CERN on Twitter: "We'll keep you posted if anything interesting happens." (Large Hadron Collider)

[eShirl]

http://twitter.com/cern/


Thanks for following us, and for all the support. We’ll keep you posted if anything interesting happens. http://ow.ly/EkbB #CERN #LHC about 5 hours ago from HootSuite


This has been a great 24 hours for the LHC. Now the systems commissioning begins, so we’ll be tweeting less often for a while. #CERN #LHC about 5 hours ago from HootSuite


Nice animation of a beam splash in the LHCb experiment. Look at their page: http://ow.ly/EjUB #CERN #LHC about 5 hours ago from HootSuite


Welcome back beam 1! This is the clockwise direction:Point 2(ALICE experiment)->3->4->5(CMS)->6->7->8(LHCb)->Point1 (ATLAS).Its' circulating about 5 hours ago from HootSuite

[Kutjara]

1. "@followers Oops! World ending. Kiss ass g'bye." n/t

[IndianaGreen]

2. If something really interesting happens, they won't live to tell about it

[Ready4Change]

6. Actually, might have quite a while.

I've read it's not possible, but if it were to turn out that a teensy black hole were created, and if it didn't evaporate (as current understands say it must) it would have very little mass at it's start, so it wouldn't immediately suck everything in.

Instead, it would fall, being attracted to the nearest large mass, ie, the Earth. As it fell it would absorb whatever atoms it encountered, adding them to it's mass. Basically, it would bore a hole as it fell, at first smaller than a pinhole, but growing larger as it fell. Since nothing is hard enough to stop its fall (because everything contacting it's 'event horizon' gets pulled in) it basically free falls, in an orbit around the Earths center of mass. It would fall through the Earths core, then coast upwards on it's own momentum, swinging back and forth like a pendulum.

That swinging would eventually consume the Earth and kill us all. But it wouldn't be instant. We'd likely have enough time to wonder why all these Earthquakes are happening all over the Earth before the really major actions start killing us all.

Personally, I'm not worried. Naysayers worried about atom bombs, fearing they would create a chain reaction that would ignite the atmosphere and consume all mass. The scientists involved knew better, and were right about it.

The scientists involved in the fields the LHC is working in aren't worried about creating long lived black holes.

I'm not all cheery optimism though. The atomic bomb scientist didn't know the extent of problems with radiation, and were clueless about the long term geopolitical repercussions. If the LHC is going to create problems, they'll likely be something unforeseen out of the blue.

Then again, those problems could also be new discoveries with beneficial effects. Perhaps an insight leading to functional fusion power generation. Some people would find that wonderful. Others would see it as a disaster.

Eh, I'm wandering in my writing. That's my 2 pee.

[dbonds]

3. Maybe we will get a flash forward like the tv series. ;P

[byronius]

4. Coooooool.

[Wilms]

5. .

:yoiks: