Log In | Register
CARLOZ
Welcome / Bienvenido
Articles Posted: 162; Links Seeded: 2583
Member Since: 8/2008Last Seen: 2/09/2010
Member Since: 8/2008Last Seen: 2/09/2010
10 Votes
23 Comments
A particle God doesn't want us to discover? Physicists say the Collider could be getting sabotaged from the future to avert disaster
News Type: Event — Seeded on Tue Oct 20, 2009 5:11 PM EDT
Article Source: The Timesadvertisement
Explosions, scientists arrested for alleged terrorism, mysterious breakdowns — recently Cern's Large Hadron Collider (LHC) has begun to look like the world's most ill-fated experiment.
Is it really nothing more than bad luck or is there something weirder at work? Such speculation generally belongs to the lunatic fringe, but serious scientists have begun to suggest that the frequency of Cern's accidents and problems is far more than a coincidence.
The LHC, they suggest, may be sabotaging itself from the future — twisting time to generate a series of scientific setbacks that will prevent the machine fulfilling its destiny.
At first sight, this theory fits comfortably into the crackpot tradition linking the start-up of the LHC with terrible disasters. The best known is that the £3 billion particle accelerator might trigger a black hole capable of swallowing the Earth when it gets going. Scientists enjoy laughing at this one.
This time, however, their ridicule has been rather muted — because the time travel idea has come from two distinguished physicists who have backed it with rigorous mathematics.
What Holger Bech Nielsen, of the Niels Bohr Institute in Copenhagen, and Masao Ninomiya of the Yukawa Institute for Theoretical Physics in Kyoto, are suggesting is that the Higgs boson, the particle that physicists hope to produce with the collider, might be "abhorrent to nature".
What does that mean? According to Nielsen, it means that the creation of the boson at some point in the future would then ripple backwards through time to put a stop to whatever it was that had created it in the first place.
Published to:
- Public Discussion (23)
- Bar Room Debates
- NewsVine Addicts
- Newsvine International
- Nightly News (Old)
- Paranormal Viners
- Science And Technology
- Science Fiction
- The Vine 12 Step
- To MSNBC
What's this?
Who's leading the conversation?
This visualization below allows you to see the impact that each user
has on the current conversation.
The top row contains the group of users who have had the most impact, the 2nd
row the group of users who have had the 2nd most impact (et cetera).
Users with similar impact are grouped together, and the average score of the group
is shown to the left of the group. The author of the article is also shown on the
left, in their corresponding group.
Each user's score is based on the number of comments the user has made plus the
number of votes their comments have received. The scores are calculated relative
one another, so while their absolute value is not particularly important, their
relative difference does indicate a larger difference in impact on the conversation.
24
8.1
{"commentId":10189591,"authorDomain":"carloz"}
This is, of course, far from being the first science scare linked to the LHC. Over the years it has been the target of protests, wild speculation and court injunctions.
Fiction writers have naturally seized on the subject. In Angels and Demons, Dan Brown sets out a diabolical plot in which the Vatican City is threatened with annihilation from a bomb based on antimatter stolen from Cern.
Blasphemy, a novel from Douglas Preston, the bestselling science-fiction author, draws on similar themes, with a story about a mad physicist who wants to use a particle accelerator to communicate with God. The physicist may be American and the machine located in America, rather than Switzerland, but the links are clear.
Even Five, the TV channel, has got in on the act by screening FlashForward, an American series based on Robert Sawyer’s novel of the same name in which the start-up of the LHC causes the Earth’s population to black out for two minutes when they experience visions of their personal futures 21 years hence. This gives them a chance to change that future.
Scientists normally hate to see their ideas perverted and twisted by the ignorant, but in recent years many physicists have learnt to welcome the way the LHC has become a part of popular culture. Cern even encourages film-makers to use the machine as a backdrop for their productions, often without charging them.
Nielsen presents them with a dilemma. Should they treat his suggestions as fact or fiction? Most would like to dismiss him, but his status means they have to offer some kind of science-based rebuttal.
{"commentId":10189591,"threadId":"705789","contentId":"3403160","authorDomain":"carloz"}
- 3 votes
#1 - Tue Oct 20, 2009 5:13 PM EDT{"commentId":10189655,"authorDomain":"carloz"}
I'm no authority on time travel, in fact I've made it my goal in life to avoid it, but this sounds to me like a causality paradox!
{"commentId":10189655,"threadId":"705789","contentId":"3403160","authorDomain":"carloz"}
- 4 votes
{"commentId":10192176,"authorDomain":"shub"}
So long as science doesn't accidentally blow up the earth while we are still living I'm fine with it.
