Apocalypse Now! Its a Big Bang Experiment

Apparently there is 30 days or so before the first collision...so we got a month at least :D Oh, so no big bangs today?? :P

£4.4bn ? Can you imagine the amount of famine relief and medical aid that could have funded worldwide? I sincerely doubt that this experiment is going to 'unlock the secrets of the universe'.And even if it does,so what? Once any possible benefits from this end up in the hands of global corporations people are going to be shafted again.People will still die needlessly from curable diseases.There will still be countries devastated by famine and civil war.Dictatorships will still exist.Cancer will still exist. Human beings are the most virulent,destructive plague that has ever beset this planet and it would serve us right if we were swallowed up by a black hole... Considering the billions that is already spent on famine relief and medical aid worldwide that amount wouldn't serve to give any more help. The amount of money being spent in that area is already more than enough to cover, the problem is that it's being spent in the wrong areas and not getting to the right people. Yes, corporations are going to get first dibs on anything that comes out of this but they're the ones who have put into this in the first place. It's called research and development. Companies put money into it because governments won't and don't. Yes there will always be diseases, it's nature's way of ensuring that we don't over populate the planet. It happens. As soon as there's a cure for one, something else comes along that will end millions of lives at a stroke. What this could do however is to generate all kinds of potentials for a safer, greener earth which will in turn lead to more lives being saved thanks to there not being so much crap being dumped into the atmosphere. Now considering the energy companies are quite happy to NOT fund research into this area I'm all for other companies doing it. The fact remains that from this one experiment there are potentially millions of positive outcomes. If there wasn't there would be no way any companies would have stumped up the cash for this to run in the first place. To be honest, I really can't see how this experiment has anything to do with civil war and dictatorships or even how spending this money (which remember has been set aside for research and NOT for politics) could end either of those. Back in 1969 people couldn't see the point of going to the moon, what was ever going to come of that? Yet look at the technologies that have been developed since. This is a huge advancement for the world. The repurcussions of this are immense and will be life changing.

I don't agree at all there. The fact that humans have advanced to the stage where they can formulate 'cures' for diseases that can wipe out entire populations should say something right there... Real power doesn't exist in the hands of governments...It exists in the wretched,misanthropic talons of multinational CEOs... There will never be any profit to be gained from 'cures'.The bottom line is that supposed 'treatments' for many diseases generate enormous profits and why would these bastards ruin their yearly balance sheets when they could be actually really helping people? OK,civil war and dictatorships will always exist because humans are greedy,spiteful,opportunistic parasites,maybe that was just a bit of a rant,but I honestly can't see how this 'experiment' can afford the world's population a 'greener' Earth... All we have done since we arrived on this planet is proceed to destroy it by our own selfishness,wastefulness,avarice and cruelty...and all the scientific research in the world won't change human nature or the fact that we've essentially irreparably fucked the place up and we've only ourselves to blame...

There I was, sitting in work at 8:45am thinking yay! We haven't died...then I'm told, actually - it could take some weeks before something actually happens! I thinks it's a stupid risk, simple as.

It really isn't a risk at all Pixie, every day Earth is bombarded by radiation far higher than the contained amount that's being created by this. The whole creation of black wholes and weird vortexes is the work of a doomsayer physicist who has a bad habit of getting his name out there by negating other people's work rather than creating much in the way of pioneering theories by himself. Of course the press latched onto this, no press (other than New Scientist) is ever going to show science and progress in a good light. If it ain't broke don't fix it. Cuchulainn, everyone knows that it's business that rules the world. Of course it does but the technology that could be gained from this, the understanding we will have of the fabric of nature will lead to further application of this knowledge. Of course it's going to take time for this technology to be utilised by most of us, but the first thing we're going to see and be able to take advantage of is the Grid system that has been pioneered for this very experiment. It's going to mean much faster computers and access to information that is going to make the internet redundant. This is the biggest forward thinking movement of science in our time. Simply because it isn't understood by a lost of people doesn't mean to say that it should be stopped or that we shouldn't make bolder strides with technology. I don't understand how stem cell research actually works, but if it helps with diseases then isn't it worth continuing with it rather than stopping it because I don't quite get it? We may not have the full ability yet to apply the information we're going to get from this but without this kind of pioneering research we're not going to reach a stage where we can progress with humanity.

