The LHC was built by the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) and lies underneath the Franco-Swiss border near Geneva, Switzerland. It is funded by and built in collaboration with more than 8000 physicists from over 85 countries as well as hundreds of universities and laboratories.
The LHC is one of the most controversial scientific projects in recent times. LHC is meant to create conditions similar to the “Big Bang” that started the universe. If the experiments are successful, it could create breakthroughs to the world of physics and provides in-depth information about our universe.
The project is not all welcomed though; some scientist dubbed the project as the Doomday Test, fearing that it could cause the end of the world by creating uncontrollable blackholes.
And some others are criticising that the money (estimated cost €3.2–6.4 billion) could be better spent on more pressing matters like global warming and poverty etc.
Update – A magnet failure on September 19 caused a tonne of liquid helium to leak out into the experiment’s 27km-long tunnel… the LHC will be shut off until spring 2009 while engineers probe the incident [via BBC]
You can check out more about LHC on its official website (forget about it if you don’t have a degree in science/engineering lol) or some simpler facts on Wikipedia; or just watch the introductory video below made by Chris Mann from CERN…
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Yeah, I read a little about that in the news yesterday. the thing about the black holes, some say they will just dissappear into the earth. Others as you say fear it will bring on the end of the world. Alot of science fic but others say not so out of the question. Who knows? I sure don’t, lol. I barely grasp any of that.
Man those physisists must make alot of money.
One thing for sure, this is a new step into future scientific abilities that will never be reversed once they put into action. Kind of cool and kind of scary at the same time.
Meanwhile they are right about the world population, poverty, and the state of life in general on earth slowly deteriorating. It’s the great irony of the world I guess. For all the progress in science and technology we make, we don’t improve our world much in terms of lifestyle. But most of that can be attributed to just overpopulation imo. And that doesn’t show much signs of stopping.
Addendem to last post: Overpopulation and…personal irresponsibilty on the part of each of us as individuals. When I drive by some apartment complex in the lower income parts of town and see early twenties or younger teenage girls wondering around the complexes carrying one baby in an arm holding the hand of another and sporting a large belly containing another baby on the way I just have to shake my head….and they think it’s no big deal, hmmph.
And I also see young boys just “hanging out around the apartments or on the streets. And all this in the middle of a supposed school day.
Ain’t no government or any body else to blame but ourselves for some of the social problems and irrespponsibility we have today.
Anyway, sorry for the sidetrack….back to the subject of the super collider, lol.
Overpopulation is indeed a huge problem… the government and society does play a part in the issue, and religion plays a major role too.
Most of the religions are actually against birth controlling of any type… can’t speak for others, but there are a large portion of my countrymen that think giving birth is a holy thing (which probably is) but never give much thought about how to raise them.
How to end poverty (and population)… a successful solution would be really worthy of a noble price comparing to whatever finding LHC could produce.
Still, human beings have to move forward… helping those in poverty is one issue, but question is whether they are helping themselves like what you mentioned at your later comment.
Climate change is the one that is really worrying though.
Well, I don’t go too deep into religous discussions because quite frankly, it gets nowhere, but there’s an old part of scripture that said, “Go forth and multiply”.
Now while it’s true that giving birth etc is an amazing thing that humans and other mammals do, ….that quote imo is a little outdated. (very outdated in fact)
The act of populating the earth has sufficiently been accomplished in the thousands of years since that was written I think, lol….at least as far as humans are concerned. It’s long past time for some logic to be ’seriously’ considered by all of us as individuals along with the religious beliefs….it can be done I believe.
The world is not only a spiritual place but also a logical place. Logic (and physics for that matter) says that if you get too many or too much of something without the means to sufficiently accomodate for such expansion then you create problems. One of the very definitions of the word “too” means in excess. So there’s obviously a reason that word is used in alot of instances like these.
Granted, alot of people don’t believe in contraception but I think everyone is capable of abstinence as a substitue where neede. And I’d say it is badly needed. Thenb agaion, some people just get lazy in the heat of passion even when they DO believe in using birth control. And then although it’s almost unbelievable in this day and age, but some young people are just ignorant about such things. (They don’t know about it) Like I said that’s almost hard to believe but I guess it’s true in a few instances.
Disapline is a hard word to put into practice , but then that is one of the tests of a person’s character in a way. Do people have the ambition to bite the bullet and practice a little personal responsibility? or do they just not see the importance in their own mind?
Unfortunately in reality, some people fall into the latter catagory.