epic day
i told you, there's a crazy scientist living within me - and he's overexcited about something that might well be one of the most important events of the century: the switching on of the large hadron collider (lhc) at cern's laboratories in geneva, switzerland.
for those who don't know (go to google news immediately, and make some media research on the subject), the lhc is basically a particle accelerator, a device that, surprisingly enough, accelerates particles smaller than an atom. cern's particle accelerator lies under the city of geneva: imagine a twenty-seven kilometre wide ring of mesh and metal buried somewhere between fifty and hundred and fifty metres below the city. so basically that's it. the switching on of the device will send a beam or magnet-driven particles running in circles at near-light speed. for now. soon, scientists will send another beam to the race, this one running in the opposite direction. and out of the particle's collisions, scientists expect to emulate the seconds that followed the big bang. but there's more: they also expect to unveil the secrets of dark matter, antimatter, supersymmetry.... all this while they don't have to bother about keeping their beers cold, for the lhc is cold enough itself (some minus two-hundred and something degrees).
fascinating, isn't it?
now there has been some uproar about this experiment. there is a small (really small) chance the lhc can create a black hole. yes, a black hole: most people seem to think that a black hole is a wicked whirlwing living in the outer space that does nothing but to swallow asteroids, coments, planets and even stars though is ravenous mouth, sending them to kingdom come. while this is not completely wrong, it isn't also quite true: what exactly are black holes i know not, but they simply have a very powerful gravitational pull (so powerful that it can even bend light to its will), and curiously enough, is that gravitational pull that makes the core of many galaxies - including ours - active. yes, out little milky way, apparently, has a mean black hole - or rather, a supermassive black hole (not muse's song, mind you) - in its spinning core. anyway, chances are little that the lhc can make even a microscopic black hole that would consume itself up right after its creation, let alone a black hole big enough to swallow the earth and the solar system. which matters not for many - in all the ages of manking, heralds of doom were never in short supply, after all. many people, including scientists, have tried to stop cern's acceleration of particles in court - all to no avail, thankfully. others consider the project's cost obcene: some eight billion euros, which is something like 0,00-something of the world's gdp. peanunts, i say, considering what's at stake. stephen hawking said something like, if the human race can't afford this, then it doesn't deserve the "human" title. quoted for truth.
of course, some quicky drew their pointy fingers to the revered scientist: with the money cern has burned into the device, many children could be saved from starvation. i know it's a silly argument, since both things are not even remotely connected, but coherence was never an issue to any herald of woe. the problem is not how many is spent in science (too little if you ask me); it's rather how many is not spent on helping out. and, of course, the big problem is how many money western countries give for helping out countries, and how those countries' corrupt leaders take it all for themselves, leaving their people in misery, but this would be too much i suppose. others say that spending eight billion euros in a particle accelerator is a waste of money, since no real outcome will come out of those experiments - as if knowledge was not enough of an outcome.
some people really never change.
anyway, i've written to much about it, and even though i like science a lot, i understand little of it, so i'll redirect you now for some articles on the media about the lhc and cern:
this one, on the times - be sure to read the comments, they're hillarious.
this one, on the independent.
for those who don't know (go to google news immediately, and make some media research on the subject), the lhc is basically a particle accelerator, a device that, surprisingly enough, accelerates particles smaller than an atom. cern's particle accelerator lies under the city of geneva: imagine a twenty-seven kilometre wide ring of mesh and metal buried somewhere between fifty and hundred and fifty metres below the city. so basically that's it. the switching on of the device will send a beam or magnet-driven particles running in circles at near-light speed. for now. soon, scientists will send another beam to the race, this one running in the opposite direction. and out of the particle's collisions, scientists expect to emulate the seconds that followed the big bang. but there's more: they also expect to unveil the secrets of dark matter, antimatter, supersymmetry.... all this while they don't have to bother about keeping their beers cold, for the lhc is cold enough itself (some minus two-hundred and something degrees).
fascinating, isn't it?
now there has been some uproar about this experiment. there is a small (really small) chance the lhc can create a black hole. yes, a black hole: most people seem to think that a black hole is a wicked whirlwing living in the outer space that does nothing but to swallow asteroids, coments, planets and even stars though is ravenous mouth, sending them to kingdom come. while this is not completely wrong, it isn't also quite true: what exactly are black holes i know not, but they simply have a very powerful gravitational pull (so powerful that it can even bend light to its will), and curiously enough, is that gravitational pull that makes the core of many galaxies - including ours - active. yes, out little milky way, apparently, has a mean black hole - or rather, a supermassive black hole (not muse's song, mind you) - in its spinning core. anyway, chances are little that the lhc can make even a microscopic black hole that would consume itself up right after its creation, let alone a black hole big enough to swallow the earth and the solar system. which matters not for many - in all the ages of manking, heralds of doom were never in short supply, after all. many people, including scientists, have tried to stop cern's acceleration of particles in court - all to no avail, thankfully. others consider the project's cost obcene: some eight billion euros, which is something like 0,00-something of the world's gdp. peanunts, i say, considering what's at stake. stephen hawking said something like, if the human race can't afford this, then it doesn't deserve the "human" title. quoted for truth.
of course, some quicky drew their pointy fingers to the revered scientist: with the money cern has burned into the device, many children could be saved from starvation. i know it's a silly argument, since both things are not even remotely connected, but coherence was never an issue to any herald of woe. the problem is not how many is spent in science (too little if you ask me); it's rather how many is not spent on helping out. and, of course, the big problem is how many money western countries give for helping out countries, and how those countries' corrupt leaders take it all for themselves, leaving their people in misery, but this would be too much i suppose. others say that spending eight billion euros in a particle accelerator is a waste of money, since no real outcome will come out of those experiments - as if knowledge was not enough of an outcome.
some people really never change.
anyway, i've written to much about it, and even though i like science a lot, i understand little of it, so i'll redirect you now for some articles on the media about the lhc and cern:
this one, on the times - be sure to read the comments, they're hillarious.
this one, on the independent.
this one, in (brazilian) portuguese, in o globo.
for an even better laugh, check the comment left by readers on some portuguese newspapers' websites. like this one, and this one, in público.
for further information, check wikipedia. you'll find pretty much everything about it in a way that even my turtle would understand.
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