Rick Raw: Large Hadron Collider–Revving Up the Big Bang Machine

By Rick Grant rickgrant01@comcast.net www.rickatnight.com

In the dark forest near Lake Geneva, Switzerland, engineers and astrophysicists have constructed what amounts to a Big Bang Machine called the Large Hadron Collider, which is a cyclotron 17 miles in circumference that, with the aid of gigantic magnets, will accelerate subatomic particles to the speed of light and collide them, revealing new particles.

These new discoveries promise to solve some of the biggest mysteries of the universe. One of these particles is the highly touted Higgs boson, (particle) flippantly dubbed the God particle. All sorts of crackpots and doomsayers have speculated that when they crank up this mother of all cyclotrons, it will create a black hole and suck up earth. Nonsense, sayeth the learned scientists.

Today’s astrophysicists ponder such far-out concepts as what is dark matter and dark energy? Are they one in the same? Long ago, they discovered strange anomalies in distant galaxies, such as solar systems in which objects and planets orbited faster further away from its star. This would insinuate that there is variable gravity (which was nixed as being too unlikely). They speculated that there was another force besides gravity that is driving planets around other stars in ways that defy our astrophysics. In our solar system, planets closest to our sun orbit faster than far away objects or planets, which jives with our physics.

Dark matter is a term the LHC brainiacs use to describe the stuff (black matter/energy) that holds galaxies together besides gravity. Prominent astrophysicist have proposed the theory that dark energy and dark matter are composed of the same thing. Yes, dark energy could be called God or the higher energy, but astrophysicists keep their speculation secular.

Clearly, these scientists are close to defining how the universe works and how we are connected to it, that is, if the average person is paying attention. In today’s apathetic society, we know more about Britney Spears underwear, or lack thereof, than advances in science. Mention Large Hadron Collider to someone you just met, and their eyes will glass over. They just hit the disconnect switch in their brain. I see that often!

Nonetheless, The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) will recreate conditions that existed a millisecond before the big bang, enabling scientists to identify the undiscovered particles that will hopefully explain the niggling mysteries of the universe. Besides the massive LHC structure and magnets, there is 30,000 tons of electronics that work without anyone messing with them.

The particle detector itself weighs thousands of tons. The ring magnets serve to bend particles zipping around the collider ring at the speed of light. The funny thing is: The cadre of astrophysicists and other scientists will hit the start switch on Wednesday, Sept 10, 2008. It could be the Century’s biggest anticlimax. Well, it wasn’t. They turned it on and it worked! Hallelujah!

The idiots that think the LHC will create a humongous earth-eating black hole based their conclusion on speculation that the LHC could create small black holes in the detector chamber. These baby black holes would pose no threat. "The gravitational force is so weak that you’d have to wait many, many, many, many lifetimes of the universe before one of these black holes could get big enough to pose a problem," said John Huth, professor of physics at Harvard University.
In 2009, the LHC will begin smashing particles into each other by sending two beams of protons around the tunnel in opposite directions, operating at higher intensities in the next year. These experiments could produce new discoveries by late 2009. But will the masses care? No, but a few of us will watch with keen interest at what’s happening at the LHC.

You can sign up for Google Alerts on the Large Hadron Collider by going to Google Alerts and type in "Large Hadron Collider." Then follow the prompts.