A lot of my pupils were all excitable this morning about the supposed end of the world. I just told them it wasn't a valid excuse to get out of doing homework.

I don't think Cuch has a great deal of respect for the human race! It must be said, I kind of agree with him, perhaps going futher to just life in general being a waste of space. Maybe I'm just being a pessimist, but the good to bad ratio of this planet if incredibly one sided. Still I'm no scientist, and if spending this much money is going to help some people in some way, them so be it, but I can't help be reminded of the costly scientific studies of the past, like the one that included counting the number of lampposts in Sheffield, or creating the formula that allows you to make a perfect cup of tea. As for the moon landings, they don't compare to this. Costly they may have been, but at least they did unite the world, however briefly, in awe at an event that wasn't catastrophic. In the hellhole we lie in, that needs to be applauded. For inspirational value alone, it greatly outdoes this.

I don't think Cuch has a great deal of respect for the human race! Tell me about it!! :P But anyways, the first experiment was a success, apparantly. They showed us how it worked on the evening news last night, and they were talking to Stephen Hawking about it. He said there will be no black holes created by it. ;)

still a hell of a risk...I'm far too busy to be sucked into a black hole... :oP

I don't think Cuch has a great deal of respect for the human race! It must be said, I kind of agree with him, perhaps going futher to just life in general being a waste of space. Maybe I'm just being a pessimist, but the good to bad ratio of this planet if incredibly one sided. Still I'm no scientist, and if spending this much money is going to help some people in some way, them so be it, but I can't help be reminded of the costly scientific studies of the past, like the one that included counting the number of lampposts in Sheffield, or creating the formula that allows you to make a perfect cup of tea. As for the moon landings, they don't compare to this. Costly they may have been, but at least they did unite the world, however briefly, in awe at an event that wasn't catastrophic. In the hellhole we lie in, that needs to be applauded. For inspirational value alone, it greatly outdoes this. But this has also unified the world. It's brought 10,000 scientists together to work on one project which is huge. Scientists from all over the world have been involved in this including some from some powerhouse research stations here in the UK. There was never going to be any black hole created. It still won't happen even when the protons collide. If I'm wrong on this I give everyone full permission to say "told you so" as we're all be sucked into the vortex.

Something tells me we're all going to be ok

But this has also unified the world. It's brought 10,000 scientists together to work on one project which is huge. Scientists from all over the world have been involved in this including some from some powerhouse research stations here in the UK. true, but I kind of meant in a different way, a little bit more hopeful. 39 years from know, who is gonna be saying "Where were you when those blokes recreated the big bang". Armstrong, Aldrin and Collins are household names, probably becoming famous well before the trip. You see footage of crowds and crowds just watching the news, Walter Cronkite in tears practically. everybody was, just for a little bit, in awe of something. When was the last time that happened. It certainly wasn't this. 9/11?

The Big Bang Machine Goes Bust The world's most expensive experiment, which aims to unlock the secrets of the Big Bang, has been stopped for two months for repair work. The cooling system for the Large Hadron Collider's high-powered magnets that steer beams of particles around the tunnel malfunctioned earlier this week. The European Organisation for Nuclear Research (Cern) replaced the equipment in the underground tunnel near Geneva, Switzerland, but the damage is worse than previously thought. Cern spokesman James Gillies said: "There has been an incident in a -*test*-('"). One section of the machine will have to be repaired. "In layman's terms, the LHC is a great big fridge, and part of the power supply failed." The faulty electrical connection between the two magnets led to a ton of liquid helium being leaked into the tunnel. The magnets are chilled to as low as -271 degrees Celsius, which is close to absolute zero and colder than deep outer space. Mr Gillies said the damaged section will have to be warmed up well above absolute zero so that repairs can be made. He expects the atom smasher to remain switched off for at least two months. The LHC, which started on September 10, took nearly 20 years to complete and at £4.4bn is one of the costliest and most complex scientific experiments ever attempted. It aims to resolve some of the grea-*test*-('") questions surrounding fundamental matter, such as how particles acquire mass and how they were forged in the Big Bang that scientists believe created the universe 17 billion years ago.

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