Re: Black hole, strangelets and space phase transition at LHC?

vantuyll@xxxxxxxxx wrote:

> CERN's LHC is scheduled to start operation in 2007.
>
> Our Final Century, a 2003 book by Sir Martin Rees
> (http://www.ast.cam.ac.uk/IoA/staff/mjr/), a scientist with impeccable
> credentials, describes the following extreme risks:
>
> Crashing together an atom of gold and an atom of lead in the LHC could
> result in an unprecedented implosion. A black hole could form, a
> stranglet might be produced, or a phase transition of space could
> expand at the speed of light.
>
> Is this nonsense, or is it a risk, however remote?

The BH is probably not worth worrying about, since depending on your POV it
would either be too small to do any damage in any reasonable time or it would
evapourate too quickly.

The phase transition also seems unlikely given that far greater energies exist
in various parts of the universe and we are still here.

Not too sure about strangelets, however.

It would explain the Fermi Paradox however...

--
Dirk

The Consensus:-
The political party for the new millenium
http://www.theconsensus.org

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