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Tim Rommes, Washington, UT — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 22:53:11 GMT

Scientists say the black holes would be harmless!?!?! My God, they're wrong all the time. How can they say a collapsed star is harmless? If nothing else it will ruin anything it rolls across. We'll probably all be sucked in.
(Thought I would switch sides.)

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N. Albrecht, BC Canada — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 02:34:24 GMT

"Ripped from moorings." sounds like substandard mountings and piping not taking the incredible expansion and contraction due to being cooled and reheated into proper consideration..

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Dan, Vancouver WA — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 04:03:59 GMT

Wouldn't it be cool if the LHC helped us discover extra dimensions that not only explained some phenomena like entanglement's "spooky action at a distance", but also lead to a way to communicate across vast expanses of space essentially instantly.

Think about what that would mean for robotic Mars missions. Instantaneous virtual reality through an actual robot on Mars or essentially anywhere we can send a transmitter or cause one to be built. Perhaps not likely any time soon...but it could happen.

That's only one of innumerable ways technological advances could spring out of basic research with the LHC. Chances are at least one or two discoveries will have profound effects on our technological abilities. It is amazing that people don't seem to realize how much we get out of funding research.

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Jim Grey, Ohio — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 13:20:05 GMT

[...] Fermilab isn't collapsing any stars; any black holes made would be so tiny they would evaporate instantly.

Let's be objective. Engineers & scientists are right quite a bit of the time; remember, the whole CONCEPT of black holes came from high-level theoretical science. They are hardly anything you have practical experience with.

I fail to see how the average person, who has probably never taken a single physics course, can make any claim that the "scientists are wrong" about this, yet every day, people who know nothing about science make comments about how wrong scientists are.

It's a very silly viewpoint.

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Gods-Balls Salt Lake City, UT — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 13:28:58 GMT

It is theorized that cosmic radiation creates these same instantaneous mini black holes right here on Earth every day in our upper atmosphere. Lightning also might be creating them. So fear-mongers please just chill out. Besides I can't think of a cooler way of dying than being sucked into a black hole or having hostile aliens discover us and destroy us. At least we knew we were not alone in the multiverse before we all rejoined the collective consciousness.

Dan in Vancouver has some very good points about the "spooky action at a distance" I'm very excited about discoveries in quantum tunneling and Bell's Theorem as well. Perhaps we will discover "sub-space transmissions" like from Star Trek that allows interstellar comminication. The laws of physics completely change when we get to subatomic levels which opens up endless possibilities.

Sometimes I wonder if in string theory if the strings could in fact be a single string. Eternally looping and vibrating. That eternally connects all things in the multiverse, so we truly are all connected as one.

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Arnold J. Rimmer — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 13:49:34 GMT

I don't know why they are celebrating their failure. I think it is very telling that the inauguration party was not atended by the presidents of the member nations. The LHC is an utter failure. Many years over schedule and now delayed for God knows how long. Names like Robert Aymar and Lynn Evans will be forever remembered as brown stains on the face of European physics.

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Eric, Salinas, CA — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 14:32:41 GMT

I sure hope that they get the LHC repaired properly so that the scientists can get this wonderful machine rocking and rolling next spring. We should all be anticipating what great new scientific discoveries they will make.

So sad that the little children are here whining about the black hole nonsense. [...] The tiny little subparticle black holes that might come about in the LHC will be overwhelmed by Earth's gravity and will disappear in microseconds. The LHC will not create some star sized black hole so stop making something out of nothing and just kick back and enjoy the real science. Geez christians have wrecked scientific progress for well over a thousand years so get a grip on reality and stop your nonsensical whining! [...]

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Angel — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 16:06:02 GMT

While agree that scientific discovery is important, I can't help thinking of how this money could have been spent in countries with poor educational systems or human suffering.

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Keith Imel, Juneau Alaska — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 16:14:54 GMT

If we could only fund research like we do war then our energy and climate problems would soon be solved.

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Andrew — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 16:18:11 GMT

Why are so many up in arms over possible mini-black holes? Cosmic Rays of far higher energy than what will be achieved at LHC hit the Earth daily and we're still here.

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B Jass, Yukon, OK — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 16:45:52 GMT

before you all discriminate against people that are capable of accessing much higher levels of intellectual ability, you need to understand how far they've come and how much work they have been through, and yet for the benefit of YOU. it severely bothers me that you actually have the nerve to say they don't know what they're talking about and that they are wrong and we're all going to die. push religion aside and see the truth of things. personally, I believe all of the work you scientists have put fourth is the best thing to ponder on. I will gladly continue your work once i'm able.

