Why the Net has the advantage in the ‘Undies world’
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Phew! We’ve survived the Big Bang
Wednesday 10th September 2008, 12:00PM BST.
It had been billed as the experiment that could mark the end of the world.
Also see today’s video clip: Big Bang experiment explained
But in the end there was no explosion, no dramatic moment – just a bunch of scientists slapping each other on the back in a laboratory in Switzerland.
The £5 billion Large Hadron Collider was today set to work smashing protons, one of the building blocks of matter, into each other at velocities only a fraction less than the speed of light.
In the flashes from the collisions, scientists expect to reproduce conditions that existed during the first billionth of a second after the Big Bang at the birth of the universe.
For the experiment to work properly a colossal machine has been created in a 17-mile tunnel under 100 metres of rock, straddling the borders of Switzerland and France between Lake Geneva and the Jura mountains.
Some doom merchants said the work could create a massive black hole that would be capable of destroying the earth by suckng it out of existence.
But project leader Dr Lyndon Evans, from Aberdare in south Wales, appeared relaxed today, in a short-sleeved shirt and jeans, he counted down the last few seconds before the first beam of protons was put in place.
“Five, four, three, two, one, zero – nothing,” he joked before a blip appeared on a computer monitor signalling that the long years of hard work had paid off.
Dr Evans, whose father was a coalminer, said: “This is the biggest and most complex scientific project ever undertaken, and you cannot do a thing like this without engineers and applied scientists of very top quality.”
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Nothing like a little bit of FUD to help drive paper sales and website traffic.
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What a load of old cods-wallop with the state of the economy at present and they go and do this.
Spend it on saving the planet not trying to work out how it was formed, WE ARE HERE DUURRRGGGGGHHHHH
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Wrong…. the protons don’t actually get smashed together for at least another week, at the moment they are setting up the machine with beams of light to align the collider. I’m no scientist and do not understand the science of this experiment, What i do know is two atoms collided billions of years ago and started the universe, so it must be one hell of a dumb risk to do it again. its not called the BIG bang theory for nothing is it?.
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Why have they been allowed to do this? If there really was even a slight chance that they could create this ‘massive black hole’ was it truly worth the risk? And what a waste of money.
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Phil H: like you say, mate, you’re not a scientist. I’m certainly not but I’d rather trust their considered view, drawn from scientific method, than I would the paranoid concerns of people that don’t know what they’re talking about! Your “two atoms collided…” is a great example of just how easy it is to be so very wrong on this subject.
Oh, and who cares if Dr Evans’ father was a miner? Are we to be surprised that the boy done good?
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no wonder our fuel prices and road tax rise before the big bang experiment. now its over can they put pour prices back as they were please ?
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Not that I’m trying to be pedantic (well, call it pedantry if you wish), but the collision isn’t planned to take place until October 21st. Sorry E&S, but you’re about a month out.
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random: I think your name just about sums up your contribution!
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Is this a Red Dwarf sketch?
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Seems a few people here (Kitty #4) are putting 2+2 and getting 5. Not only does our planet get bombarded with much higher energy particles daily (and we’re still around) but the actual collisions aren’t planned for weeks. At least Dave (#6) had the right idea.
Seems E&S never lets facts get in the way of a good story.
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Do you think this it how it all happened and will continue to??….
Millions and millions and millions of years ago on a planet somewhere in the cosmos they decided to have an experiment to see what happened when two protons collide…..
…… and millions and millions and millions of years later….. here we are seeing what happens when two protons collide………….
…. and millions and millions and millions of years in the future…..
….ad infinitum…
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I agree with Kitty (comment #4). Even if the risk is only miniscule, we have too much to lose. I totally DISAGREE with this experiment.
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I do not disagree with science in general – we can thank scientists for things like TVs, radios, computers, Internet, MRI scanners, etc, etc – but I worry about the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) experiment. I’m not a physics buff, but the creation of black holes does concern me to say the least. If there is any danger whatsoever to the planet these tests should not be conducted.
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even thought e&s are a little early. if they no there might be a black hole why aren’t world leaders trying to stop this stupid experiment how many people realy care how it felt to be 1 bilionth of a second after the big band i would sooner be alive then know what it was like after the big bang.if you ask me its a terrorist threat considering they can kill bilions of people.i feel like they are gambaling with peoples lives.
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Have you seen how much the electricity bill is going to be for this experiement? No wonder the prices have risen recently. Somebody’s got to pay for it all lol!!!!!
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I was under the impression that the machine has just been turned on, collisons are planned in October but the very high speed collisions won’t take place until Easter next year? I was also under the impression that by-products of the LHC include the internet (without which nobody would be reading this) and MRI scanners; both very useful in in our modern age. Apologies if my impression of these matters is wrong.
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Well,at least all my bills will be wiped out as well!
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