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  2. Oh Noes, Blak Holz Are Eatn My Worlsd!

Oh Noes, Blak Holz Are Eatn My Worlsd!

By pontiff on March 29, 2008.

Lawsuit brought against CERN and the LHC for the possibility that it might produce black holes which will eat the earth. I look forward to seeing string theory on trial. Maybe something like an inverse "Inherit the Wind" play to follow.

Oh, and this made me laugh:

Mr. Sancho, who describes himself as an author and researcher on time theory, lives in Spain, probably in Barcelona, Mr. Wagner said.

Probably in Barcelona?

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Of course, it is impossible to know both the position and momentum of a crank simultaneously.

I guess we'll never know if they're right.

By JohnQPublic (not verified) on 29 Mar 2008 #permalink

Well, he might be travelling a little more during the trial, so maybe we get to know a little better where he probably is.

After years of pointless posturing and very scary scenarios backed up only with bad hypothetical physics, the lawsuit to stop CERN was filed on Friday, March 21.

New York Times story:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/29/science/29collider.html?bl&ex=1206936…
Nature (interdisciplinary science journal) story:
http://blogs.nature.com/news/thegreatbeyond/2008/03/more_physics_nonsen…

CC: to Uncertain Principles.

The announcement I was given (with links to docs):
http://www.lhcconcerns.com/LHCConcerns/Forums/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=10…
The complaint (in Word format, ick):
http://www.wiki1.net/groups/uploads/LargeHadronCollider/SanchoComplaint…
My quick look at the complaint, with a rationale on why hypothetical physics should not be part of EPA reports:
http://www.physforum.com/index.php?showtopic=4830&view=findpost&p=327402
My rationale on why hypothetical physics should not be part of Risk Assessment, made in ignorance of the complaint:
http://www.physforum.com/index.php?showtopic=4830&view=findpost&p=326309

Note that the COMPLAINT says Luis Sancho is a resident of Hawaii.

Hi Dave,

You are aware the construction of the LHC is a sinister plot conceived and executed by Stephen Hawking. That is, after the black hole forms to have Cern disappear, he will be assured of receiving the Nobel Prize :-)

Regards,

Phil

Phil: only if the black hole evaporates. If it stays around "No Nobel For You, Dr. Hawking!"

It's all just part of the interstellar highway development project. No problem, mon.

By natural cynic (not verified) on 29 Mar 2008 #permalink

Hi Dave,

"Phil: only if the black hole evaporates. If it stays around "No Nobel For You, Dr. Hawking!"

Don't be so sure, he has recently been preparing for space flight and you are aware he has written a new book called "A Briefer History of Time" :-).

Best,

Phil

What this stupid is saying, is "I think the LHC is the solution of the Fermi paradox". But the Fermi paradox has been studied enough and is understood well enough to know that this is of course nonsense.

Just as humans once feared sharks and wolves, there is a lot of fear and prejudice about Black Holes. Even scientists share the same silly misconceptions about being sucked up.

A typical Primordial Black Hole has a mass of about 10^11 kg. Since this is more than the mass of LHC, one theoretically produced there would be even smaller. If you were only one meter away from this PBH, the gravitational tug would be only 2/3 what you feel from Earth.

Suppose you were suicidal, reached out and touched the PBH. The first gram of your fingertip would be turned into about 10^13 joules of radiation, the yield of a small nuclear warhead.

The rest of you would be blown into the next county, easily exceeding the Black Hole's tiny escape velocity. You would not be sucked into the Black Hole even if you wanted to be!

Unless you believe in extra dimensions, LHC is not powerful enough to produce a stable Black Hole. If by chance one were produced, it would evaporate almost immediately. I hope this makes everyone sleep better at night.

What is more likely is that all that energy contained in the accelerator will suddenly get released and cause a huge explosion. But even that is not even remotely likely to actually happen.

And of course:
"There is some minuscule probability, he said, the Large Hadron Collider might make dragons that might eat us up."

I thought many collisions involving Cosmic Rays in the upper atmosphere contained substantially more energy then the LHC will be able to produce... am I misremembering?

A.B.in the U.:

I haven't read the lawsuit, but, I am assuming that the plaintiff is arguing that the large dimensions might exist and that Hawking decay doesn't happen.

Since large dimensions haven't been ruled out, and Hawking decay has never been observed, this scenario is at least plausible. (Although I'm not sure, even then, if it would eat up the earth: I think you'd just get a little bitty BH orbiting through the earth, picking up a few hundred million atoms at a time).

Peter: that's actually a better argument than the Hawking radiation argument since it appeals to actual observation.