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John, Cincinnati, OH — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 17:03:34 GMT

Ha! Those aren't stars - collapsed or otherwise. Those are keyholes in the sky that God uses to look down on his people.

You're right, Tim! This can be fun!

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Joe Plumber — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 17:54:00 GMT

So far, we've spent 100 Billion in research to get Velcro and Tang. What will they think of next?

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Tetralist — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 19:28:06 GMT

If the LHC does not verify the Higgs Boson, upon which the Standard Model depends, then what? I know... build yet another collider... and another... and another... Particle physics fiddles while the world burns. The best work will always be done by people toiling away with simple tools. Remember: What DATA the LHC produces is actually "third" hand. LHC tells a detector which tells the computer which tells a scientist who tells us. Note that "hear-say" is NOT admissable in a court of law.

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astrophysicist, lafayette, Indiana — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 19:50:04 GMT

For the latest scientific data on whether the world has ended yet check this link out:

hasthelargehadroncolliderdestroyedtheworldyet.com/

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Frank Glover, Rochester, NY — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 22:04:23 GMT

"So far, we've spent 100 Billion in research to get Velcro and Tang. What will they think of next?"

Just so you know, Joe, while a lot of things have come out of space research (and the LHC, strictly speaking, isn't that), Tang and Velcro are not among them.

Even Teflon comes from the Manhattan Project (they needed a pipe-lining material that could resist highly corrosive uranium hexaflurioide. The solid fluorocarbon we know as Teflon filled the bill...and found numerous other applications.)

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Tim Rommes, Washington, UT — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 00:44:26 GMT

Astrophysicist,
I for one won't be going to that site. If the world has ended I don't want to know it.

People are so compartmentalized. Comments on this article must be independent of any previous experience. Eric's crying about me crying (this deduction is because I'm the only one you could make this claim for) about black holes. We've both been posting here for several months at least. During that time I've posted several disertations about the safety relative to black holes as well as my entire disbelief that they will not occur. Even with the self contained prompting you still can't get that it's sarcasm?!?!?!? Oh crap. I see the problem. No emoticon. My bad. Here. ;)

Keyholes! I don't think so. That's where the sky paint chipped off. And thanks, It's funner when people get it.

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Chad — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 22:35:35 GMT

Its is truly an experiment so no one really knows the true out come until its has been 99.9% tested and retested. There was more then one scientist who theorized that the atomic bomb would cause a none stop chain reaction that would destroy the entire earth...... So...... we did it anyways. Really glad they were wrong. I think that when regular Joe See's that man is messing with powers beyond imagination they get concerned about not only what it will do, but some like myself get concerned on how the Government will use it (AKA weapons of mass destruction). Now this, if you sit back and think about it is truly a great amount of knowledge and power that will result from this experiment and we do know that every reaction has an equal but opposite reaction and maybe that even goes for how new technology is used for good and for bad. And as for the looped string theory I think we should rename it the Rubber Band theory and put some serious minds on this idea.

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Frank Hardy, Anchorage, Alaska — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 17:46:04 GMT

Silly rabbits. Mini black holes are great! I eat them for breakfast every day! They're delightfully crunchy! And then they pop! Yummy!
As for money spent? You think money would have been used for feeding, health care, and education? Not likely, Weapons most probably. Heavy sigh.
Well, back to Andromeda. Got to catch my soaps. They're ALMOST as entertaining as you Earthlings.

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John Lyles, Santa Fe, NM — Sun, 02 Nov 2008 05:10:30 GMT

re: "Even Teflon comes from the Manhattan Project"

Teflon*, DuPont's tradename for PTFE, was found literally by accident as a byproduct to a reaction in 1938 by E. I. DuPont Co. chemist Roy Plunkett, while he was researching refrigerants. It was used to advantage in the bomb project later.

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Sakshi Kakkar, Punjab ,India — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 14:40:30 GMT

Hey Frenz,
The august scientists at CERN are moving towards the GOD PARTICLE. The out of the way antithesis by the people who dont know much about LHC's purpose will definitely be answered soon.

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Richard Christianson, Georgetown, SC — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 16:04:16 GMT

It is new, we must fear it.
(Saturday Night Live, Caveman.)