As I type this, CERN are about to begin their 'Big Bang' experiment. Some fear it will create a black hole which will destroy the earth. I think it is a bit like finding a child with a collection of chemicals and a box of matches, and I do wish scientists wouldn't mess about with things so much, but I doubt that the Earth will end just yet. I suspect that it will be an anti-climax, as with most major experiments. Mankind doesn't have half the knowledge it thinks it has, and our quest for more will be never-ending.

The worst case might be that it will cause an underground explosion which may, in turn, cause tremors upsetting cups of tea. Or it could effect any local volcanic activity.

So, life will go on generally as normal ... for now.

I'm with you on this Denise.

Very dangerous but interesting.

So maybe my bucksfizz breakfast was a bad idea?

11.:17 and all's well !!

Almost every other word in descriptions about this are incomprehensible to me.

No wonder nobody can prove the existence of God.

Either that, or we'll be slowly sucked into a black hole over the next 10 - 15 years!

JK2006 wrote:
Almost every other word in descriptions about this are incomprehensible to me.

No wonder nobody can prove the existence of God.

Being unable to prove something to exist that patently does not isn't really a good comparison

Further up you referred to "dangerous". What is dangerous is many people's complete lack of comprehension.

I'd expect everyone to be a whiz at advanced physics but the errant ill-informed nonsense that has been spouted and believed is frightening.

These people have the vote. As you've said before "We are doomed!"



Pete Clarke wrote:
Either that, or we'll be slowly sucked into a black hole over the next 10 - 15 years!
..or until 2012 because of some Mayan calander bollocks that the mentally infirm believe herals the end of the universe.

...sigh!

I think that being in a black hole could be very interesting!
For all we know, we might have been in one since this morning! Wow! I am having a Star Trek moment, there could be two Earths orbiting each other as we speak!

Obviously not, but

Mart wrote:
<snip>What will they discover, the internet???
Tim Berners-Lee ("inventor" of the Interweb) was working for CERN... so the Interweb is a by-product of all this

Cool, that should mean we get a faster connection and a faster espresso!

There is alot of material out there about STRING THEORY and QUANTUM PHYSICS

Though to ordinary people like me and you we dont understand the "science" the actual theory behind it is quite simple.

Check out some websites - start with Wikipedia and look up String Theory and Quantum Theory. Look up things like Multiverses and Wormholes and time theories.

It is all very simple once you get the hang of it.

The hitting of particles together is a very extreme way of testing these theories. I dont think the experiment will work at all. I think it needs to be done on a scale about 10 or even 100 times bigger !! but I would love to be proved wrong.

If it works then scientists will be able to punch holes in time - because they will understand the way in which this can be done - time travel will be technically possible as well......though in reality it may be difficult to turn a proven theory into reality in what we understand as a three dimensional world.

As for the MAYAN 2012 calender - the Calender does not say the World ends. It just says one phase ends and so it is expected by the New Age movement that a new phase begins. The END OF THE WORLD merhants are always out protesting because one day they will be right :-_)

Denise wrote:
As I type this, CERN are about to begin their 'Big Bang' experiment. Some fear it will create a black hole which will destroy the earth. I think it is a bit like finding a child with a collection of chemicals and a box of matches, and I do wish scientists wouldn't mess about with things so much, but I doubt that the Earth will end just yet. I suspect that it will be an anti-climax, as with most major experiments. Mankind doesn't have half the knowledge it thinks it has, and our quest for more will be never-ending.

The worst case might be that it will cause an underground explosion which may, in turn, cause tremors upsetting cups of tea. Or it could effect any local volcanic activity.

So, life will go on generally as normal ... for now.

Well, if the potential cure for cancer comes out of this, im all for it. Our quest for more being never ending is what drives scientists Denise. Anti-climax? Don't think so.

Why censor the last post???? Free speech when it suits huh? Not offensive just an oppsing view. Bit hypocritical and a tad disappointing. Do you have to be in the club to be heard here?????

What are you talking about?

I re-read an excellent book by Martin Rees last night - 'Our Final Century'. He is one of the most respected scientists in the UK and you may have read him being quoted as saying that he thinks the odds of something going wrong with this experiment are 50 million to 1. Actually, in his book he says that those odds were given by the CERN safety team themselves. So those scientists who are saying that there is nothing to worry about believe that there is a 1 in 50 million chance of the world ending as a result of this experiment. Those odds may sound huge, but they are only 3 times greater than for a particular individual winning the lottery. And as Rees points out, a 1 in 50 million chance of 6 billion people being killed (and of course all the billions or trillons of 'future people' who would otherwise be born) is hardly insignificant.
The second point Rees makes in his book is that when those same scientists try to reassure us by saying that these high impact particle collisions happen all the time in space THEY ARE LYING. Actually, these collisions that will take place at CERN have NEVER occured naturally in the universe. This is because the particles will be colliding in a manner (face on) that just doesn't (and can't) happen naturally in space.
The other thing to remember is that the experiment will be in testing phase for the first month. Nobody expected anything to go wrong immediately.

With the Hadron Collider being out of action until next year the alternative "end is night" contenders currently are :

MONDAY 29 Sept : economic meltdown starts ( markets dont believe the bail out is enough )

TUES 7 OCTOBER : Huge event predicted by a Web Bot programme in the USA ( They predicted 9.11 with it ) this event will be bigger than that and have lasting effects for 2 months

TUES 14 OCTOBER : UFO Spaceship is expected to show up on Earth manned by the Light Federation - New Agers around the World believe this will happen and change life as we know it.

and this is just in the next few weeks ! So the Hadron Collider is totally out of the running in the next month of Apocolyptic Predictions.

Needless to say - stock up on Rice - Oatmeal - Water - Camping Gaz - duct tape - fuel - and some good books. and we still have the 2010 - 2011 - 2012 predictions to get through as well.

I don't know about the 'end of the world'... though I did have a very rough nights sleep and woke up with an impulsive urge to play Love's 'Forever Changes' & Bowie's 'Ziggy Stardust' albums all the way thru....

I went to the coast in April and bought a new remastered CD of ZIGGY STARDUST

I sat in the car outside an ICE CREAM PARLOUR and played the whole record................and started thinking about life and........

The CD ZIGGY STARDUST was completed on the same weekend in Tottenham Ct Road as HEREFORD UNITED played and beat NEWCASTLE in the FA CUP shock of all time - and sitting on the bench that day as the reserve goalie for the game for hereford.....was DAVID ICKE. At the same time just down the road from the Football Ground Lloyd Webber and Rice were completing writing JESUS CHRIST SUPERSTAR in a country hotel and MOTT THE HOOPLE were the local band !!!

I believe that ZIGGY is actually possibly a prophetic CD - dont laugh at me......just look at the last 35 years since the album and listen to the tracks.

I still believe Rock and Pop music is culturally important to our lives - and perhpas our hearts/souls sing about things in a way that our normal minds cant comprehend ( and I am not just talking about the drugs scenes of the last 40 years )

Yep - get ZIGGY on the CD player.