Capitol Hill Blue Forums Science and Technology Health, Medicine & the healing Sciences At CERN Data Narrows Search for "God Particle"

The search narrows in quest to find the "God Particle" at CERN: HuffPo link




So RR armchair physicists, what do you think?

I'm still favoring the micro sized black hole they are going to create(may have already created) which will gravitate to the center of the earth and begin eating the heart out of this planet. Ultimately resulting in the destruction of the Earth and our species which is the Gem Of God's Creation. If that isn't a godlike particle I don't know what is!

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I would be surprised if surprises do not result from the results coming from CERN. I would also be surprised if the Higgs boson is the be-all and end-all of explaining sub-atomic physics. That would imply that there is a vast desert of very boring inactivity from the Planck realm to the atomic realm---which covers orders of magnitude as great as that from the atomic realm to roughly the size of the solar system. There is a considerable richness and variety of phenomena in that realm, and it would be very surprising if the same is not true between the atomic level and the Planck level---indeed, probably much more richness and variety.

Greger, it is highly unlikely that humans, with the puny energies at their command, could ever produce a mini black hole. For one thing, cosmic rays reach energies vastly greater than anything humans will ever produce in a collider on Earth. Cosmic rays have never produced such a black hole. The proof is that the Earth is still here.

Such an eventuality is so unlikely that I, who am rarely surprised by anything, would be very surprised if it happened. One thing is certain, though---I would not be surprised for long. · · ·

Aw Jegus, Numy! You've fallen for every other conspiracy theory that ever came down the pike, why not this one?

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Ah, how little you know me, Greger !
If you only had any idea of how many conspiracy theories I have rejected !

I only fall for the ones that are true ! · · ·

The black hole thingy does seem a bit far-fetched doesn't it...?

Hawking Radiationg (named for the face you see in Numan's post) will cause micro black holes to evaporate before they could gravitate to the center of the earth. They last nanoseconds at most.

In fact, if Cern can make them, then they are occassionaly made when particles colide with our own atmosphere.

That's very comforting. A black hole with the mass of a mountain can actually evaporate in less than the age of the universe!
Very comforting indeed. But if it's for the sake of science I guess it's okay by me.

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Maybe you see Stephen Hawking -- I see Alfred E. Neuman, at least on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday; on on other days of the week I might see Stephen Hawking.
You are right about Hawking radiation causing them to evaporate before they could move even the most minute fraction of a proton's width.

In fact, cosmic rays are not powerful enough to make even the teeny-weeniest black hole, but they don't miss by much. If the most powerful cosmic rays were only about 100,000,000 times more energetic, they might be able to make the smallest black hole. That is pretty close, when you are dealing with such stupendous energies. (most powerful cosmic rays: about 10 to the 21st power electron-volts. CERN will consider itself blessed when they can get into the 10 to the 12th power electron-volts : rest-mass energy of a proton -- about 10 to the 9th power electron-volts)

What is 10 to the 21st power? The Earth consists of 6x10 to the 21st power tonnes of matter, and there are about the same number of air molecules in a cubic centimetre of atmosphere at sea level. If you had a cube ten kilometres on a side, composed entirely of millimetre cubes packed very tightly and very carefully together, there would be 10 to the 21st power millimetre cubes.

Also somewhat racist... maybe the hole is white