Particle Accelerator: Could it be the end of the world? - Page 2 - Tilted Forum Project Discussion Community

hunnychile · 09-10-2008, 03:36 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Catdaddy33

Sure it can smash atoms, but what about watermelons?

I saw a crawler on CNN this morning about the possible "black hole" and Ghostbusters "crossing the streams" was my 1st thought too..

Were they standing a the same urinal?

Vigilante · 09-10-2008, 04:42 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by *Nikki*

Just because we are not dead yet does not mean a thing. If a black hole were created it could take years to swallow us all up. Start planning people!

Plan for.....? Should we plan for time to slow down at a rate that we wouldn't notice as we descend into the event horizon? Remember, it's relative

mrklixx · 09-10-2008, 05:03 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by clavus

Boy was I confused. I thought it was a "Large HARDON Collidor."

Wow, I could've swore I heard that before.

Probably just a time dilation caused by them muckin' about where they shouldn't be. Don't these people watch Eureka?!?

grumpyolddude · 09-10-2008, 05:53 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by KnifeMissile

I actually doubt whether any of these claims are true. Can you provide any sources, please?

Physicist Edward Teller, working on the Manhatten Project raised the concern of potentially igniting the atmosphere. He later co-authored the work that showed proof he was wrong.

The buffeting and turbulence that prop planes endure as they approach the speed of sound caused many scientists to speculate about there being a "barrier." Development of jets and proper aerodynamics served to disprove this theory.

Short of boiling our juices, microwave communication has many detractors
New Cell Phone Dangers
Cell And Wireless Dangers - The Fundamentals
I'm not advocating, I'm just saying...

And besides, I felt that my Chicken Little reference ("The sky is falling!") made it obvious that I was skewering the naysayers. I really think that this is exciting research. And if we're all caught in the event horizon of a black hole by the holidays, we'll just have to make it the happiest Christmas ever

*Nikki* · 09-10-2008, 06:37 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by luciferase75

Plan for.....? Should we plan for time to slow down at a rate that we wouldn't notice as we descend into the event horizon? Remember, it's relative

Plan for your demise!! You know, go to Disney World and all that crap that you wanna do before you get swallowed whole.

n0nsensical · 09-10-2008, 08:24 PM

As far as I know, various forms of matter/energy have been colliding with the earth for billions of years at levels just as high as this will produce and we're still here.

Merlocke · 09-10-2008, 10:42 PM

spectacles, testicles, wallet, watch... yup - still alive...

MSD · 09-11-2008, 11:41 AM

High energy cosmic rays impact every square centimeter of the earth tens of millions of times per second. The LHC will not produce as much energy as those cosmic rays. Those cosmic rays have not produced a sustainable black hole on earth in billions of years.

Additionally, as explained to me by someone who is part of the CERN project, if theories predicting that a black hole of that size would evaporate within a few femtoseconds are wrong, then the theories predicting that they could be formed are also wrong. Either a black hole could form (and even then only because scientific minds don't like to use the term "impossible " for anything, however ridiculous it is,) and the only trace of it would be its evaporation, or the energy levels required are so high that the LCH can't produce one.

The dangerous things that can happen are

1: Someone climbs a fence, unlocks a door with flashing warning lights on it, and walks into a "hot" area too soon after a test and is irradiated.

2: One of the superconducting electromagnets quenches, the beam is released and blows a big hole in a wall, and a massive release of liquid helium forces everyone to hit the floor so they can breathe. A whole lot of money is wasted and the project is set back two to three years and a few people could be killed if they're in the wrong place when it happens.

3: Remember the religious nut who blew up the machine in the movie Contact? There are real people like that. They can cause a lot of disruption.

4: An alien ship flies by earth, is disgusted that our pathetic species hasn't even discovered the Higgs boson yet, and annihilates us out of spite. This is more likely than a catastrophic black hole being formed.

SSJTWIZTA · 09-15-2008, 07:41 AM

Crafty Hackers

Quote:

A Greek hacking crew has come close to getting into the controls of Cern's Large Hadron Collider (LHC), which went live on Wednesday.

The hackers managed to breach Cern's network defences and got into the Compact Muon Solenoid Experiment. There they left a file reading: 'GST: Greek Security Team. We are 2600 - don't mess with us.'