{"commentId":10192176,"threadId":"705789","contentId":"3403160","authorDomain":"shub"}
- 3 votes
#2 - Tue Oct 20, 2009 8:19 PM EDT{"commentId":10193780,"authorDomain":"alysmum"}
While I'm no physicist, I've been enjoying the heck out of all the heebie-jeebies CERN has caused with its back hole worries. And the entertainment value for a scifi lover like myself has been immense.
However, when serious physicists begin looking at the situation and speculating as the article suggests, I gotta at least stop giggling and take notice.
Fascinating subject and seed.
{"commentId":10193780,"threadId":"705789","contentId":"3403160","authorDomain":"alysmum"}
- 4 votes
#3 - Tue Oct 20, 2009 10:33 PM EDT{"commentId":10193998,"authorDomain":"pennid"}
I'm still giggling, but I'm a hard core skeptic. I still think Santa might be a hoax.
{"commentId":10193998,"threadId":"705789","contentId":"3403160","authorDomain":"pennid"}
- 3 votes
{"commentId":10215571,"authorDomain":"alysmum"}
He may be, but the Easter bunnie's real. I got a picture of him with my kid. As proof! And he is one big, honkin' rabbit, too.
{"commentId":10215571,"threadId":"705789","contentId":"3403160","authorDomain":"alysmum"}
- 2 votes
{"commentId":10194770,"authorDomain":"augurwell"}
Preposterous! Just more responses from the hype imagined in the heads of a few FICTION writers, note the word "fiction" and extrapolated to fit the mathematics suggested by Nielson. It appears his mathematics is speaking more towards defining just one possible discovery if the Higgs is created, one among many possible discoveries the LHC may provide, of defining one of the elements of string theory.
Creating a Higgs boson MAY create ripples extending, using string theory's premise of multiple universes, thru those strings, back in time, is what Nielson is suggesting.
And this is the first time I've ever seen in print Szilard got his inspiration for eventually writing his famous letter to Einstein from the book The World Set Free, as writer Peter Smith appears to be hinting at, as Szilard had been working on the physics of generating a chain reaction for years. Sounds like he's plugging in a justification for his own work there.
{"commentId":10194770,"threadId":"705789","contentId":"3403160","authorDomain":"augurwell"}
- 4 votes
#4 - Tue Oct 20, 2009 11:59 PM EDT{"commentId":10194891,"authorDomain":"pennid"}
The French always say "cherchez la femme," which means "look for the woman" (when there is trouble). The new saying should be "look for the dollar trail." Sad, but so true.
{"commentId":10194891,"threadId":"705789","contentId":"3403160","authorDomain":"pennid"}
- 3 votes
{"commentId":10210457,"authorDomain":"alysmum"}
It will make one heck of an exciting movie, tho'......But seriously, I do wish the folks at CERN would just get on with it already. For every person like myself who enjoys this whole Apocalyptic thing as entertainment, there are plenty of others who aren't amused. As soon as they do their thing at CERN, the worriers can can stop worrying that they're about to get sucked into a black hole. (Or whatever.).... 'Course then they'll go back to worrying about 2012
{"commentId":10210457,"threadId":"705789","contentId":"3403160","authorDomain":"alysmum"}
- 3 votes
{"commentId":10212163,"authorDomain":"pennid"}
If we don't get sucked into a black hole, I do have my Mayan calendar. Does anyone know the exact month and day it will all end? I have shopping to do, I want to look nice for the end, you know.
{"commentId":10212163,"threadId":"705789","contentId":"3403160","authorDomain":"pennid"}
- 2 votes
{"commentId":10212322,"authorDomain":"augurwell"}
(Oh, Good Grief! Not our dear PenniD too! It's not too late, dear one! Follow me, I can help you, just walk away, please, just walk away!)
(as Augur tries desperately to intervene and save her from the doomer/gloomer silliness)
(*pinkgrins*!)
{"commentId":10212322,"threadId":"705789","contentId":"3403160","authorDomain":"augurwell"}
- 3 votes
{"commentId":10212682,"authorDomain":"pennid"}
So what are you wearing for the end of the world? This is important stuff.
{"commentId":10212682,"threadId":"705789","contentId":"3403160","authorDomain":"pennid"}
- 2 votes
{"commentId":10214156,"authorDomain":"augurwell"}
Oh, Good Gracious!
(Augur slowly shaking his head from side to side........felling the irresistable pull of conspiracy-itis on his being....)
Well, it'll probably be a t-shirt, shorts or swim trunks, sandals, and a Margarita in one hand and a piece of jerk chicken in the other, as I'll probably be sitting on my porch watching the tsunami generated by the Mt. Everest sized asteroid that slammed into the western Atlantic come rolling over me and my beach house.
