Large Hadron Collider

If you were reading this Journal/blog back then, you'll know that I wrote about the LHC some time ago.  Here's that link:  http://journals.aol.com/gregb1967/my-journey-my-journal/?page=9#Entry1315 

I gave the reasons why the LHC was unlikely to produce a strangelet.  Well, now the LHC is about to be turned on (tomorrow) after years of debate.

Here's a link to the article I'll be referencing:  http://news.yahoo.com/story//nf/20080908/tc_nf/61725

"The anti-LHC hysteria was started by Walter L. Wagner and Luis Sancho, who filed suit in U.S. and European courts to stop the LHC."

OK...I know Mr Wagner's qualifications, he was a nuclear safety officer.  But Mr Sancho?  I can't seem to find information about him.

But here's the thing:  " ""Any miniature black hole created at rest in a collider would essentially be trapped in Earth's gravitational field and over seconds to hours, slowly interact and acquire more mass," Wagner says on his LHCDefense.org Web site. "

(Another quote with links removed.)  My reply?  Bull.

Mr Wagner was a nuclear safety officer; yet apparently he hasn't heard of the weak nuclear force*, since it is the force that will be governing interactions at that distance.  The Earth's gravitational field will have a miniscule impact on any particles that get created.  The particle's mass will see to that.

For the Earth's gravitational field to have any discernable effect on the particles, they'd have to weigh in at about a microgram.  They're going to weigh far far less, unless Mr Wagner is aware of some kind of physics that none of the rest of us are aware of?

Mr Wagner?

To be fair, there is a not-quite-zero chance that the LHC could create a black hole* or strangelet* that would end up destroying the Earth.  It could also create a magnetic monopole*.  Possible?  Yes, it is possible.  It's just not very likely that they'd last long enough to do any damage to anything.  Also, to be fair, a strangelet-like particle has already been created.  It's called, of course, the Lambda Particle*. 

Also, for the record, the Earth didn't get destroyed.  At least not that I'm aware of.

At the sub-atomic scale things aren't deterministic, they're probablistic.  They don't say "This will happen with a 70 per cent chance of this outcome, and a 30 per cent chance of this outcome."  They say "This might happen..."  This, of course, is due to the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle* as well as Superpositioning* (aka Super State.)

Serious physicists are giving the odds of the Earth being destroyed at 1 in 50 million.  I'd go further, having studied theoretical physics myself.  I'd give it 1 in 55 or 1 in 60 million. 

"At the same time, the public's willingness to believe left-field doomsday theories reveals a fundamental weakness in the scientific community's outreach efforts. "Sub-atomic physics isn't the easiest subject to discuss (let alone understand), but in order for people to appreciate the importance of science, they first need to understand how it will potentially improve their lives," King said. "

Amen.  To be honest, sub-atomic physics is hard to understand.  I don't understand all of it myself, nor do I claim to.  Theoretical physics is even harder to understand and is not for the faint of heart.  If you really do want to give yourself nightmares, study Bose-Einstein Condensates*. 

Personally, I plan to make myself homemade beef-tips and noodles and then have a good night's sleep.  I won't be losing any sleep about the LHC being turned on.

* strangelet - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strangelet

* Lambda Particle - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lambda_particle

* Weak Nuclear Force - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weak_nuclear_force

* Black Hole - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_hole

* Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heisenberg_uncertainty_principle

* SuperPosition - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantum_superposition

* Magnetic Monopole - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnetic_monopole

* Bose-Einstein Condensates - http://www.colorado.edu/physics/2000/bec/ (This is easy to understand for non-physicists and explains what these condensates are in plain, simple English.  For non-physicists, I strongly recommend this page first.)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bose-Einstein_Condensate  (This one gets highly technical.  If you're a non-physicist and/or want to give yourself nightmares, go here.  Just remember, I did warn you.)