Tuesday, April 08, 2008

End of the world just round the corner?



Well I think I have painstakingly explained previously why I think the end of the world is a long way off. But there has been some interesting news this week to make the hair stand up on the back of your neck. I was reading theage.com.au and stumbled on this article "World's largest experiment set to go off with a big bang."
It is about the world's largest particle accelerator underground in Switzerland. The experiment is scheduled for July, when two atoms are set to collide at a speed just short of light. The temperature created will be 100 000 times hotter than the centre of the sun. (That's a figure that is completely academic to me.) It is hoped that the experiment will create matter and anti-matter previously unobserved. This of course is quite fascinating. It is hoped that analysis of the new matter created will give clues about the big bang.
There are some environmentalists from Hawaii (not physicists) who are afraid that the experiment will create a black hole that will suck up all life on the planet. They have attempted to legally stop the experiment from going ahead. I tend to think that their fears are completely unfounded.

But you never know, perhaps they are on to something along with the cult that just came out of the cave in European Russia. Perhaps if the Hawaiian environmentalists ask really nicely the Russians will let them join their cult.

Read here for some opinions from the public.

1 comment:

Sharnelle said...

hmm interesting theory and i loved reading some of the comments that people made on the website.

but hmm yeah i highly doubt anythings gonna happen with it but its sertiantlay very intesting, im want to know more baout how it is set up. hmm need to do some more reading i do.