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- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -7/+44This happens a lot with the scientific unknown...
They said the atmosphere would be set on fire by above ground nuclear testing...
They said that planes would tear themselves apart attempting to break the unbreakable sound barrier (a few did, but we eventually got there)...
They said that we would starve ourselves to death with genetic modifications of crops...
The list goes on and on... but for the most party "they" are usually wrong. - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -3/+38If they create a black hole in Australia will it rotate counter clockwise?
I should get a grant to figure this out. - scott1, on 10/12/2007, -3/+29If we all do die we won't have the time to blame the scientist. We should all be sucked into infite point of singularity within a second.
And if we all do die, Pluto will be happy that Earth is no longer a planet. - DjOverEZ, on 10/12/2007, -3/+27Am I the only one who now reads "Wii" everytime a headline says "Will?"
- NinjAlt, on 10/12/2007, -1/+20Maybe they should print "Dont Panic" in large friendly letters on the cover.
- MSTK, on 10/12/2007, -8/+27Actually most of time, "they" are usually right. It's just the times that they are wrong that we remember.
- syberghost, on 10/12/2007, -0/+14Well what the hell good is it then?
- Computer_Kid, on 10/12/2007, -0/+12famous last words?
- doublebackslash, on 10/12/2007, -1/+12Here is a little bit of science for everyone at the table:
Black holes emit Hawking radiation. The reason for this is that particle/anti-particle pairs are constantly being created & destroyed at all points in space (also photon pairs with opposite spin and shifted 90 degrees in frequency). Normally they cancel each other out, it is as simple as 1 + (-1) = 0; the event horizon of a black hole, however, is special. The outer edge of a black hole is space curved to an extreme. When a pair of particles are created at the horizon one tends to loose energy as it is accelerated away from its partner by the black hole and when they meet up to annihilate there is an imbalance of energy due to blue-shift. This imbalance results in energy (and therefore, via relativity, mass. E=Mc^2 and all that) being released from the black hole in the same way other quantum particles do: photons. This is similar to the way electrons drop states, or radioactive decay works, except not exactly. It is a lot of terribly ugly physics and some frankly beautiful math. The Heisenberg uncertainly principle, plank's constant, the speed of light, E=Mc^2, etc all get to play. The point of it all is that the steeper the curve in space around the event horizon the greater the imbalance in energy possible between the two particles. Large black holes have smoother curves around them than do smaller ones and therefore do not leach as much energy from the virtual particle pairs and therefore do not have to give up as much energy to maintain the law of conservation of energy (energy can neither be created nor destroyed).
In the end this mens that smaller black holes 'evaporate' much, much faster than larger ones. In fact the growth is cubic. Small back holes of even appreciable mass burn away in a fraction of a second.
The black holes that will be created in this particle accelerator will burn away quickly and brightly, spilling all manner of interesting particles into detectors for scientists to pour over. The creation of mini black holes my in fact allow physicists to study particles at energies greatly exceeding that normally produced by the accelerator, since black hole decay can be a faster release of energy than a mere collision.
This is truly a good day for science, but , I would like to note, also science fiction. The power source of choice for Romulan star ships in Star Trek was a small back hole; as I have explained here a small back hole is actually a very good source of energy, and it can be fed any sort of matter for fuel =)
Good stuff. - longman2g, on 10/12/2007, -3/+13How many times have people said that the earth would be destoryed? Thousands, at a minimum. How many times has it been destroyed? 0. Saying they are usually wrong is an understatement.
- wurzelgummage, on 10/12/2007, -0/+9I have to warn you!! don't turn it on .. there will be a TIME BOUNCE.. I'm running out of t
- versionist, on 10/12/2007, -1/+10John Titor!
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+8Dr. Octopus is unavailable for comment.
- Web_Weasel, on 10/12/2007, -0/+7Had to digg that comment just because if I had a time machine I would go back in time and make a hoax about myself.
- TenebrousX, on 10/12/2007, -0/+7@ Poco: you're thinking of the wrong "they"
the original post was refering to people who do not understand things, and make outlandish predictions - CKR600, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6Scientist 1: did it work? is that a black hole?
S2: I don't know, I can't see it.
S1: Well go check it out.
S2: ***** that, you go.. no wait...
S3: Hey sorry I'm late... did you guys start?
S1: No no not yet, hey can you go do some final diagnostics under the accelerator? Thanks. - BowieX, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5I love the subsidiary article:
Top 10 Ways to Destroy Earth
http://www.livescience.com/technology/destroy_earth_mp.html - md81544, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5I can't help thinking that many of the arguments presented thus are directly analogous to:
"we've played Russian roulette loads of times before, and we've never blown our heads off, therefore we never will..." - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -1/+6Yeah this suuuuuucks...
