Will the Large Hadron Collider destroy the world?

[HairyArsedBloke]

Given that the whole of the technology that IT and indeed the whole of the economy and current civilisation of the human race is based required the development of quantum theory, it seems odd to question the need of such research.

[AtW]

I thought we'd moved on to ROI?

ROI is secondary - I would not care if collider was wasting money so long as it's not me who is paying for it.

I object to the grave risks associated with that project. In addition to it ROI is non-existant, no private company funds such projects.

[Mich the Tester]

When men first starting digging big holes to extract coal and other ores from the ground, for all they knew, and according to some mythologies of old, they might have released the spirits of the dead, great fire breathing monsters and giant three headed dogs into the environment, thereby wiping out all of humanity. But that’s not what happened.

[Moscow Mule]

When men first starting digging big holes to extract coal and other ores from the ground, for all they knew, and according to some mythologies of old, they might have released the spirits of the dead, great fire breathing monsters and giant three headed dogs into the environment, thereby wiping out all of humanity. But that’s not what happened.

Sensibly, the forward thinking, right minded few realised the chance of releasing fire breathing monsters from a seam of coal was extremely unlikely (cubed).

[HairyArsedBloke]

Anyway, why worry if it all goes wrong. There are plenty of other universes where it didn't.

[doodab]

I don't see commercial companies funding such colliders - that's because return on investment is approximately -1000000%.

Intel funds its own research - I have not heard of them paying any money to support such massive colliders that try to pursue such dangerous goals as creation of conditions before Big Bang.

There are no colliders that seek to recreate the conditions before the big bang. You have just started talking rubbish now I'm afraid.

Synchrotrons have advanced semiconductor physics. Many of the X-ray based techniques used to study semiconductor crystals rely on synchrotrons (i.e. big particle accelerators) to provide the necessary radiation.

Intel are a semiconductor company. They may not have funded the devices but they have benefited from the advances in physics that occured. They also collaborate with universities on basic research (like most big companies) and I would expect their engineers read academic journals & papers in the field and make use of the results.