It’s rare that I give you any piece of real valuable information, so today I’ll fix it. You can thank me later (but not much later).
The world is ending, in like 4 days.
Okay, that’s a bit on the dramatic side, let me dial it down a bit:
“The world is potentially ending, in like 4 days.” Better? Good. To understand why, first: a little history, a little physics, and a little science. But before that, here’s a pretty picture of our impending doom.
Now, if I were being paid to do this, I would use the internet to research this, and make sure it was scientifically correct. I would use jargon that made you feel like you were just a little bit out of your league, and you would perhaps learn something. But since this is fah free, you get the lazy distillation. It will probably be inaccurate, but It’ll probably make more sense this way.
A long time ago, the universe started up. At that time there was this particle, called the Higgs Boson particle. It was a big deal, because it started up the universe. It was the existential jump off. Scientists, who are not known for being particularly creative went ahead and nicknamed this “The God Particle.” When scientists get creative AND mix theology and science together, you know they mean business. This is a very serious particle.
Well, rather than cure cancer, or hangovers, they’ve spent a lot of time and money trying to figure out how to recreate the OMFG Particle, which just seems like a huge waste of time and money, in addition to being a Very Bad Idea. Alas, I am but a lay person and maybe there is some merit to a unifying theory but I’d much rather not have the headache I have at the moment. Or a propensity for cancer.
So, they want to create this God Particle, just for shits and giggles. But not all scientists are for this. Some scientists are against this. Some think that this is a huge disaster. Some people think that this is going to create a huge black hole, and destroy the earth. Others think that it’ll destroy the entire solar system. Unfortunately, there’s no telling who is the Doc Brown in this particular scientist tete-a-tete.
http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://gadgetmaniac.mail2web.com/uploads/2308/98210.jpg&imgrefurl=http://gadgetmaniac.mail2web.com/2006/11/lhc-the-large-hadron-collider/&h=480&w=300&sz=36&hl=en&start=7&sig2=zVv9HphTcgWYn1tXbPY0kA&um=1&tbnid=kEK-U7hG1qdB8M:&tbnh=129&tbnw=81&ei=OxiWSLfUB6bceqqKxKAJ&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dhadron%2Bcollider%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26safe%3Doff%26client%3Dfirefox-a%26rls%3Dorg.mozilla:en-US:official%26sa%3DN
About 10 years ago I read this book called “Flash Forward” which was about this time “in the future” (2009 seemed far away) when they humanity built, and then turned on the Large Hadron Collider. Instead of the earth evaporating, everyone got a twenty year flashforward of their -consciousness- for a few minutes. Like, the opposite of deja vu. They were living in the future, but it was for minutes, or seconds.
Anyway. So. I’m hoping they turn this thing on, and that it doesnt end the universe, but that it gives me a 20 year flash forward, and I am ridiculously happy. I would also settle for them turning it on and absolutely NOTHING happening except for the appearance of a confused, but adorable baby kitten.
Chew on -that- cuteness, science.
wait wait, so you posted this on sunday… does that mean the world is gonna end on a wednesday? that’s so typically uneventful. oh well. guess it’s time to hit those expensive restaurants i’ve been meaning to try.
We should all take a personal day off work when they turn that gateway on, just in case. Like I really want to be at work when I get sucked into a black hole, holla(r), whatever!? Course if it doesn’t work they could turn it into a really cool dance club, or a Terminator 5 set, or an underground fallout olympic track backup site, or an alien cat scan. “Seems” we’ll be ok, for awhile, maybe: http://discovermagazine.com/2008/aug/24-the-extremely-long-odds-against-the-destruction-of-earth
im still alive
I think its time for you to go to school.
A) We’re still alive. One year later.
B) The LHC WON”T kill us all when it is used to it’s full potential. You would most likely believe that theory if you had a degree in particle physics. I don’t know if you do or don’t, but i am pretty sure you don’t (no offense if you do).
C) “It’s going to fucking kill you dead.”, as opposed to killing us alive?
D) They want to create the Higgs Boson, a.k.a God Particle, to test, examine, and understand the big bang theory.
E) Where is the science in the 3 minute 20 year flash forward?
F) Regarding the kitten, no organic matter will be used inside the LHC, so there is no potential for life to evolve inside the LHC at all.
G) If the world does end then you and many other people have the added benefit of sueing CERN in heaven/hell/whatever you believe in.
H) Millions of protons will be colliding with eachother at 99.9% the speed of light, so the result of nothing happening is completely rediculous.
One more thing, the media nicknamed Higgs Boson the “God Particle”, not scientists.