have heard about.

I have my eyes on my neighbors new Lexus. Only 5 hours til I get my car?

[murray hill farm]

7. I think it is one of the most exciting things in

my lifetime...and I am old..ha! Is it 9am EST?

[Sebastian Doyle]

8. They really should postpone this until about mid November.

On the slim chance that McSenile and Mooseblower manage to steal the election, then nobody would give a shit if the world got blown up, as we would all be better off at that point if it did. :evilfrown:

[tekisui]

9. Speghettification is my preferred way to go .

Bring it!

:woohoo:

[Cerridwen]

11. Yeah, I'm there with ya.

I can't wait to read all the reports that come out.

Of course, I was hoping for a "transporter" by now, but this is the next best thing. :D

[CK_John]

12. The CERN testing will not occur for weeks. They are just going to power up and align the beam. n/t

[hlthe2b]

22. Right, my understanding is weeks until it is "up to speed"

or however one terms it and capable of completing the experiment.... So put away the "end of the earth signs," by little
Chickadees (or Chicken Littles as the case may be). We get to worry about more pressing issues for awhile before the BIG (little) Bang.

[Fumesucker]

14. Is it a large collider of hadrons..

Or a collider of large hadrons?

[kurth_]

40. Bigger Badder Proton Smasher

[Odin2005]

57. Both!

It's both big and smashes big hadrons (in this case large atomic nuclei IIRC) together. When you smash two lead nuclei together at near the speed of light the collision area is so energetic that the protons and neutrons in the nuclei "melt" into a quark-gluon plasma.

[David Zephyr]

15. I love the collider.

This is exciting science!

[knitter4democracy]

16. I wonder if my dad's keeping track of it.

He helped build and maintain the MSU cyclotron for many, many years. He took me to see the one down in Virginia on my senior trip, and we hosted the cyclotron pig roast every other year. Physicists are a lot of fun. :)

[derby378]

18. By all rights, Texas should already have one running by now

Our bold plans for the Superconducting Super Collider were killed by greed, corruption, and cold feet up on Capitol Hill. Now France and Switzerland get to share the glory. And we could have had it all if we didn't screw it up.

[knitter4democracy]

25. Don't remind me.

Michigan was in the running, but we didn't have the political pull. Our plan was pretty good, too, and would've provided much needed jobs up here, not to mention that we had it by both UofM and Michigan State and had the physicists and engineers to do it.

[derby378]

28. My boss used to work at the SSC medical wing before they pulled the plug

She still has a few rocks from when the dug the tunnels. She really hates that the project was killed, although many of its researchers migrated to Dallas and put down new roots.

[kurth_]

29. The SSC would have been a better machine

Much higher energy, and (mostly) American-made.

Too bad the Europeans are leapfrogging us in so many ways. The LHC is another watershed in the decline of American scientific prowess.

[knitter4democracy]

35. This is what happens when you cut R&D.

We need pure research in this country--it provides jobs, it creates new technologies, and it can save lives with new medical breakthroughs down the road. We need to really fund the NSF, not pussyfoot around it.

[derby378]

73. I am seriously hoping that Obama will boost R&D funding

He'll be under pressure to keep most of the funding for medical research, I know, but we need scientific installations, too.

We may never get that SSC, I know, but we can still take the lead in other fields of particle research, not to mention the ever-changing space industry. I admire Burt Rutan and Virgin Galactic, but why should they have all the fun?

[knitter4democracy]

76. My dad just told me that the MSU cyclotron's expanding.

They're adding a linear accelerator in addition to the big cyclotron they have now, and apparently the university's funding a good chunk of it themselves. MSU has the best cyclotron lab in the country with many of the best sub-atomic physicists in the country, so at least we're doing research there.

Pure research, though, is key to science. It's time to fully fund it without all sorts of corporate pressure to have an end product of some sort. Let's do science research for science's sake.

[Strelnikov_]

37. But who needs science when Jesus is ridin shotgun for the good ole USA n/t

[wtmusic]

79. We couldn't hook it up to anything military

The space program was the result of ICBM technology - not the other way around.

Smash terrorists with proton beams? It just might work...

[Mabus]

Tell me about it. I'm married to one

That's his undergrad degree. He loved it. He thought about going on and getting a graduate degree in Physics but he wimped out and went to law school instead.

[knitter4democracy]

27. My dad was an engineer. So's my brother and his wife.

I got to meet Dr. Henry Blosser many times, though, and he never did know my name or figure out who I was, even though Dad patiently introduced me every time. Brilliant guy, though.

I always had fun at the pig roasts with the physicists' kids. The parents would start this killer game of volleyball every time, too. Good times.

[Mabus]

52. Pig roasts, volleyball and good friends

Who could ask for more?

Oh man, you just made me homesick. My husband and I relocated earlier this year. We moved from Kansas to Maryland and we left behind a wonderful group of friends. I talked to evlbstrd a couple of weeks ago about our mutual friends' monthly bonfire-potluck-whatever party. evl brings his homemade brew, everyone brings food, instruments, lawn games (badmitton, volleyball, frisbees, etc.) and whatever else they might want to share and/or imbibe then we'd hang out until the wee hours of the morning talking, drinking, smoking and eating. I miss those times out in the countryside.

