The End of the World is Near -- maybe

[VulcanRider]

CERN Particle Smashing Experiment

Nestled in the Alps near lovely Geneva is a feat of engineering and technological ingenuity on par with few others created in the name of science, and it’s about to awaken. When the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) goes live at CERN along the Swiss-French border in just a few days, it will produce an awesome amount of data which will be fed to thousands of scientists around the world – assuming the thing doesn’t create a massive black hole and kill us all in a horribly cool sci-fi sort of way.

and

For the past few years, engineers at CERN – the French acronym for the European Organisation for Nuclear Research – have been putting together a 16.77 mile tunnel, lined with sensors and 1,600 superconducting magnets across eight sectors, which are held at an operating temperature some 271 degrees below zero. The accelerator, which is accurate to a nanosecond, will be used to slam particles into each other to try to recreate the conditions at the beginning of time – as in, the Big Bang. While cynics have suggested this will create a black hole that will destroy the universe, CERN’s (hopefully-not-evil) geniuses have said that’s just not very likely. ...This week, despite 10 September being pushed as the official start-up, no collisions will take place. That date simply marks the first time a beam will be sent all the way around the track; the smashing is set to start up on 21 October. As the wee particles are slammed into each other, sensors will take all that data, filter it for useful bits, and then start spitting it out to scientists to work with.

"Not very likely", but they couldn't rule it out. Well, maybe this year I won't have to worry about the post-Christmas credit card bills

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[Dragonshadow]

Eh. Well at least it'll be fast, if nothing else.

[Beaumanoir]

"Create a black hole that will destroy the universe"?

Haha, now THAT is a bit dramatic. At the most it'll just destroy a galaxy or two

[Lavindathar]

They been planning this for years, there was an IW post about it about 6 months back? Maybe a year. But yeah the date is getting closer.

Tbh, the chance of it happening is nil. If it did, they wouldn't be allowed to go ahead. And if they were allowed to go ahead...the Americans would nuke Switzerland.

Oh wait, Oct 21st... still time yet

[Yorick]

Even so, if there's a 0.0000001% chance of the world vaporising, it's moronic to go ahead with the experiment.

[Firestormalpha]

[mock theatrics]We shall destroy civilization as we know it in pursuit of knowledge[/mock theatrics]

Honestly though, I think any risk of destroying the earth is a little on the high side.

On the msn article one of the scientists interviewed said that the blackholes would be microscopic in size, incredibly unstable and probably fade out almost as soon as they appear. All the same, I'm wondering what kind of structural damage would such a phenomenon cause to the apparatus.

A lot of investors would be pissed off to find out after years of building and financing that they couldn't use their superpowered atomic donut.

[Jaradu]

Don't worry, they've got backup.

http://www.home.no/piip4/images/Gordon.jpg

[Firestormalpha]

Hey doesn't that guy in front of the with glasses look kinda like Tom Hanks? The one with the ratchet.

[Luvian]

Me and my brother have been joking around with this and sorting every upcoming events and release dates as either "before the end of the world" or "after the end of the world".

Diablo 3 is coming after the end of the world, but you'll be pleased to know we may manage to get Fable 2 a little before it.

[Kakero]

Why are the scientist so obsess with those sort of things? Don't they know that something might go wrong and our world will be destroyed?