At the least, I'll have a front row seat! (*2012pinkgrins*!)
{"commentId":10214156,"threadId":"705789","contentId":"3403160","authorDomain":"augurwell"}
- 2 votes
{"commentId":10215534,"authorDomain":"alysmum"}
Penni,
12/21/12. Get it? All those 1's and 2's and zeros. Apparently, the end of the world uses the Julian calendar just like we do, instead of any of the other possibilities. Pretty amazing!
{"commentId":10215534,"threadId":"705789","contentId":"3403160","authorDomain":"alysmum"}
{"commentId":10216558,"authorDomain":"pennid"}
Actually, this is great news. I am not really into shopping, so if the world is going to end four days before Christmas in 2012, at least that year I won't have to.
I am kind of messy and my end of the world outfit is white. Every time I wear white, I slop something on it. I can wear any other light color without this phenomena, but white always ends up with a stain. I really do want to look my best for the end, so do you have an approximate time for the end? I think I'd prefer to change into my white end-of-the-world outfit about 15 minutes prior.
{"commentId":10216558,"threadId":"705789","contentId":"3403160","authorDomain":"pennid"}
- 1 vote
{"commentId":10278026,"authorDomain":"alysmum"}
Penni, Not sure about the actual time of day. I'll let you know if I find anything, tho'.
White, huh? Nice. I was planning to wear black myself as my end of the world outfit. I thought it'd be just my luck to get stuck in the black hole with a lot of Manhattan sophisticates, so I wanted to look extra-chic. But if it's gonna be the 2012 thing instead of CERN, I may want to rethink that.
{"commentId":10278026,"threadId":"705789","contentId":"3403160","authorDomain":"alysmum"}
- 4 votes
{"commentId":10279492,"authorDomain":"pennid"}
If I am going to be sucked into a black hole whether from CERN or through 2012, I want to be able to reflect all available light. I figure with the white hair, the white untan-able skin and the white clothing, somebody might be able to grab on and we could at least try to figure out what to do together.
On the other hand, the sophisticated look sounds good.
{"commentId":10279492,"threadId":"705789","contentId":"3403160","authorDomain":"pennid"}
- 2 votes
{"commentId":10279603,"authorDomain":"augurwell"}
nope, still margaritas and sandals for me! (*withalittlereggaeplayin'inthebackroundpinkgrins*!)
{"commentId":10279603,"threadId":"705789","contentId":"3403160","authorDomain":"augurwell"}
- 3 votes
{"commentId":10366438,"authorDomain":"alysmum"}
That's cool, Augur. Jimmy Buffet tunes? I like the idea of having something upbeat to listen to as everything goes splat! Or whoosh! Or boom! Or...hmm. Wonder what ya hear in a black hole. Nothing? Or everything?
Penni. Hmm. Ya might just buy yourself a nanosecond or two. Nothing wrong with that.
{"commentId":10366438,"threadId":"705789","contentId":"3403160","authorDomain":"alysmum"}
- 2 votes
{"commentId":10368378,"authorDomain":"pennid"}
I have been counting nanos for years. Saving them up, actually. I should have quite a supply by the end of the world.
{"commentId":10368378,"threadId":"705789","contentId":"3403160","authorDomain":"pennid"}
- 2 votes
{"commentId":10369643,"authorDomain":"alysmum"}
We need to get a new plan at our house. Ours doesn't let us save our nanos.
{"commentId":10369643,"threadId":"705789","contentId":"3403160","authorDomain":"alysmum"}
- 2 votes
{"commentId":10369671,"authorDomain":"pennid"}
I can spare a few. Be glad to shoot you 5 or 6 nanos, no problem.
{"commentId":10369671,"threadId":"705789","contentId":"3403160","authorDomain":"pennid"}
- 1 vote
{"commentId":10369908,"authorDomain":"alysmum"}
Oh, my gosh! Thanks! That'd make such a difference!
{"commentId":10369908,"threadId":"705789","contentId":"3403160","authorDomain":"alysmum"}
- 2 votes
{"canLink":false,"threadId":"705789","isPrivate":false}
You're in Easy Mode. If you prefer, you can use XHTML Mode instead. |
As a new user, you may notice a few temporary content restrictions. Click here for more info.
Start Tracking
Stop TrackingCOMPANY STUFF:
LEGAL STUFF:
- © 2005-2010 Newsvine, Inc. |
- Newsvine® is a registered trademark of Newsvine, Inc. |
- Newsvine is a property of
