Sci-fi writer Isaac Asimov might be musing in his grave with the most recent of stranger-than-fiction scenarios which have hit the popular consciousness in recent months. This has something to do with the possibility of a man-made black hole gobbling up Earth; yep – the possibility is legit, or the allegations concerning it, at least. Now that the Large Hadron Collider is almost operational, the concerns of two scientists are put to the test.
The claims were indeed sensational and made for the tabloids: last March 21, Walter Wagner and Luis Sancho filed a lawsuit against the builders of the LHC, housed within the CERN laboratory in Switzerland. Both claim that the collider can spawn planet-devouring particles (miniature black holes), among other things. Now, to put things in the proper perspective, these claims are in fact nothing new: Wagner has previously proposed that the same thing could happen with a similar apparatus in Brookhaven National Laboratory, and nothing disastrous has ever happened to New York since the particle collider became fully operational in 2000, let alone to the Earth.
The idea is pregnant with possibilities nonetheless. The LHC does create microscopic black holes, but these exist for a minute fraction of a second before passing on into obscurity, and are ultimately harmless. The proposition of Wagner and Sancho that a multitude of such particles can somehow combine and feed on existing matter is stuff of science fiction, according to the opposing side. Other claims, like the formation ‘negative strangelets’ which modify all matter they touch, and the conversion of atoms into other types of matter by single-poled particles, have been dismissed by those who oppose the duo as virtually beyond the realm of possibility. But that’s for the courts and the public consensus to decide on as well.
The fact is, the collisions which the Large Haldron Collider intends to emulate are a common thing in nature. Particle collisions are inevitable when intensely-charged cosmic rays continuously bombard the Earth – if such impacts really posed a threat, everyone in the planet would have felt it long ago. But stating that something is even virtually impossible isn’t always easy in the all-probable field of science. There are scientists who are hard-pressed to agree with the consensus that the particle collider poses no potential threat. As long as there exists a sliver of possibility to the contrary, there will always be someone who’ll build up on it and distort it to sensational proportions.
The lawsuit ensues even as the launching of the Large Haldron Collider looms. Fortunately, the issue can be fully settled not through scientific debate, but by more definitive regulatory issues. CERN claims that it has complied with all European regulations to the letter. Once the collider becomes fully-functional though, the attention would shift from the negative uncertainties to the positive possibilities anyway, and the LHC would be put to good use. The issue is conversation fodder nonetheless, creating lively cocktail and chat room discussions, and it’ll only probably get that far. Doomsday soothsayers are entertaining at the very least, but it’s better to be amused with your fingers crossed nonetheless.
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