Is anyone else concerned about the Large Hadron Collider at CERN being turned on?

The earth has managed to survive the follies of mankind for thousands of years. I imagine, that nothing that CERN creates at those puny energies (universally speaking) will influence earth one way or another (except perhaps to help explain a few remaining mysteries---or open up a few more).

So, I am not worried and I suggest that you don't loose any sleep over it, either.

When cars first went over 60 mph there was great concern about what might happen and when Chuck Yeager broke the sound barrier, some thought he would die in the process and flight would "cease to be possible". Most "fears" are routed in ignorance (not knowing). These experiments are intended to reduce that ignorance. Time will tell. After CERN operates with success, I am sure that "we" will find something else about which to worry.

-Fred

Zealots Playing God! - 'The World is not Enough'

Nobel Prize hungry Physicists are racing each other and stopping at nothing to try to find the supposed 'Higgs Boson'(aka 'God') Particle, among others, and are risking nothing less than the annihilation of the Earth and all Life in endless experiments to try to solve theoretical problems when urgent real problems face the planet. The European Organization for Nuclear Research(CERN) new Large Hadron Collider(LHC) is the world's most powerful atom smasher that will soon be firing subatomic particles at each other at nearly the speed of light to create Miniature Big Bangs producing clouds of Micro Black Holes, Strangelets and other potentially cataclysmic phenomena.

The CERN-LHC website Mainpage itself states quote: "There are many theories as to what will result from these collisions,..." This stunning admission is because they truly don't know what's going to happen. They are experimenting with forces they don't understand to obtain results they can't comprehend. If you think like most people do that 'They must know what they're doing.' you could not be more wrong. The second part of the quote reads "...but what's for sure is that a brave new world of physics will emerge from the new accelerator,..." A molecularly changed or Black Hole consumed Lifeless World? The end of the quote reads "as knowledge in particle physics goes on to describe the workings of the Universe." These experiments to date have so far produced infinitely more questions than answers but there isn't a particle experimentalist physicist alive who wouldn't gladly trade his life to glimpse the "God particle", and sacrifice the rest of us with him.

This quote from National Geographic exactly sums this "science" up: "That's the essence of experimental particle physics: You smash stuff together and see what other stuff comes out."

http://www.lhcdefense.org/

http://www.sanescience.org/

http://www.lhcfacts.org/

Yeah I'm concerned that it won't finally work right and put an end to the earth once and for all. We build machine after machine trying to make these killer black holes and strangelets, but nothing keeps happening except for discovering new particles so we can make new theories about how to destroy the universe with the next machine.

Scythian--I wouldn't worry too much about US dominance. It's not like any country dominates basic research. It's largely the same core folks at LHC who were working on tevatron. They just packed up and moved to Geneva from Chicago. Many of them are Americans, some Euros, some Japanese. Most of the scientists are still affiliated with their home universities, so they don't move permanently. The same group that produced some random piece of electronics in one of the sensors for ATLAS or CMS may well have produced the analogous piece at tevatron. For Americans, having the experiment there just means having to fly to Geneva from time to time and having to attend meetings by telecon at really wierd hours. These things go in cycles. I'd say better than 50/50, the ILC will be in the US, probably at Fermilab. They won't do 2 big projects in a row at CERN. Russia has a bid in, but there's no way in hell the particle physics community would want to spend a few years in Moscow. People like Chicago.

--And no I will go on record as saying I am not willing to sacrifice my life just to see the "god particle". Sacrifice a couple of years sifting through data to find a signal that barely pokes above the background noise, maybe. Sacrifice my life and yours so that the universe can go out in style, definitely. But sacrifice my life for a glimpse, no.

What I'm especially concerned about the LHC at CERN being turned on is that it could usher in a new age of European dominance in high energy physics, putting the current US efforts in shadow. Fermilab used to be the world leader in this type of research, but thanks to lackluster interest by the American public and outright contempt by the Bush Adminstration in the past 8 years, it is now barely holding on for lack of adequate funding. Now we have hysterical people like you worrying about LHC producing tiny black holes that will just swallow the existence of everything, or at least a good part of this globe. Way to go. I had hoped for a keener interest in the deeper mysteries that could be uncovered by this LHC. Would you have any clue at all what the Higgs Field could be?

Addendum: Oh, this is nice, I'm actually getting some response to my small firecracker about diminishing interest (and funding!) of high energy physics in the USA. See link about what physicists have to say about the state of Fermilab today and how the Feds feel about it. I don't believe for a minute that continuing to raise fears about what could happen at CERN (oh my! tiny black holes eating up reality!) is going to engender greater American interest (and funding!) in high energy physics. Thank you, everyone, for allowing me to blow off some steam here.

None.Out of all the possibilities of things I could worry about, humans creating a black hole that sucks us all in is not high on my list. It won't happen. We are not that bright. A black hole at the center of a galaxy has more mass than our solar system and surrounding neighborhood. We can't can't creat a massive black hole that would affect our reality any more than we can travel at the speed of light. We're just gonna throw money at it is all, that's the worry point. Work on your carbon footprint instead, that's a more productive endeavor in the short term, as well as the long run. Good luck..

No not really. They say it's a very rare possibility, but if it happened it would be like a SG-1 episode. I think our science and war has done worse to the planet than that will ever do.

They will evaporate in milliseconds or less. It's not as if a black hole of this size could cause damage to anything, even if it stuck around for a few minutes, anyway. Basically, it's nothing to be conCERNed about.

As the black hole forms we will be sucked towards it's even't horizon an accelerate to lightspeed slowing time down to almost zero. So basically you're perception will be being ripped apart atom by atom very slowly. Quite possibly the most horrendous way to die.

nothing at all since there being created sporadically all the time..

the scientific advances are worth any risk that may happen.. flip that switch get us to "jetson" land...

I think advancing our knowledge of physics is the only thing we have to fear.