I thought I sensed something in my nerd-dar sometime around yesterday morning, and of course the fact that the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) went online and running (CERN, Nature, New Scientist) explains everything. And hey, we're still around! The world didn't suddenly disappear into a black hole or a "strangelet" or whatever, as some crackpots would have us believe. I can't pretend to know how this thing works or tell exactly what's going on, but I understand that so far there haven't been any particle collisions, just a proton beam that made its way all around the accelerator, so I guess there's still the risk (chance?). Then again, probably not.
This thing is all over the place! Which is exciting of course, since it brings attention to science and the sort of fundamental questions that modern science is pursuing, like what the universe is made of, why it's expanding and how its forces interact. But if you, like me, are a bit overwhelmed by the amount of coverage this thing is getting I can recommend clicking away to Nature and Seed, which have nice summarizing specials up. And if that's no good, comics always help.
Swedish blog tags: Vetenskap, LHC, CERN
Technorati tags: Science, LHC, Large Hadron Collider, CERN
As you´re implying yourself you don´t have a clue what you´re talkling about.
ReplyDeleteYou´re simply trusting the majority of physicists are right.
That´s an approach completely justified in matters of little importance.
But this is a very serious issue and blindly relying on authorites just isn´t good enough! I would say an approach not worthy of a scientist!
I can tell you that regarding the black holes, scientists basically are relying on them to evaporate via Hawking radiation(Hr). The problem is that no one even knows if Hr exists in the first plase, because it´s only an unproven theory!
There are many more arguments I can comment on if you would like to.
Anyone, regardless of education, can ask himself the crusial questions:
1. What is a acceptable risk, when the earths existance is at stake? (I would say: zero)
2. What are the risk according to the majority of scientists? Answer: well above zero!
Not very hard problem, right?
By the way: what´s your answer on those questions?
If everything was based on proven science no one would oppose the LHC! For sure! We are just asking, to stop until we KNOW it´s safe!
More info:
Interview with a nuclear physicist:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8_u87dRmkZE&feature=related
risks and more:
http://www.lhcdefense.org/lhc_risks.php
Most of us have enough of a clue to be able to discern between real scientific information, generated through logical conclusion, and the hysterical pseudoscientific and inaccurate (dis)information that comes from poor understanding of statistics and probability.
ReplyDeleteI'm not impressed. Really, I posted some pretty interesting links up there. Maybe the point was too difficult to come across. Did you read the comics? Maybe you should start there.