While the rest of us go about our daily business, maybe worrying about our mortgages, the elections or perhaps even global warming, the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) will conduct a multi-billion experiment that critics say could create a black hole right here on earth that will destroy the world.  Unless an urgent appeal to the European Court of Human Rights by these worried scientists succeeds, the world’s biggest scientific experiment will fire up on Wednesday, September 10, 2008. 

This bizarre experiment will use a massive (17 mile) donut shaped tunnel, deep underground and straddling the French and Swiss borders called the Large Hadron Collider to smash atoms together at around the speed of light.  The purpose is to recreate the conditions that existed a fraction of a second after Big Bang – the birth of the universe – “to provide vital clues to the building blocks of life”, (Jonathan Petre, Mail on Sunday).  They expect to generate sub-atomic particles never detected before, including the Higgs Boson, predicted by British Scientist Peter Higgs way back in the 1960s.  The Higgs Boson is crucial to the theory of particle physics and current understanding of the structure of the universe. 

The Large Hadron Collider even has its own rap (Rapping the LHC), written by Kate McAlpine, a physics graduate from Michigan State University who works in the press office at the CERN offices in Switzerland. “…Two beams of protons/ swing ’round/ Through the ring they ride/’til in the hearts of the detectors/ they’re made to collide!/ And all that energy packed/ in that tiny room/ becomes mass,/ particles created from the vacuum…”  It’s pretty good. 

But some scientists who are opposed to the experiment claim it may cause a black hole that could swallow the world.  “The concern is that the moment we press the return key, the particle accelerator could create a black hole that might eat up the whole planet”.  If a big enough black hole develops, the world will disappear taking us with it in an instant.  Another worry is that a number of small black holes will develop and that these may join together over the coming months, wreaking increasing havoc with Planet Earth; causing earthquakes and breaking up the earth’s crust over time until the whole world is eventually destroyed.  These threats have been discounted by the scientists at CERN, and by most physicists around the world. 

Let’s hope the doomsayers are wrong and CERN are right!  But if it all goes wrong, at least Zimbabwe won’t have to worry about Mugabe any longer…

END

Author, Peter Davies was a soldier in Rhodesia from 1963 to 1975, where he took part in the capture and interrogation of terrorists.  His novel, Scatterlings of Africa, is based on his own experience during Rhodesia’s war on terror, and personal observations of how terrorist activities impacted Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) and its people.  http://www.peterdaviesbooks.com

Black Hole of Switzerland

In Switzerland, Wednesday, they're going to start a scientific experiment that could, theoretically, create a tiny little black hole. The more hysterical among us are worried that this will be the end of not only Switzerland, but also Earth, the solar system and, eventually, the Milky Way. That may be, but I have questions:

1. If a tiny black hole were created, would there be a period of time between it's creation and it's growth to massive levels during which press releases could be issued and news reports broadcast? Would we know we were doomed, or would doom simply befall us?

2. Since a black hole is, by definition, matter of such a mass that the escape velocity exceeds the speed of light, and since while being sucked into the black hole we would accelerate to nearly the speed of light, and given that General Relativity supposes that as one accelerates toward the speed of light time slows down until, when one reaches the speed of light, time stops, if one were being sucked into a black hole, would one ever actually reach that black hole? Or would one spend eternity merely falling into the black hole at nearly the speed of light without ever actually reaching the black hole?

3. Given questions #1 and #2, is it possible we might find out that we're all going to die and then be frozen in that moment of complete fear and panic, only to stay there forever as time expanded infinitely?

4. Does this remind anyone but me of Rudy Giuliani's Presidential campaign?


Hole On Earth

Just because we can do something, should we? We'll know the answer to that on Wednesday…

While the rest of us go about our daily business, maybe worrying about our mortgages, the elections or perhaps even global warming, the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) will conduct a an experiment that critics say could create a black hole right here on earth that will destroy the world. Unless an urgent appeal to the European Court of Human Rights by these worried scientists succeeds, the world’s biggest scientific experiment will fire up on Wednesday, September 10, 2008.

But some scientists who are opposed to the experiment claim it may cause a black hole that could swallow the world. “The concern is that the moment we press the return key, the particle accelerator could create a black hole that might eat up the whole planet”. If a big enough black hole develops, the world will disappear taking us with it in an instant. Another worry is that a number of small black holes will develop and that these may join together over the coming months, wreaking increasing havoc with Planet Earth; causing earthquakes and breaking up the earth’s crust over time until the whole world is eventually destroyed.