Large Hadron Collider & CERN

“Anyone who thinks the LHC will destroy the world is a ****.” - Brian Cox

Thought I'd jump right in to controversy

What does everybody think then? You think we'll find what the CERN Physicists think there is to be found, most notably - the Higgs Boson?

Thanks to the LHC I've serious doubts about my University degree choice. I read a book on particle and quantum physics only a few weeks ago. Damn was it interesting. Yes, I think it's stupid how people belive it could destory the Universe. Black holes of almost zero mass which evapourate in femtoseconds, damn how scary.

I'm not sure what they'll find. I know they're hoping for a Higgs Boson. But I'm sure it will throw out some suprises. I wont be at all suprised if they receive data which totally confuses physicists for decades.

Exciting times, Glad to see I'm not the only guy interested. 

I've visited CERN 2 years ago, I visited the LHC as well, it was really impressive!!
No way that the LHC can be dangerous, but it's just something new that makes people worry, like other new scientific discoveries Of course there are really dangerous particles (or antiparticles:P) that they can find, but there are so much more dangerous things on earth....I just expect them to be really carefull with whatever they discover.......The people at CERN seemed pretty convinced that they'll find the higgs boson, and when you look at the way the system works, it won't be more than logical if they find it! Will be a great day in history.....and what more amazing things will they discover?? I expect great things from cern.....come on....they discovered the internet!!

 oh and by the way, for the people who like quantum physics, you should really watch the film/documentary 'what the bleep do we know' !!

I didn't think anybody would ever reply to this topic. It's usually talk of "who's most lickable out of the above 5" or some crap like that

We have the Higgs Boson God particle, the possibility of discovering new physical dimensions, being able to learn more about anti-matter and on top of that, the chance of rewriting Particle Physics by finding out more about quantum-level particles. Damn we live in exciting times.

And Sara, I hate you for getting to visit CERN

I'm one of the poeple whose freaking out over it XD

I can't help it, I just don't want the world to end without it being because of Zombies. 

Even with the insanely small chance of a black hole destroying the universe, what a way to go wouldn't you agree The most interesting death ever. And if there is a God I wonder what he would think of it.

 God's henchman - "God, sir... i'm afraid planet earth has been destroyed"

God - "Damn you all!!! Damn you all to hell!!!!!!"

I don't think it will destroy the world because there is simply not enough energy. It's not even full power yet so all you guys who believe in the 'doomsday' hype should not be worried just yet :). The only aim of this experiment is the search for the so called 'God particle' (higgs boson) but who knows they might discover more then they bargained for.

In a few weeks they will start colliding the hydrogen nuclides (protons) but only at low levels. And if black-holes did occur they wouldn't even have enough energy to sustain themselves let alone consume a planet.

But there was a radiation threat which Dr. Stephen Hawking mentioned and people ignored it, so we just wait and see how it goes :).

If you want to understand how this machine works exactly check this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qQNpucos9wc&feature=related

hmmmm, maybe the whole doomsday thing was for the hype? I mean it worked didn't it, pretty much everyone knows about it so people will be watching.

on the other hand there really are people out there that would think to those extremes, but occasionally we need the extreme thinkers to explore new areas and see a subject from another perspective.

Hasn't the LHC been on since sometime around march? I thought they powered up certain sections and accelerated select amounts of particles to high velocities, but it takes so long to reach the optimal velocities in each section that it took several months to accelerate the particles to the velocity required for the final experiment. Although i haven't read much about it in a couple of months though, i kinda zoned out of physics at the end of college.

Just because someone on the internet says the world is going to blow up because mad scientists are doing an experiment that could create a black hole, doesn't mean its true. These mad scientists have dedicated their lives to science so i think they know a little bit more about it than someone on the internet.