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Scientists Not So Sure 'Doomsday Machine' Won't Destroy World
Fox News ^ | Jan 28th, 20009

Posted on 01/28/2009 9:38:07 AM PST by TaraP

Still worried that the Large Hadron Collider will create a black hole that will destroy the Earth when it's finally switched on this summer?

Three physicists have reexamined the math surrounding the creation of microscopic black holes in the Switzerland-based LHC, the world's largest particle collider, and determined that they won't simply evaporate in a millisecond as had previously been predicted.

Rather, Roberto Casadio of the University of Bologna in Italy and Sergio Fabi and Benjamin Harms of the University of Alabama say mini black holes could exist for much longer — perhaps even more than a second, a relative eternity in particle colliders, where most objects decay much faster.

Under such long-lived conditions, it becomes a race between how fast a black hole can decay — and how fast it can gobble up matter to grow bigger and prevent itself from decaying.

Casadio, Fabi and Harms think the black hole would lose out, and pass through the Earth or out of the atmosphere before it got to be a problem.

FoxNews.com can think of a few other things that didn't seem possible once — the theory of continental drift, the fact that rocks fall from the sky, the notion that the Earth revolves around the sun, the idea that scientists could be horribly wrong.

We're also wondering how often the LHC might create individual black holes, since longer-lived ones have a greater chance of merging with each other, and, um, well, see ya.

(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...


TOPICS: Foreign Affairs; Government; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: blackhole; doomsdaymachine; junkscience; theendoftheworld
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To: TaraP

Folks I want you all to get up from what you’re doing, walk outside and look up. If it’s clown out, never mind.

What do you see? Blue sky one hopes.

And do you know what’s crashing into that blue sky right now as you are looking up? That’s right, cosmic rays.

And do you know with what energy those TRILLIONS of particles per second are hitting the atmosphere with? Would you believe about 1/3 more energy than what the LHC can generate running with the accelerator to the floor boards?

So there must be and, must have been for the last 4+ BILLION years, a whole lot of black holes being generated in the upper atmosphere.

So, last time I checked, and it is as I write this, the earth is still spinning around with a bunch of lunatics on it....

Get... A... Grip.... Or join Al Gore in more junk science...


41 posted on 01/28/2009 10:00:47 AM PST by Freeport (The proper application of high explosives will remove all obstacles.)
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To: jimmyray

42 posted on 01/28/2009 10:01:12 AM PST by TaraP (The RAPTURE: Separation of Church and State)
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To: TaraP

Will my tin hat help?


43 posted on 01/28/2009 10:01:17 AM PST by hadaclueonce (< Patching a tire ....)
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To: Eagles6; jimmyray

See, that’s what you get when you pick Kiefer Sutherland for your superhero. Chuck Norris would know which wire!


44 posted on 01/28/2009 10:01:48 AM PST by Tax-chick (I will not be silenced.)
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To: Freeport
If it’s clown out, never mind.

Huh?

45 posted on 01/28/2009 10:03:07 AM PST by Tax-chick (I will not be silenced.)
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To: TaraP

The blackhole that is created, will reach it’s largest size in the winter of 2012.


46 posted on 01/28/2009 10:05:54 AM PST by stuartcr (If the end doesn't justify the means...why have different means?)
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To: Tax-chick
What wire do we cut to disarm Mohammed's bomb that is Islam?

The more you seek to limit the practice of Islam, the more Imam agree that it is permissible to wage jihad there (to fight the oppression of Islam). The more it becomes a threat, the more you cannot restrict it.

And those who join the death cult are prohibited from leaving Islam.

And Mohammed was the last prophet so there can be no “reformation” of Islams texts or the interpretation thereof. A tamper proof bomb.

47 posted on 01/28/2009 10:05:56 AM PST by a fool in paradise (Obama thinks spending tax $ on abortions in Mexico helps more than controlling illegal imigration)
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To: stuartcr

What if the baby black hole barfs? Who’ll clean it up?


48 posted on 01/28/2009 10:06:46 AM PST by a fool in paradise (Obama thinks spending tax $ on abortions in Mexico helps more than controlling illegal imigration)
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To: a fool in paradise

Action heroes are confused by metaphors.


49 posted on 01/28/2009 10:07:10 AM PST by Tax-chick (I will not be silenced.)
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To: silverleaf
well, as long as they are only a “little bit worried” about what they did .....

If they do unleash a black hole on the universe, they will say "I meant to do that" and proclaim a solution to poverty, AIDS, and global warming.

50 posted on 01/28/2009 10:07:31 AM PST by a fool in paradise (Obama thinks spending tax $ on abortions in Mexico helps more than controlling illegal imigration)
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To: TaraP

Last worst case thing I read was if they didn’t “evaporate”, they would take something like 5 billion years to grow to anything you would notice.

Al Gore will no doubt have the answers to save whoever the hell is around then though.


51 posted on 01/28/2009 10:09:57 AM PST by Names Ash Housewares (Refusing to kneel before the socialist messiah. 1-20-13 Freedom Day.)
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To: TaraP

So what? The Obamadroids in DC are creating a financial black hole now. We’ll all be gone before the Hadron can be used.


52 posted on 01/28/2009 10:14:01 AM PST by pabianice
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To: TaraP
There is nothing good that will come of this...


53 posted on 01/28/2009 10:22:46 AM PST by Starfleet Command
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To: newheart

Thanks Newheart, that was hysterical!


54 posted on 01/28/2009 10:31:02 AM PST by agere_contra (So ... where's the birth certificate?)
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To: MiltonFriedmanFan
These omniscient scientists sound a lot like a rednecks famous last words, “Hey yall, watch this!”

Being a redneck, I can correct you on one thing. The full and correct statement is "Hey y'all.....hold mah beer......watch this!"

Just wanted to make this clear for other FReepers.

55 posted on 01/28/2009 10:35:40 AM PST by Jackknife (Chuck Norris grinds his coffee with his teeth, and boils his water with his rage)
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To: hadaclueonce
Has anyone figured out how long it will take a black hole to eat the earth? My figures indicate less than a second.
56 posted on 01/28/2009 10:45:53 AM PST by ANGGAPO (Leyte Gulf Beach Club)
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To: TaraP

It would be a pretty sad Doomsday Machine if it couldn’t destroy the world wouldn’t it?


57 posted on 01/28/2009 11:05:51 AM PST by TigersEye (This is the age of the death of reason.)
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To: TaraP

"Where's the kaboom? There was supposed to be an Earth-shattering kaboom!"

58 posted on 01/28/2009 11:09:34 AM PST by dfwgator (1996 2006 2008 - Good Things Come in Threes)
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To: TaraP

Never predict doomsday. If it doesn’t happen, well...... And if it does nobody is there to remember how smart you were.


59 posted on 01/28/2009 11:11:29 AM PST by Sawdring
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To: a fool in paradise
Waiting for a libertarian to condemn this project because it may infringe on everyone elses’ rights.

That's not Libertarian. You have to wait until they do some harm and then hold them accountable. Stopping them ahead of that is infringing on their rights.

60 posted on 01/28/2009 11:12:12 AM PST by TigersEye (This is the age of the death of reason.)
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