- MrViklund, on 10/12/2007, -4/+8You can't speak for them all. And fact is that most that we know today have come through testing/trail and error.
- Dakoman, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4"At its maximum, each particle beam the collider fires will pack as much energy as a 400-ton train traveling at 120 mph"
wow. - 0v3rk1ll, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4Great. Everyone grab a shotgun and lots of shells, 'cause if Hell gets spawned here we're gonna have a serious problem on our hands... :-/
- escheppa, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4clock in at 9 and out at a singularity a typical day at the old black hole factory
- Mosatii, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4It's time to wake up Gordon. Time to wake up, and smell--the ashes.
- Bob042, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4I like the "Top 10 ways to destroy the Earth" list linked to on that page.
- dziban303, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4Actually, it was strangelets at the RHIC.
http://www.livescience.com/technology/10ways_destroyearth-9.html - Dufresne, on 10/12/2007, -2/+5This shows humanity's biggest weakness: we value knowledge and technology over our wellbeing; there is no use for a black hole, and yet we make one anyways. Why? to see what happens.
- chrono13, on 10/12/2007, -3/+6While my completely uneducated guess is that this will not kill us all, people who use past examples as proof of future unknowns is as bad as those who use fear and uncertainty as proof of the worst-possible-scenario.
It is an undeniable fact that "they" (the worst-case folks) only have to be right once for it to be a Very Bad Thing™.
If 100 coins were flipped for a year, once a second, and each coin landed on heads every time.
What are the odds then, after all that, that one more coin flipped would land on heads?
The same as any other coin flip: 50/50.
I'm all for discussion. Now lets discuss why we believe it won't destroy us, or why we believe it will. Lets leave superstition, and past short-sightedness out of it.
How about
"Does anyone know what happens if something unexpected happens - does it's safey rely on everything going perfectly?"
"What do the experts think?"
"Does anyone know if it is scalable or able to be modified to be a doomsday weapon?"
Discuss. - Zreitan, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3I smell a High Budget Sci-fi Action Thriller!
- Atomic1fire, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3or general zod
- AnteChronos, on 10/12/2007, -2/+5"there is no use for a black hole, and yet we make one anyways. Why?"
Because a better understanding of physics results in more advanced technology which eventually makes our lives better. Saying that there is "no use" for the advancement of knowledge is very short sighted. - Tawni, on 10/12/2007, -5/+8Why worry about a blackhole when you have a President that could get you blown up long before a blackhole would destroy us.
- Snakedal337, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Dont worry, itll only destory the world on our line ;-)
- msoya, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2I'd rather they corrected their theories if they turned out to be wrong that clung to them, denying reality and refusing to change their minds. That is, after all, what science is all about.
At present, though, they seem to be doing pretty well with their "simpLeton's" approach. - benjaminbr, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3Do it!
- CoolDude330, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Hey how about a bigger version of that first pic?
That'd make a nice wallpaper. - floppyparty, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3Wow, there are actually rumors about that? Hilarious. We all know the only thing we need to worry about is inadvertently opening a gateway into some hellish dimension.
- msoya, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2S1: Climb up and start the rotors.
S1: Very good. We’ll take it from here.
S2: Power to stage one emitters in three... two... one...
S2: I’m seeing predictable phase arrays.
S2: Stage two emitters activating... now.
S1: I have just been informed that the sample is ready, Gordon. - Web_Weasel, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2That is good news. It should make the premiums on Destroying the Earth insurance much lower.
- budderfly, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Boy, that was uplifting...!
- drog, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3How about some alternative theories. You accuse these people of arrogance yet propose nothing.
- scott1, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2I don't know but I don't think any of the other planets will be comming to our funeral. Everone will just be having a party with pluto.
I'll just say "we got pwn'd" - MrViklund, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3Hehe, very interesting article :)
- subscribtion, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Damn. We will just have to keep trying until we get it right!
- DiggidtyDog, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2The Lifeboat Foundation, a nonprofit organization devoted to safeguarding humanity from what it considers threats to our existence, has stated that artificial black holes could "threaten all life on Earth" and so it proposes to set up "self-sustaining colonies elsewhere."
And just where would these "colonies" be located? - malkir, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2What I like about this is on the one hand if Stephen Hawkings is right, we won't destroy ourselves with a black hole generator. On the other hand, he thinks we need to settle other planets in the next 100 years or risk the extinction of humanity. Right or wrong.. we're *****.
- Knife720, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Anyone else remember when they thought that the Atom bomb would ignite the atmosphere?
Yeah, I predict that this is a similar reaction. - baalzebub, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1after some thought i have a feeling this will fail...
- bedlam17, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Like singularity.com?
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2It doesn't matter if they were right all those hundreds of times before, if we stuff it just once, then bye bye humanity.
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