Re: [Phys-l] Flurry of LHC "End of the world" nonsense

["John Clement" <clement@hal-pc.org>]

Well at least they are paying a little attention to physics.

Of course the sort of things people worry about are often the low
probability items, while more certain doom is ignored.  The fear is of
course of the unknown.  People fear anything that has the word nuclear, or
radiation without realizing that they are bombarded with radiation all the
time.  I think the most reasonable point of view with respect to what the
accelerator can or can not do is to look at super dense stars.  The
accelerator still can not approach the high energy naturally occurring in
the universe, so if nano-black holes were a problem they would have eaten
the super dense stars long ago.

We are more likely to die of an asteroid impact, or the mega volcanic
eruption that will happen in Yellowstone.  Both of these will happen, but
probably not in our lifetimes.  Then there are those who would be rooting
for the destruction of S. California, while not realizing that a huge number
of Western states would also go under.

And lets not forget they have to sell papers somehow.

John M. Clement
Houston, TX

> I've been spending some time on Yahoo Answers lately and am struck by the
> huge number of questions that start out something like "I just heard that
> scientists are making black holes with the Big Bang machine tomorrow and
> I'm
> scared..."
>
> I see there are some folks out there who are dutifully answering all these
> questions with reassuring information, but I wonder how much impact they
> are
> having.  Others seem to simply like to call the worried folks (of which
> some
> are surely faking just to have fun) idiots.
>
> The media seem to be enjoying this just as much as Y2K and I am
> disappointed
> to see so many articles beginning with the 'end of the world' stuff before
> they get to more sane commentary on particle physics and the collider.
>
> How do others feel about this?
>
> Steve Highland