I guess there's only one thing I can do: I'm going to have to having parties with our new friends and start a new tradition.

[knitter4democracy]

69. Potlucks are always good.

I've discovered it's more of a Midwestern thing, but there's no reason not to spread the love. :)

[Mabus]

71. I've noticed that too

I grew up in Oklahoma and Kansas and potlucks do seem popular there than they are here in Maryland. It's one of the culture shocks I've experienced since moving to the DC area earlier this year. fwiw, we have started something similar, DC-style. People around here like meeting for lunch, so on weekends we meet our friends at Dim Sum restaurants to eat, talk politics, plan projects we want to work on and then after lunch we hang out for hours.

[anigbrowl]

20. Chill out. It will be a month before there are any real results.

For the next 3-4 weeks all that's happening is that they shoot particles into it in different directions to make sure it all works. It's when they start shooting in particles in both directions to get collisions that something noteworthy will (possibly) occur. That's on October 21.

[wtmusic]

21. Look like an alien landscape of Tanguy

[Unsane]

24. Anyone else kinda WISH it created a blackhole that swallowed up the earth?

[BelleCarolinaPeridot]

32. Nope. I like it here.

[a la izquierda]

34. Not until I get back to the US...

if I'm going to die at the hands of some mad scientists, I'd prefer to do it next to my husband and dogs. Not in Mexico by myself, thanks very much.

[mile18blister]

42. Give me a crystal ball so I can see

what happens on Nov 4 and I'll given you a definite answer.

[Firespirit]

54. No, but I think it would be freakin' awesome if it proved the existence of wormholes.

In the absence of something like that, it's basically impossible for humanity ever to travel any appreciable distance in space. I am hoping, therefore, that they exist. They're thought to be a "cousin" of black holes, as I understand it.

:bounce:

[Unsane]

60. You assume that an object can't exceed the speed of light.

You never know what kind of technology is out there. A craft could completely change its form/state when in motion, and avoid the Einstein theory when approaching or exceeding light speed.

[crimsonblue]

31. They are just turning it on tomorrow

they aren't colliding particles together for another couple months.

[wtmusic]

33. Will there be any television coverage? nt

[derby378]

38. CERN will have streaming live broadcasts

They might have already started as far as I know.

[wtmusic]

45. Live webcast starts 2:30 AM EST

http://webcast.cern.ch/index.html

[derby378]

48. Thanks!

:hi:

[wtmusic]

43. Stephen Hawking has a £50 bet the Higgs boson will be a no-show -

and three months of the Iraq war would pay for our own LHC.

Man, do we have our priorities ass-backwards.

[Duppers]

49. the 2 physicists in this household

agree w/Hawking.

No god particle.

[wtmusic]

68. That seems to be the consensus around here

What do you think of Garrett Lisi's theory that maps elementary particles to Lie group E8?

[Duppers]

70. I'll have to ask them more questions re Lisi's theory

Lisi does mention the Higgs Boson, which does not exist, but that fact does not negate the direction of his theory which implies that the key to a UFT, or TOE or GUT or whatever you wanna call it, is symmetrical geometry.

I'm not one of the 2 big brains in this family, so I'll have to ask and get back w/you.

[cobalt1999]

50. I agree with him.

We'll look back at the Higg Boson idea like we now look back at the idea of the Ether.

[Spock_is_Skeptical]

44. I am so excited!

too bad I'll be asleep by then. I really have been looking forward to this for awhile.

[pointblank]

46. If all of this talk about this thing being a "threat " were plausible

...Bush would have bombed it by now out of fear of being called a pu$$y.

Relax.

[Mojorabbit]

53. This stuff is way over my head

I just hope they know what they are doing.

[BelleCarolinaPeridot]

55. Me too.

[knitter4democracy]

77. My dad explained it to me like this as a kid:

They take atoms apart and spin those pieces around really fast and then aim them at each other or other things and see what happens. Sometimes, they're lucky and catch an even smaller piece of the atoms that they had thought was there but had never seen, and sometimes they learn more about energy and the laws that govern how atoms stay together.

The first thing I remember my dad teaching me was the atomic theory. That's what happens when your dad's in charge of building a cyclotron, I guess.

[Wiley50]

56. Now I Lay Me Down To Sleep......If I Die Before I Wake.......nt

[DesertRat]

58. I have no idea what your post means

But I'm excited now too! :woohoo:

[Gregorian]

59. Let's party like a mini big bang.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j50ZssEojtM

[Initech]

63. I feel like we're living in a black hole now. This would only make it official.

[orleans]

64. what is this thread about? what are you talking about?? n/t

[wtmusic]

67. The world's largest, strongest, fastest atomic particle smasher

goes online

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Large_Hadron_Collider

Will slam protons into each other at 99.9999% speed of light, and provide insights into the fundamental nature of matter.

[derby378]

74. Live webcast from LHC in progress right now!

http://webcast.cern.ch/