Black Hole to Eat the Earth, Suit Claims
From the land of the credible, but extremely bizarre, a lawsuit in Hawaii by two scientists contends that a project in Europe could potentially create a black hole that would eat the earth. This isn’t as crackpot as it sounds as the international project has an eight billion dollar budget, and the story appeared in IHT. From the horse’s mouth:
None of [the day's major] headlines will matter a bit, though, if two men pursuing a lawsuit in a court in Hawaii turn out to be right. They think a giant particle accelerator that will begin smashing protons together outside Geneva this summer might produce a black hole that will spell the end of the Earth - and maybe the universe.
Scientists say that is very unlikely - though they have done some checking just to make sure.
The world’s physicists have spent 14 years and $8 billion building the Large Hadron Collider, in which the colliding protons will recreate energies and conditions last seen a trillionth of a second after the Big Bang. Researchers will sift the debris from these primordial recreations for clues to the nature of mass and new forces and symmetries of nature.
All I know is that I hope someone runs some simulations to double-check that they won’t accidentally eat the world. It would really be unfortunate if that occurred just before the Olympics, which apparently will be really exciting. Plus, would it be really terrible if we never found out who the Democratic nomination was? It would be like the end of No Country for Old Men all over again.
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Chuck responds:
Posted: April 1st, 2008 at 8:33 am →
It would really be a shame if the world were eaten up by a black hole as a result of this research. It would certainly disrupt the Olympics.
ERIC responds:
Posted: April 1st, 2008 at 8:43 am →
i dont know. i thought if there is anyway the world should end, this would be a pretty good way to go.
Scott responds:
Posted: April 1st, 2008 at 9:19 am →
Wow,
That would certainly hurt the feelings of the Chinese people.
A black hole? At this time of year? At this time of day? In this part of the country? Localized entirely within your Large Hadron Collider?
Scott
Pappi responds:
Posted: April 1st, 2008 at 9:22 am →
This is so typical! The Western media is trying to create a black hole just to embarrass the Chinese people. This probably started with CNN!
theotherrichard responds:
Posted: April 1st, 2008 at 10:57 am →
The Swiss banking system has been a large black hole in the center of Europe for some time now and we seem to be doing just fine…
Matthew Stinson responds:
Posted: April 1st, 2008 at 11:27 pm →
I second Eric’s comments. We all gotta go some time, a freak particle accelerator accident means going in style.
Scott responds:
Posted: April 2nd, 2008 at 10:41 am →
Uh, sorry. I forgot to put the questions in Quotes (it was a take-off of the Simpsons ’steamed hams’ episode).
Scott
Chris Devonshire-Ellis responds:
Posted: April 8th, 2008 at 3:38 am →
Josh you forgot to mention however that is not the end. Wormholes are the other ends of black holes, that apparently just spew matter back into space from seemingly nowhere. The anti-matter this creates exists in another dimension, which theory says is maybe the opposite reality to that which we otherwise know. Look on the bright side, New York will have sunny clean beaches, casinos will flourish in Havana, the Dala1 Lama will be President of T1bet, China would be democratic and you’d be driving a Porsche. Don’t knock black holes until you’ve tried ‘em.