http://user.web.cern.ch/user/news/2009/091109.html
Now, before it does go fully operational, I want to put out my prediction that the doomsday scenarios are wrong. I read them all: black holes, strangelets, exotic matter... the only one that ever seemed credible to me was the possibility of making a microscopic black hole that would suck in more and more matter and eventually the entire planet... leaving our moon orbiting a black hole that once was the Earth. (Which is an interesting mental image.)
But without going into the messy details (and I'm no physicist) I don't find that threat credible having read that cosmic rays are at this very moment bombarding the Earth with as much energy as the proton beams of the LHC will when it is fully operational... In a nutshell, if these kinds of particle collisions made dangerous black holes, we wouldn't be here right now.
So why do some people believe the LHC will destroy us all?
First, consider the scale of the project. It is huge. This cannot be understated. The Large Hadron Collider is the single largest, most complex structure ever built. It has taken a generation to construct: they started digging the tunnels in 1983. It is one of the Wonders of the Modern World. Looking at the size of it, I think I know the sort of awe the pyramids inspired in the ancients who constructed them.
It is truly a collossal machine. Using levels of energy never before created by humanity. Powerful enough that last year's incident, cutting through the scientific jargon, took place because the collider's own magnets tore it apart!
And it is not just a machine: it is an experiment. And when it is finally switched on at full power... no one knows exactly what will happen.
That's the problem. For those folks who fear that science is running amok, that technology is advancing too fast, that modern life is changing things too much... this is the sum of all their fears.
For those who believe normal, everyday modern technology is already running amok, the LHC must be pure technological terror. How could the smartest scientists in the world build the largest machine ever, a monstrosity that dwarfs anything ever built before, and not know what will happen when it's switched on?
Put in those terms it's reminiscent of Dr. Frankenstein with his hand on the switch, about to wake up his monster. So yes, I can understand the fear.
In fact, my biggest worry about the LHC is much the same: that it is pushing the limits of technology too far.
But my fear isn't that the Large Hadron Collider could turn out to be the "doomsday machine"... my fear is that the Large Hadron Collider will turn out to be a Large Waste of Money. Given the enormous forces and energies the LHC is dealing with, the way the entire ring is designed to go through a sort of juggling act to constantly keep the forces acting on it exactly the same on all sides so it doesn't tear itself apart (sort of like a soap bubble), I think the LHC is a much bigger threat to itself than the world... as last year's incident amply demonstrates.
The repairs over the last year were as rushed as they could be. But the design itself was unchanged. It's very possible the LHC might not work in it's current form. It might break down again, and have to be taken off-line for years to be modified. And even then, the supercollider might be just beyond the grasp of this century's technology. In that case, the LHC would never quite work right... leaving the physics community tinkering with the thing for decades until it is finally scrapped in faliure... a faliure costing billions of euros.
I don't fear for the world... I fear for the LHC.
