Hadron Collider halted for months

[AtW]

if conditions that were similar to the birth of the universe are re-created then perhaps we would learn something.

Learn not to try to re-create Big Bang because it might just be enough to destroy the planet? If people on this planet can't handle easy things like sub-prime junk, house price bubble I don't trust them one bit with experiments of this nature. The only hope here is that the energies they use are far too low for such things and they will never get any more funding for a bigger collider.

This is simple risk management - benefits from this project are totally unknown, while risks are extreme: there are far more pressing needs for R&D, such as for example defence of Earth from asteroids, that's where the money should go to, not to allow self-indulgence of physicists who realise that they were born too late as most discoveries have already been made, yet they do want their Nobel Prizes even if they come at the expense of planetary disaster.

If I was in charge I'd take £20 bln (or whatever the amount was spent on this crazy project) split it among people involve under strict condition that they spent the rest of their lives doing gardening or something innocent like that. And even in this case I'd have some supervision just in case they try to do something else.

[bogeyman]

Learn not to try to re-create Big Bang because it might just be enough to destroy the planet? If people on this planet can't handle easy things like sub-prime junk, house price bubble I don't trust them one bit with experiments of this nature. The only hope here is that the energies they use are far too low for such things and they will never get any more funding for a bigger collider.

This is simple risk management - benefits from this project are totally unknown, while risks are extreme: there are far more pressing needs for R&D, such as for example defence of Earth from asteroids, that's where the money should go to, not to allow self-indulgence of physicists who realise that they were born too late as most discoveries have already been made, yet they do want their Nobel Prizes even if they come at the expense of planetary disaster.

If I was in charge I'd take £20 bln (or whatever the amount was spent on this crazy project) split it among people involve under strict condition that they spent the rest of their lives doing gardening or something innocent like that. And even in this case I'd have some supervision just in case they try to do something else.

You astonish me AtW.

I though you had a more scientific mind set than that.

You sound like some sort of superstitious old woman.

The LCH cost a bit less that the Beijing Olympics and could change our understanding of physics completely.

[AtW]

and could change our understanding of physics completely.

Or blow the planet up. It is too dangerous kind of research at this stage. Maybe when human race moves to different planets, then - on some remote planet in different system such things can be tried, but to risk human kind right now for the same of some self-indulgent scientists?

I have scientific mindset, but that includes healthy element of risk control.

[AtW]

You sound like some sort of superstitious old woman.

The scientists who made nuclear bomb (or I think more exactly thermonuclear) were concerned about possibility of such explosion igniting the atmosphere. They supposedly checked it in calculations and then blown it up. Luckily they were right in their calculations however what if they were wrong? The stakes are just too high.

[scooterscot]

The only hope here is that the energies they use are far too low for such things and they will never get any more funding for a bigger collider.

Got to remember we've done this before, concentrating large amounts of energy into a small space, in a nuclear explosion. I think it was Russia who made the largest explosion. Before the first test in the US they were some ATW's among the trigger happy yanks with thoughts of 'this is the end'

Personally I would not have had the confidence to press the trigger myself.

[bogeyman]

Or blow the planet up. It is too dangerous kind of research at this stage. Maybe when human race moves to different planets, then - on some remote planet in different system such things can be tried, but to risk human kind right now for the same of some self-indulgent scientists?

I have scientific mindset, but that includes healthy element of risk control.

I think your grasp of high-energy particle physics is probably a bit lacking if you seriously think the LHC could destroy the world.

[AtW]

I think your grasp of high-energy particle physics is probably a bit lacking if you seriously think the LHC could destroy the world.

There are scientists who have better grasp of high energy then you and me combined and they are against the project.

My view is simple - anything that tries to re-create "big bang" on Earth should be automatically stopped. Who knows whether those conditions are safe or not? Let's not forget - it's a BIG BANG, if it shaped universe the way it is then what chance does the Earth stand even for small bang?

Scientists who want to do it say that such high energy collisions happen all the time as Earth gets bombarded. Maybe they do, maybe they don't - the worse case scenario of this research is way too high to justify it. They need to find some other way to futher their science than this.

[AtW]

Personally I would not have had the confidence to press the trigger myself.

I think that's why they did not tell the pilots exact details what would happen. Or were they told? Think not.

[bogeyman]

There are scientists who have better grasp of high energy then you and me combined and they are against the project.

My view is simple - anything that tries to re-create "big bang" on Earth should be automatically stopped. Who knows whether those conditions are safe or not? Let's not forget - it's a BIG BANG, if it shaped universe the way it is then what chance does the Earth stand even for small bang?

Scientists who want to do it say that such high energy collisions happen all the time as Earth gets bombarded. Maybe they do, maybe they don't - the worse case scenario of this research is way too high to justify it. They need to find some other way to futher their science than this.

That's where you're going wrong.

It is not trying to re-create the "big bang" itself but the state of matter shortly (very shortly) AFTER the big bang.

It's not trying to initiate another Big Bang!

You are so misinformed.

p.s.

Some reading for you...

http://public.web.cern.ch/Public/en/LHC/Safety-en.html

[bored]

Scientists who want to do it say that such high energy collisions happen all the time as Earth gets bombarded. Maybe they do, maybe they don't - the worse case scenario of this research is way too high to justify it. They need to find some other way to futher their science than this.

"Maybe they do, maybe they don't"? Sums up your knowledge of physics nicely.