Live Breathe and Die

There’s something that is not making the news that you should probably know about. As a matter of fact, it could kill all of us soon, making the presidential race a moot point.

The new Large Hadron Collider, which is underground and located near CERN France, will begin experiments in June to test a number of grand unified physics theories.  Most of these theories have never been tested before and the results of colliding protons at speeds never achieved before will result in changes in matter only explained in theories in the standard model of particle physics.

Why should we care about the excitement of a bunch of physicists getting their wish to see if their theories stand up to muster?  There is a very good reason.  There are respected physicists around the world who believe that the experiments could go terribly awry. They believe that the use of the Hadron Super Collider could result in the creation of a ‘black hole’. 

The scientists who run the Super Collider laboratory dismiss these concerns out of hand.  They claim that a radiation, generated by the experiments called Hawking radiation would decay the black hole before it could grow and become a threat.  The problem with their explanation is that Hawking radiation has never been observed before and is only a theory itself.

The physicists who are concerned about the dire consequences of the experiments have filed a lawsuit attempting to slow the start of the first experiments until further safety testing has been considered and vetted.  They claim that if something is not done to verify the existence of the new type of radiation that an undetected black hole could envelope the earth and destroy us within minutes.

When I told my wife about this, she laughed.  Yes, it sounds like science fiction. It even sounds absurd.  After all, if something this dangerous was about to occur, wouldn’t we hear all about it on TV, in the newspaper and on the radio?  That’s a very good question. An army of public relations pros have written volumes to dissuade the public’s fears. They are determined to go ahead with the risky experiments. Even Wikipedia takes the side of the PR people.

There are 7 thousand scientists signed on with the CERN Super Collider experiment. There is a much smaller number of scientists who are concerned about the never-before observed consequences of the experiment.  It seems that the voice of the few is drowned out by the enthusiasm of the many.

If the June experiments go forward, the creation and the growth of the ‘black hole’ would go undetected until it was too late. Scientists don’t have instrumentation to detect such things.

The scientist who originally raised concerns about the potential disaster said that there is a 50/50 chance that the experiments will go as planned without incident. Obama or McCain……will it really matter?