Scientists: Atom-smasher Won't Bring Armageddon

TechnologyScientists: Atom-smasher Won't Bring ArmageddonScientists: Atom-smasher Won't Bring ArmageddonThe Associated PressThe most powerful atom-smasher ever built could make some bizarre discoveries after it is switched on in August. But some critics fear the Large Hadron Collider could exceed physicists' wildest conjectures. (June 28)[Notes:Dateline: MEYRIN, Switzerland] It's being called the largest scientific experiment in history ...And some say one that **could** cause Armageddon.This five-point-eight billion-dollar machine is designed to break up atoms ...It's called the Large Hadron Collider or L-H-C ... An underground tunnel 17 miles wide ... Attached to several particle detectors the size of office buildings. Those detectors will look for signs of invisible dark matter ... a so-far undiscovered particle smaller than the atom....one scientists believe gives matter mass.But critics say this mammoth machine **could** destroy the world.That's because ... By the end of the summer ... the Collider is scheduled to generate energies seven times higher than any other machine in history. [Notes:SOUNDBITE Lyn Evans, LHC project leader, CERN: "I think, obviously, we have no concerns at all, there is a huge community of scientists who know what they are talking about and are sleeping quite soundly concerning the LHC. But nevertheless, this creates problems in the general public who are seriously concerned, and we have to answer to that."]Concerns that these scientists don't know exactly **what** will happen when they flip the switch.Critics say that smashing atoms at ninety-nine-point-nine percent the speed of light might cause the fabric of the universe to fold up on itself .. But scientists here are brushing off those concerns.They say cosmic rays have been bombarding the earth at much higher energies since the solar system formed four-point-five billion years ago. [Notes:SOUNDBITE John Ellis, CERN Theoretical Physicist: "The LHC is only going to reproduce what nature does every second, it has been doing for billions of years, and all of these astronomical bodies including the earth and the sun, they are still here. So there really is no problem, but if people are concerned about it, we will certainly discuss."] The European Research center reviewed safety issues of the Collider in 2003 ... And said there was no way the device could trigger a catastrophic event. The center is expected to publish an updated review later this week. ___ ___, The Associated Press.

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Science & Technology

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• doomsday
• collider
• scientists:
• atom-smasher
• won't
• bring
• armageddon

[islandD917]

I say fuckit, what progress without taking chances

[munoz1205]

If we are all destroyed, no one can remember us...

P.S its completely absurd to believe in moronic speculation. CERN will certainly not cause the destruction of our planet

[jamesharrell244]

any way if the world ends we cant do any thing about it anyway....we now got 7 therios of the earths end

1. this machine (which could create a mini black hole....resulting in the earth be sucked in itself inside out)

2. Mayans

3. Religious beliefs

4. Yellow stone (which we are overdue for)

5.a catastrophic event (we are 90,000 years overdue)

6. the magnetic poles which protects from UAVs (it would sometimes be out for a 100 yrs, which then we will be burnt 2 a crisp

7.solar flares

[quark1293]

What a poorly researched, and just completely useless, piece of tripe!

The LHC is perfectly safe, those who claim the opposite, clearly haven't done their research properly, and were, no doubt, among the crazies that were out recently, repenting in the fear that the end was nigh.

Oh and for the record, that woman is NOT Lyn Evans, Project Leader of CERN. Lyn Evans is a man!

Stupid article, do your research, DOWN WITH QUACKS!!!

[michaelberryakabez]

at least when were dug up in a thousand years they will know what killed us......stupidity

[garfieldonpepsi9]

earth has been around for a long time, and people are only a tiny spec of that time. so why didnt the earth end during dinasaurs or before the dinasaurs? the earth wouldnt end just because us humans are living here. and plus that calender was MAN MADE! along with all the bibles, if anything us humans would cause the end of the earth

[MAYH3M1994]

its bullshit i'm sick of people trynna play god, like who gives a fuck how the big bang happened, is it really worth finding out if it means this atom smashing project will create billions of microscopic black holes that will grow and eat our planet inside out in a matter of second. i swear science just consists of fucking retartds messing with shit that just shouldnt be messed with

[Spalg]

@VonHelton They are using it to analyze things like the possibility of a Higgs Boson and elements of the big bang in miniature, not make universes you fear mongering troglodyte.

[Barrt22]

another big waste of money, wow, I wonder how many people you could feed , how many homeless could we take off the street, sad that the scientific community has a harded heart for the population, this will be another failed attempt to prove the big bang theory and try to prove evolution, that have no 'real' evidence to back it up,give all the grant money back and really change and help the real needy then we will see 'real evolution'.