"There seems to be no harm done. From what they can tell, it was someone making the point that it was hackable," James Gillies, a spokesman for Cern, told The Daily Telegraph.

"It was quickly detected. We have several levels of network, a general access network and a much tighter network for sensitive things that operate the LHC."

The hackers were described as "one step away" from the computer control system of one of the huge detectors of the LHC, a vast magnet that weighs 12,500 tons, measuring about 21 metres in length and 15 metres wide.

"We think that someone from Fermilab's Tevatron [the competing atom smasher in America] had their access details compromised," said one of the scientists working on the machine.

"What happened wasn't a big deal. It just goes to show that people are out there always on the prowl."

Cern said that the centre had been deluged with calls and emails from members of the public, worried that the LHC would destroy the planet by creating a black hole, despite such claims being checked and rejected.

source: Hackers breach Cern security - vnunet.com

i would comment, but im fucking sleepy.

MSD · 09-15-2008, 01:04 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SSJTWIZTA

Crafty Hackers

source: Hackers breach Cern security - vnunet.com

i would comment, but im fucking sleepy.

I'm not sure if the thread will be viewable to the public, but this is the response from someone working at CERN who's keeping SA updated on what's happening. emphasis is mine
The Large Hadron Collider MEGATHREAD / FAQ - The Something Awful Forums

Quote:

To a certain extent, true. The 'LHC' didn't get hacked, a single user-level computer account was accessed which only had access to a monitoring webpage for the CMS experiment.

The network on which the experiments and accelerator run is entirely seperate to that of the accessible network from outside CERN. The experiments and data they produce are far too critical to be sitting on an open network. You cannot access any of the computers in the control rooms or experiment caverns remotely, and they all only permit outbound connections.

The hack was a pretty typical webpage defacement, and while embarrasing for the CMS, it isn't a big deal. There are 10,000+ user accounts at cern, and users will always lose passwords or use insecure ones in any computing environment. The sheer number of accounts at cern makes it a statistical certainty that one or two will be compromised, and the computing division is prepared for this.

They weren't "one step away" from anything significant. That's like saying that hacking a receptionist's computer at Microsoft is one step away from having access to their development servers.

09-10-2008, 08:24 PM	#46 (permalink)
n0nsensical Junkie Location: San Francisco	As far as I know, various forms of matter/energy have been colliding with the earth for billions of years at levels just as high as this will produce and we're still here. __________________ "Prohibition will work great injury to the cause of temperance. It is a species of intemperance within itself, for it goes beyond the bounds of reason in that it attempts to control a man's appetite by legislation, and makes a crime out of things that are not crimes. A Prohibition law strikes a blow at the very principles upon which our government was founded." --Abraham Lincoln

09-10-2008, 10:42 PM	#47 (permalink)
Merlocke Location: Canada	spectacles, testicles, wallet, watch... yup - still alive... __________________ -=[ Merlocke ]=-

09-11-2008, 11:41 AM	#48 (permalink)
MSD The sky calls to us ... Super Moderator Location: CT	High energy cosmic rays impact every square centimeter of the earth tens of millions of times per second. The LHC will not produce as much energy as those cosmic rays. Those cosmic rays have not produced a sustainable black hole on earth in billions of years. Additionally, as explained to me by someone who is part of the CERN project, if theories predicting that a black hole of that size would evaporate within a few femtoseconds are wrong, then the theories predicting that they could be formed are also wrong. Either a black hole could form (and even then only because scientific minds don't like to use the term "impossible " for anything, however ridiculous it is,) and the only trace of it would be its evaporation, or the energy levels required are so high that the LCH can't produce one. The dangerous things that can happen are 1: Someone climbs a fence, unlocks a door with flashing warning lights on it, and walks into a "hot" area too soon after a test and is irradiated. 2: One of the superconducting electromagnets quenches, the beam is released and blows a big hole in a wall, and a massive release of liquid helium forces everyone to hit the floor so they can breathe. A whole lot of money is wasted and the project is set back two to three years and a few people could be killed if they're in the wrong place when it happens. 3: Remember the religious nut who blew up the machine in the movie Contact? There are real people like that. They can cause a lot of disruption. 4: An alien ship flies by earth, is disgusted that our pathetic species hasn't even discovered the Higgs boson yet, and annihilates us out of spite. This is more likely than a catastrophic black hole being formed.