The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is the largest particle accelerator ever built that resides near Geneva. The collider’s purpose is to smash two protons together at extremely high speeds in an attempt to simulate the conditions created moments after the Big Bang. This has worried many of the world’s citizens as it is supposed to create a series of small black holes. It has been labeled on the internet as the “THE END OF THE WORLD!”
However, due to a recent helium leak, work with the LHC has been halted for another year. Scientists say the leak occurred after a faulty electrical connection shorted on the magnets that guide the protons. The helium keeps the magnets cooled to temperatures close to absolute zero (-273 Celsius). In order to fix the problem the room has to be slowly heated back up, the electrical error needs to be fixed, and then it needs to be slowly recooled. This will take up to the time when the lab closes for the winter season. Scientists have claimed the collider will be up and running again by April of 2009, if everything goes according to plan.
xPirate’s thought on the topic: The thing you’re probably all dying to hear is, do I think the LHC will be the cause of the end of the world? Well, if it keeps facing technical difficulties until 2012, then just maybe! We shouldn’t be worried too much about the LHC. If the world’s top physicists aren’t worried, then we have no reason to be. I mean, the atom bomb was supposed to set the atmosphere on fire. So who do we trust, a bunch of internet crazed maniacs who post pictures of a CERN physicist that looks like a Half-Life 2 character, or some of the brightest minds in the world?
What we really need to be worried about is what is going to happen in 2012 when the magnetic field reverses and the north and south pole suddenly switch places. The entire world flipping upside down in a matter of seconds? That’s TRUE danger if you ask me. Or maybe we need to be worrying about the collapsing economy. But I suppose that’s for another blog.
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