Does this scare anyone else?

[Agent]

Ever since I was a kid I've been brought up in the world of science thanks to my dad. I love science, couldn't be without it and will always have some sort of book about the latest thing I find interesting close by. I'm an Atheist and believe that it something can't currently be explained by current scientific understanding and models, it will be in the future.

However, how many people are worried by the LHC?
It would be interesting to hear what people think of it.

What an amazing piece of engineering either way

[Funkstar]

They were seaking about this on the radio last weekend. I think it was the Steven Merchant show last Sunday (BBC - 6 Music - Stephen Merchant).

Really amazing construction. Not just from a science point of view, the sheer scale of the civil engineering on this is amazing.

[staffsMike]

Me? Scared? .. ****less I like the bit about the highly radioactive and fatal experience.. really makes you feel safe, you know?

As I was reading through I had this vision of Back to the future III with that massive contraption seemingly doing something weird and wonderful but really it was just making ice..

I am intrigued as to what will come of it though, when do they pull the trigger do we think?

[IBM]

Radio 4 had someone from CERN on about this, saying something along the lines of 'the universe does experiments like this all the time and we're still here. And if we're wrong, you'll have a hard time suing us'

I feel reassured.

[edavies87]

Would we notice anything?

Surely if a Strangelet particle was created (All theory I add!) then the world would implode all most instantly so that would be it!

However I'm still scared!

Edit: If anyone can get hold of End Day - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Episode about the particle accelerator it will scare the **** out of you.

[htid]

Hasn't someone from Hexus worked on that? I seem to remember him talking about it a while back and the fact that 1 piece was too heavy or something? Not sure now.

[menthel]

I think the whole thing is great and if it destroys the world/universe then we won't know much about it.

[grizzla]

The cgenerated temperature seems pretty hot, it got me thinking though, if it can produce such high temperatures (1000000 x hotter than the sun's core) surely such temperature could not be contained or insulated against, and if so surely that intensity of heat would be felt by people in the surrounding area...

Here are some quick facts:
- 20-year work-in-progress
- A team of 7,000 physicists from more than 80 nations
- 27 kilometers in circumference, 175 meters underground
- facilitating head-on collision of protons, traveling very near the speed-of-light
- each tunnel is big enough to run a train through it.
- temperatures generated: more than 1000,000 times hotter than the sun's core
- superconducting magnets are cooled to a temperature colder than in deep space

[Lucio]

You have to consider though, the scale upon which the heat is being generated. After all, an oxy-actylene torch produces heat equivilent to the temperature on the surface of the sun, but standing 5 feet away, you'll feel a little warmth but nothing major.

[Salazaar]

The cgenerated temperature seems pretty hot, it got me thinking though, if it can produce such high temperatures (1000000 x hotter than the sun's core) surely such temperature could not be contained or insulated against, and if so surely that intensity of heat would be felt by people in the surrounding area...

Here are some quick facts:
- 20-year work-in-progress
- A team of 7,000 physicists from more than 80 nations
- 27 kilometers in circumference, 175 meters underground
- facilitating head-on collision of protons, traveling very near the speed-of-light
- each tunnel is big enough to run a train through it.
- temperatures generated: more than 1000,000 times hotter than the sun's core
- superconducting magnets are cooled to a temperature colder than in deep space

Nah, although it will generate those sort of temperatures they're on a quantum/sub-atomic scale. All you've got to worry about is the possibility of ending existence

[pollaxe]

I'm sure all the technicians/boffins who work there aren't the suicidal types so I'm not too worried.

Well, maybe a little.

Amazing feat of engineering, though. It's hard not to be impressed. I do, however, keep remembering Futurama when they're picking up the tachyons (with tweezers and dropping them into a jar) and imagining strange, expanding little drops of utter blackness escaping from it.

Doubtless they'll discover the secret of time travel in 2012 thus making everyone in the scientific and New Age community very happy and lots of dead Mayans smirk.

[Lanky123]

I'm sure all the technicians/boffins who work there aren't the suicidal types so I'm not too worried.

If you were a scientist working there and you had your doubts, would you tell your 7000 colleagues and governments that have spent billions creating it that you think we should scrap it?

On the other hand, disaster stories make people listen. They might just be leaking these ideas to drum up interest in the general public for when it does go live. Popularity = funding? Or do I just like conspiracy theories?

[Cozwin]

im really worried this can go wrong i read that if it does one of the things they think it might (create little blackholes around it) they dont know how to stop them or it lol so yay time for world to end because we are all experimenting to much lol

[Raz316]

ooooh wow, maybe this is how the big bang happened. I knew it! Dinosaurs mucking around with a large hadron collider!

[santa claus]

I am intrigued as to what will come of it though, when do they pull the trigger do we think?

April 1.

[Raz316]

April 1.

I wonder how many reports we'll get of zombies appearing, that fog that turns you inside out, or even worse christopher biggins.