[Lore]

Here is some real "Energy News" for ya!

Looks like we won't have to worry about all those nasty converging catastrophes after all.

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'T')his summer, physicists plan to throw the switch on what is arguably the largest and most complex science experiment ever conducted. An underground ring of superconducting magnets, reaching from Switzerland into France, will smash together subatomic particles at incredible force.

Physicists say they're not sure what will emerge from those collisions. They're hunting a mysterious, hypothetical particle called the Higgs boson. It is also possible they will make miniature black holes, or discover new dimensions of space-time.

[cube]

My gut tells me we're not going to be building these atom smashers in post PO world so we might as well enjoy the party now while it lasts.

[RdSnt]

Ah, isn't this the one that had a major blow-out last week?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/6522189.stm

[eastbay]

If there's a glimmer of hope for a new technological solution to the energy disaster it just might come from a contraption such as this.

This is the ultimate energy news.

[PeakOiler]

Great. Can I buy a used one on EBAY?

[steam_cannon]

Mind you all, tiny black holes are safe and occur in nature. When this sort of article refers to a black hole like object, they mean a couple particles in mass total. At that size/energy the black hole evaporates faster then it can take in mass.

Black holes evaporate? Seems so, though a process called Hawking radiation particle/anti-partocle pairs appear randomly out of the ether everywhere. These short lived particle pairs pop-up and quickly cancel each other out, like waves on the ocean. If the black hole is small these particle pairs dissipate it's energy quickly. Simply, like waves filling up a boat that is too low on the water.

The best reason to think this huge contraption is safe? Naturally the earth is hit every minute with cosmic ray collisions with significantly more energy then this device can produce. This device just creates an environment where we can study these collisions and learn from them.

That is, unless this particle collider is a doomsday device! hah hah hah

By the way, my favorite improbable doomsday device is Ice Nine.
"A fictional water crystal that grows off of normal water and is stable at room temperature."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ice_nine

But perhaps more dangerous could be a real ice that burns...

"Methane Catastrophes in Earth's Past and Near Future"
http://www.bautforum.com/showthread.php?p=661775

Some say the world will end in fire,
Some say in ice.
From what I've tasted of desire
I hold with those who favor fire.
But if it had to perish twice,
I think I know enough of hate
To know that for destruction ice
Is also great
And would suffice.
By Robert Frost (1874-1963) (Poem first published in Harper's Magazine, December issue 1920)

[Cobra_Strike]

Micro black holes would be incredibly cool! Think of all the sandy countries they could be fired at...

[Tanada]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Lore', 'H')ere is some real "Energy News" for ya!

Looks like we won't have to worry about all those nasty converging catastrophes after all.

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'T')his summer, physicists plan to throw the switch on what is arguably the largest and most complex science experiment ever conducted. An underground ring of superconducting magnets, reaching from Switzerland into France, will smash together subatomic particles at incredible force.

Physicists say they're not sure what will emerge from those collisions. They're hunting a mysterious, hypothetical particle called the Higgs boson. It is also possible they will make miniature black holes, or discover new dimensions of space-time.

[steam_cannon]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('cube', 'M')y gut tells me we're not going to be building these atom smashers in post PO world so we might as well enjoy the party now while it lasts.

[mekrob]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'M')ind you all, tiny black holes are safe and occur in nature.

[SD_Scott]

Looks like it would make a nice homeless shelter.

[gg3]

I'll stand with those who say that bold science is worth doing even in a world of declining resources. The only way out is up, through expanding our knowledge of how the physical universe works, and using the knowledge intelligently.

Those who denigrate such things are boobs, and not the kind that women enjoy having.

Now we can see how it happened throughout history that hooting mobs have burned libraries. I for one will gladly join a grassroots army to defend the libraries from the hooting mobs.

[TheDude]

Ever read about the scientists guarding the seed stores in Leningrad during the Nazi siege? Scientists are quite fanatical about their work at times.

Martin Rees, for one, thinks not all of this work we are doing is entirely benign:

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'S')ir Martin's two strongest points are:

In many fields of scientific and technological research, notably biology and particle physics, we are now tinkering with deep fundamentals that we don't completely understand.

There is a tremendous "force multiplier" effect in a lot of modern and soon-to-come technologies that will give malign small groups, or even malign individuals, the power to wreak terrible havoc.

There is not much doubt that he is right. On the first point, for instance, he notes that we can now create physical situations and processes that do not occur in the natural universe at all. He cites the gravitational wave detector at Stanford University. It contains a metal bar weighing over a ton, cooled to within a tiny fraction of a degree of absolute zero (minus 459° Fahrenheit). Unless there are extraterrestrial intelligences conducting similar experiments somewhere, this is easily the coldest large object in the universe. The midwinter night-time surface of Pluto is not that cold; inter-galactic space is not that cold; nothing in nature is that cold, because the "background radiation" left over from the Big Bang keeps the universe simmering at a steady 3 degrees above absolute zero. The entire universe resembles the interior of a microwave oven; the Stanford experimenters have shielded their equipment from that background radiation by very ingenious means.

[JPL]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('mekrob', '
')
Has there been any confirmation of mini BH's in nature?

[FairMaiden]

I was speaking with a friend on the w/end who told me "peak oil" was a dead issue bc of fusion energy. I was aware of its potential and the research surrounding it - but he claims it was "all over the news" that they have worked out the bugs and are building the infrastructure. I've been googling all day and I can't seem to find any of this new...anyone know where fusion is at with regards to implementation?

[thylacine]

As far as I'm aware the cutting edge of fusion research is (is going to be) ITER, currently under construction in France. There was a thread somewhere on this site in the last month or so that stated that all they've done is build a fence and a school! Construction should be complete by 2009, operational by 2016 and (all going well) being rolled out as commercial power plants by 2040.

It's hard not to get cynical with these predictions though. I remember science programmes when I was growing up in the 70s that held out the promise of limitless, clean fusion power in another 40 years.

Maybe if we spent our money wisely on "big science" that may actually be of some use, rather than spiffy looking machines to make bosons, blackholes and other bullshit. Personally I think fusion is worth chasing, whereas Higgs-bosons I'm not so sure about.

The big question about fusion is: are we mature enough as a species not to use the extra energy to help us keep on breeding like yeast and further degrading the earth?

[EnergyUnlimited]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('mekrob', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'M')ind you all, tiny black holes are safe and occur in nature.

[EnergyUnlimited]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('ferrelgiraffe', 'D')on't worry, fusion is not possible sustainably. Like ethanol.