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Large Hadron Collider: Mysteries of the Universe Unveiled or Unleashed?
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by Richard Bailey
TheSyndicatedNews columnist
Richard Bailey is a former Exec. Producer of the Deaf Broadcast Network and News Director for Netsignnews.com, as well as serving as a theatre,TV, film critic for several Los Angeles publications.
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The Large Hadron Collider (LHC), the most powerful atom smasher ever built and the largest, most expensive scientific experiment in history, has begun operations. The LHC is a project of the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) and is located outside Geneva, Switzerland in Meyrin, straddling the French border. It is basically a ring of supercooled magnets, in a collider tunnel, 17 miles in circumference buried between 50 and 175 meters underground (roughly 165 to 575 feet.)
The LHC is being funded internationally and built in collaboration with over two thousand physicists from thirty-four countries, universities and laboratories. When operational, the collider will possibly produce the elusive "Higgs boson" sometimes referred to as the God Particle. The detection of which could explain how other fundamental particles gain mass and fill in some of the gaps in the "Standard Model" theory.
Other theoretical particles have been predicted which might be created including "strangelets" and “miniature black holes” [MBH]. Strangelets are theorized to be a more stable form of nuclear matter composed of up, down and strange quarks, compared to normal nuclear matter composed of only up and down quarks.
If strangelets exist and can be produced at the LHC, they could conceivably start an uncontrollable fusion reaction that would change all the matter on earth to strange matter, ending life as we know it.
MBH’s are infinitesimally small particles of extremely high gravity. The rapid decay of the MBH would supposedly result in a sudden burst of particles as it explodes.
Also on the agenda is a plan to hunt for signs of invisible dark matter and dark energy that make up more than 96 percent of the universe. The discovery of extra dimensions, which would validate sub-atomic string theory, is also on the slate.
In short, physicists are trying to take a look back at the formation of the universe immediately after the “Big Bang”.
But there are some who say there is a risk that the LHC might do quite a bit more than the physicists expect. Like create a black hole that swallows the earth or spit out sub-atomic particles that turn the planet into a lifeless rock spinning around the sun.
A lawsuit has been filed in Hawaii to stop the start up stating that, “The operation of the Collider may have unintended consequences which could ultimately result in destruction of our planet.”
CERN physicist John Ellis says that the LHC is only going to “reproduce what nature does every second, what it has been doing for billions of years.” CERN issued a safety report on June 20 that confirmed their 2003 safety report. They say there is no “conceivable” danger.
Physicist Martin Rees, author of “Our Final Hour” says the chance of the accelerator producing a global catastrophe is one in 50 million. A chance of 1 in 50 million should assuage some fears, but what does that really mean? An investigation of the LHC website (http://public.web.cern.ch/public/en/LHC/LHC-en.html) gives a little mathematical cause for concern.
To understand what this means you need to picture how the LHC operates. The collider tunnel contains two pipes, containing a vacuum, enclosed within numerous superconducting magnets cooled by liquid helium. A proton is beamed through one pipe in one direction and another proton is beamed through the second pipe in the opposite direction. They achieve near light speed and make 11,000 circuits every second. The magnets keep the protons positioned on course.
Additional magnets are used to direct the beams to four intersection points where high-energy head-on collisions between them take place. Each particle will carry a force of 7 TeV (trillion electron volts), reaching a total of 14 TeV at collision. These will be the strongest subatomic collisions ever produced by man.
Rather than continuous beams, the atomic nuclei would be "bunched" together into approximately 2,800 bunches, so that collisions between them would take place repeatedly at separate intervals. The intervals will start at 75 nanoseconds apart and eventually work their way down to 25 nanoseconds, which will be the operating standard.
A nanosecond is one billionth of a second. Simple arithmetic tell us that at a rate of one collision every 25 nanoseconds, that 50 million collisions occur every 1.25 seconds, and at 75 collisions every nanosecond it only takes 3.75 seconds.
This seems suspiciously like the kind of statistical game the O.J. Simpson prosecutors tried to play with their DNA evidence. We all know the result of that.
It seems that 1 in 50 million must refer to actual occurrence of the unveiling of the particle. But how often will that be?
The amount of collected data gives us a hint. These experiments are expected to generate enough data to fill 100,000 CDs per second but only data that may show signs of the new physics will actually be recorded. That rate is expected to be enough data to fill 27 CDs per minute.
This works out to .0000045 of all information being of interest. Can we infer from this, that .0000045 of all collisions will be of interest? If there is one collision every 25 nanoseconds, there are 40,000,000 collisions every second.
That’s 180 collisions of interest every second, 10800 every minute, 648,000 every hour. That works out to 50 million collisions of interest every 77 hours, 9.6 seconds of operation. Could this mean that every 77 hours, 9.6 seconds of operation there will be a global catastrophe? Let’s hope not.
Some physicists think there is a possibility of extra spatial dimensions in which it would be possible to create MBHs at a rate of one per second. If that’s the case we have 50 million seconds of operation or about a year and a half.
Should we start worrying?
British physicist Stephen Hawking does not see much to worry about. It was Hawking who provided the theoretical argument for the existence of radiation emitted from black holes. Hawking’s mathematics predict that MBHs emit radiation even faster than large black holes and therefore will “evaporate.” His predictions are mathematically based so perhaps we can take a breath of relief.
Physicist and lawyer Walter L. Wagner, one of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit, isn’t taking that breath. He claims the safety report issued by CERN has several major flaws. He has not changed his opinion and intends to continue with the lawsuit because there is a possibility that if an MBH is created, it may not evaporate as predicted but grow at an exponential rate. He maintains the risks outweigh the possible benefits.
The US Government has called for dismissal of the suit as untimely due to the expiration of a six-year statute of limitations, since funding began in 1999. It maintains the concerns claimed by the plaintiffs are "overly speculative and not credible". The court has set September 2, 2008 for a hearing on the government's motion to dismiss.
Representatives of CERN did not appear at an appointed court date and a default has been filed against them which is pending. The plaintiffs have until September 24, 2008 to respond to the government's motion to dismiss.
So what are we, the human inhabitants of planet Earth supposed to do? Should we start counting our days and months? Should we look at the upside and feel confident that this kind of pure scientific research can result in the discovery of new energy sources or as yet unconceived applications that could be of tremendous benefit to humanity?
If history is our guide the LHC will go on line as scheduled and the mysteries of the universe will be probed and poked as sub-atomic particles are smashed apart in the largest of all scientific machines ever conceived and built.
It all brings to mind a riddle that made the rounds last year. It goes, What is: “Hey! You! Stop that! You, get away from there! Don’t touch that! Don’t…” Answer? The last words spoken before the beginning of the universe.
Published: Sep 10,2008 14:40
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