Despite Rumors, Black Hole Factory Will Not Destroy Earth

[John21]

Scientists could generate a black hole as often as every second when the world's most powerful particle accelerator comes online in 2007.

This potential "black hole factory" has raised fears that a stray black hole could devour our planet whole. The Lifeboat Foundation, a nonprofit organization devoted to safeguarding humanity from what it considers threats to our existence, has stated that artificial black holes could "threaten all life on Earth" and so it proposes to set up "self-sustaining colonies elsewhere."

Link to article:
http://www.livescience.com/forcesofnature/060919_black_holes.html

[luckyme]

Sounds safe enough ... I hope..

From the same article -

[ QUOTE ]
If the Large Hadron Collider does create black holes, not only will it prove that extra dimensions of the universe exist, but the radiation that decaying black holes emit could yield clues that help finally unite all the current ideas about the forces of nature under a "theory of everything."

[/ QUOTE ]

Ok, I'm getting tired of hearing conflicting claims about the availability of evidence for concepts like string theory. I've heard of this experiment before and yet I still read comments that "string theory is pseudo-science with no way to test for it".

There was another possible test mentioned that I can't recall, but does anyone on here have a better grasp of the validity of the tests and the boost they would give to any theory of more dimensions?

luckyme in 3D

[FortunaMaximus]

Yeah, it's safe enough. Timescales of consumption of matter are glacial if it's spitting out microscopic black holes. Frankly, the fact that there are trillionths of a gram of antimatter somewhere worries me slightly more. Boom, not even spaghettifaction to make it interesting.


[ QUOTE ]
A number of models of the universe suggest extra dimensions of reality exist that are each folded up into sizes ranging from as tiny as a proton, or roughly a millionth of a billionth of a meter, to as big as a fraction of a millimeter. At distances comparable to the size of these extra dimensions

[/ QUOTE ]

This has always bothered me more though. Uh, was considering the possibility it was an inverse perception, that the theory might be looking at the wrong scale direction...

Matter/antimatter.

If such a scale mirror's possible, maybe the antimatter's not "missing" but rather the scale of those extra dimensions are actually bigger. Much bigger in the other direction. Poof, there goes the missing 90% mass we can't detect, 'cause that's the missing antimatter.

Naw, couldn't be that easy, could it? Heh.

[ QUOTE ]
We can test the hypothesis by studying very high-energy collisions between protons and antiprotons, at the Tevatron collider. If extra dimensions exist, they would be responsible for the occurrence of funny collisions when the protons break apart, emitting a dense and energetic stream of particles in one direction - a jet, that is - and nothing on the opposite side.

That is a quite distinctive signature: only very few competing processes predicted by the Standard Model can produce a energetic jet recoiling against a undetected particle (which, in the case of extra dimensions, is a graviton).

The CDF collaboration studied that signature, looking for events with a jet of large energy (transverse component larger than 150 GeV) and invisible energy above 120 GeV - the energy the graviton might be carrying away unseen.

[/ QUOTE ]

Sneaky little [censored].

Rest can be found here: http://dorigo.wordpress.com/2006/05/05/searching-for-extra-dimensions/

See what that sparks. 'night.

[Praxis101]

[ QUOTE ]
There was another possible test mentioned that I can't recall, but does anyone on here have a better grasp of the validity of the tests and the boost they would give to any theory of more dimensions?


[/ QUOTE ]

I'm not sure if this is what your're looking for, but:

Tests regarding these "theories of everything" are nonexistant thusfar because there is an inexplicable force acting in the universe which scientists have been unable to identify. Some believe it is a "gravitron," an actual particle or some such thing that is accountable for the force of gravity.

Whatever it is, to my knowledge (admittedly minimal, from watching movies like "The Elegant Universe" and some reading) scientists are awaiting the arrival of this discovery before they can really progress our understanding of the universe to a new level.

Hope that helps /images/graemlins/cool.gif

[Praxis101]

[ QUOTE ]
Yeah, it's safe enough. Timescales of consumption of matter are glacial if it's spitting out microscopic black holes. Frankly, the fact that there are trillionths of a gram of antimatter somewhere worries me slightly more. Boom, not even spaghettifaction to make it interesting.


[ QUOTE ]
A number of models of the universe suggest extra dimensions of reality exist that are each folded up into sizes ranging from as tiny as a proton, or roughly a millionth of a billionth of a meter, to as big as a fraction of a millimeter. At distances comparable to the size of these extra dimensions

[/ QUOTE ]

This has always bothered me more though. Uh, was considering the possibility it was an inverse perception, that the theory might be looking at the wrong scale direction...

Matter/antimatter.

If such a scale mirror's possible, maybe the antimatter's not "missing" but rather the scale of those extra dimensions are actually bigger. Much bigger in the other direction. Poof, there goes the missing 90% mass we can't detect, 'cause that's the missing antimatter.

Naw, couldn't be that easy, could it? Heh.

[ QUOTE ]
We can test the hypothesis by studying very high-energy collisions between protons and antiprotons, at the Tevatron collider. If extra dimensions exist, they would be responsible for the occurrence of funny collisions when the protons break apart, emitting a dense and energetic stream of particles in one direction - a jet, that is - and nothing on the opposite side.

That is a quite distinctive signature: only very few competing processes predicted by the Standard Model can produce a energetic jet recoiling against a undetected particle (which, in the case of extra dimensions, is a graviton).

The CDF collaboration studied that signature, looking for events with a jet of large energy (transverse component larger than 150 GeV) and invisible energy above 120 GeV - the energy the graviton might be carrying away unseen.

[/ QUOTE ]

Sneaky little [censored].

Rest can be found here: http://dorigo.wordpress.com/2006/05/05/searching-for-extra-dimensions/

See what that sparks. 'night.

[/ QUOTE ]

Spark!!!!

I just read this. It is fascinating.

Two or three years ago was the first time I really understood the theory of relativity. That blew my mind or whathave you, and string theory to a smaller extent (only until the missing force is explained) did as well.

It seems as though we know some possibilties of what the next ground breaking discovery might be. And perhaps we are even close - very compelling.

Very good explination, FM, thanks.