I'm surprised this hasn't been mentioned today.

This morning (09.30 GMT) the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) performed its first run of protons in a series of experiments that hope to unlock the answers to some of the fundamental questions of physics including the mystery of the Higgs Boson, and an attempt to create the conditions fractions of a second after the Big Bang. 13 years and billions of pounds latter it finally ran for the first time. We also have a plethora of worried about the knock-on effect of LHC experiments (end of the world, etc) including a court case in the European courts to prevent any experiments taking place.

Its been the top news story over here today, anyone else been following this?

Dave

 

I heard it at the news yesterday its an intersting thing. Can you explain whats do you mean by the knock-on effect.

 

Lessee here - if the Higgs particle (liked it better when it was the intermediate vector boson) doesn't turn up, then some (most?) of modern cosmology goes back to the drawing board.

I should suppose they really do hope that those incidental micro black holes evaporate quickly - they could be hard on the equipment.

 

Oh... so thats the why of the picture in Google´s name
I have no clue what is a Higgs boson.. but I hope they find out stuff about the big bang.
Check out the How Stuff Works article about the LHC.

 

Anyone want to read a relatively old Sci-Fi book on just such a scenario, try "Thrice Upon a Time" by James Hogan. A good read that I recommend.

 

Can you explain whats do you mean by the knock-on effect.

There are lots of crazy ideas flying around about the safety of the LHC: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Safety_of_the_Large_Hadron_Collider

Most notably there is the creation of micro-black-holes which aim to give the insight into the moments seconds after the big bang - obvious the mention of black-holes gives the impression of impending doom as it absorbs everything and anything around it.

Dave

 

I can't help noticing we're still here. Of course, any black holes generated by this process would be in the quark size, assuming they were stable. It would take the life of the universe for them to double their mass, or some such. Current theory says they evaporate almost as soon as their made.

 

Does the mass that the BH sucks is taken account to determining the new Schwarzschild radius?

 

Low velocity test only the other day,no quick answer's.They say
any result's will be studied for decades (like 20 year's) they will have
many image's to study. Now a day's the picture's are computer
generated.

 

The mass that a black hole takes in is really only directly related to what is available in the vicinity, but its Swarzchild radius will be dependant on how much mass it has managed to gather.. I think thats a confirmation of what you asked VoltBoy..

 

A transformer in the point 8 of the LHC had a problem. The first collision (Thursday) got posponed.

 

Does the mass that the BH sucks is taken account to determining the new Schwarzschild radius?

True enough, but the mass in this case is a few atoms at high energy levels. Not much to work with, the energy levels probably contribute more mass than the atoms.

 

Speaking of some of the event related (marginally) to the LHC

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7609631.stm

Sad that this had to happen

 

No sympathy here.. Thats just retarded.. I mean why waste perfectly good poison if the LHC is going to kill everyone anyways? Well, I guess the concept of conservation can go out the window if the world is going to end, but still..
Actually, is there anything in Hinduism that makes it bad to be around at the end of the world? I guess its pretty much irrelevant since they believe in reincarnation anyways..
If the 'reasoning' isn't religeously based though, thats kind of like shooting yourself in the head because your parachute didn't open..

 

The first major experiment (the ones that are potentially the dangerous ones) is scheduled for 21st October.

It is worth noting that the safety consultation was many years and concluded the experiments posed negligible-to-no risk.

Dave

 

Aside from the experiments themselves, this is pretty worrying: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7616622.stm

(Not sure what the BBC access is like outside the UK)

Dave

 

I was not able to open that link (I saw only the title), but here is another source:

http://blog.wired.com/wiredscience/2008/09/hackers-infiltr.html

 

I tried to open the link, but I was redirected to a homeland security page informing me I shouldn't bother trying to get on any planes.. <JK>, the link worked for me, and that may just be the coolest hacking venture ever..

 

I was not able to open that link (I saw only the title), but here is another source:

http://blog.wired.com/wiredscience/2008/09/hackers-infiltr.html

Thanks for the other source. I'm not sure how the BBC website is viewed outside of the UK - after all we pay a license fee towards the BBC so there are restrictions to viewers from non-UK IP addresses.

I tried to open the link, but I was redirected to a homeland security page informing me I shouldn't bother trying to get on any planes.. <JK>, the link worked for me, and that may just be the coolest hacking venture ever..

I wouldn't say "coolest"! p) It is one thing hacking a (government) system which may disclose information; it is a whole other thing hacking a system that is managing something as sophisticated and potentially hazardous as the LHC, if only to those who are immediately working on it.

That said, one has to be concerned that such a system can be penetrated with what appears like relative ease. This isn't going to help ahead of the big test-runs that are upcoming.

Dave

 

As far as I know though they were purist hackers.. Purist hackers merely break into things to say they did.. They don't destroy or profit, its about the challenge.. Granted
they'll have to scour the system to ensure nothing malicious went down, but on the plus side, whether they find trouble or not, atleast they're now aware of a security hole that could be abused worse in the future..