The Big Bang and Black Holes, Oh My
March 12th 2007 16:34
The International Tribunereports today on New Delhi, that
The need is immediate, according to the article.
But, the planned solution is not without controversy, from a number of voices.
Perhaps, the planners should take a glance at the next story?...
On March 11, 2007,The International Herald Tribune reported the opening of a new web site" Architecture For Humanity. The site has a great slogan that appears when you search in Google, Architecture for Humanity - Design Like you Give A Damn.
They say, “Architecture for Humanity creates opportunities for architects and designers from around the world to help communities in need. We believe that where resources and expertise are scarce, innovative, sustainable and collaborative design can make a difference.
It is an amazing and beautiful compilation of designs. Take a look...
And now, for a little (potential) catastrophia... Let’s re-produce the Big Bang on Earth...
What is CERN?
CERN
“CERN is the European Organization for Nuclear Research, the world's largest particle physics centre. It sits astride the Franco-Swiss border near Geneva.
CERN is a laboratory where scientists unite to study the building blocks of matter and the forces that hold them together. CERN exists primarily to provide them with the necessary tools. These are accelerators, which accelerate particles to almost the speed of light and detectors to make the particles visible.”
What is CERN doing?”
"Collider Experiments
Until very recently, four big collider experiments were running at the Large Electron Positron collider (LEP). With its 27 km circumference, LEP was the biggest machine in the world, used to collide electrons with their antimatter counterparts, positrons.
"The four huge detectors were differently optimised to study in minute detail various physics aspects of the electromagnetic and weak forces. During almost 12 years of running, the experiments have allowed extremely precise tests of the Standard Model, and more results will come from the ongoing data analysis....
"The LEP accelerator has now been stopped and removed from the underground tunnel to make room for the Large Hadron Collider. In the LHC very high energy protons will collide against protons, and heavy ions (like the nuclei of lead) will be smashed against heavy ions.
This will allow scientists to penetrate still further into the structure of matter and recreate the conditions prevailing in the Universe just a few million millionths of a second after the Big Bang (10-12 s).
Five experiments have been approved for the LHC”
Particles Experiments
Should we be worried? No, say many reputable scientists. It will be fine. We’ve never done it before, but, not to worry.
However, other reputable scientists are not so certain.
For example The Lifeboat Foundation
What is Lifeboat?
"The Lifeboat Foundation is a nonprofit nongovernmental organization dedicated to encouraging scientific advancements while helping humanity survive existential risks and possible misuse of increasingly powerful technologies, including genetic engineering, nanotechnology, and robotics/AI, as we move towards a technological singularity."
At LIfeboat, they say,
Excuse me, did you say creation of mini black holes?
O.k.
Of course, I press the link to black holes. (It is Monday...)
Lifeboat says,
All right then. Enough said. I think I’ll go blog coffee... Please join me for a cup...
“Delhi is bursting and the only way is up. If Baron Haussmann's plan for transforming Paris lay in replacing crowded lanes with wide, unbarricadable boulevards, India's minister of state for urban development, Ajay Maken, dreams of creating new space to house the city's exploding population by growing vertically.”
The need is immediate, according to the article.
“Because these areas do not officially exist, they have no safe water supply, no legal electricity system and no proper sewers. Resourceful residents have made do: artfully siphoning water from the mains, risking their lives to sling wires onto nearby electricity pylons to steal power. The city's central water and power supplies are barely able to cope with this extra, invisible demand; most areas receive water for just a couple of hours a day, forcing residents to stock up with buckets when they can, while extended power outages occur daily.”
But, the planned solution is not without controversy, from a number of voices.
“K.T. Ravindran, dean of the Delhi School of Planning and Architecture, warned that India was not culturally suited to the high-rise.
"You'll get whole communities who don't look each other in the eye, where the only human contact is when they yell at the person in the next car," he said.
Author of Delhi's first Master Plan, Jagmohan, a retired politician who uses only one name, was also scathing, remarking that the proposal would turn Delhi into a world-class city only if one equated high-rise blocks with sophistication. "And what message are you giving by legalizing illegal settlements? You're saying that anyone who has infringed the law will now stand to gain," he said.”
"You'll get whole communities who don't look each other in the eye, where the only human contact is when they yell at the person in the next car," he said.
Perhaps, the planners should take a glance at the next story?...
On March 11, 2007,The International Herald Tribune reported the opening of a new web site" Architecture For Humanity. The site has a great slogan that appears when you search in Google, Architecture for Humanity - Design Like you Give A Damn.
They say, “Architecture for Humanity creates opportunities for architects and designers from around the world to help communities in need. We believe that where resources and expertise are scarce, innovative, sustainable and collaborative design can make a difference.
"The organization is currently providing design services and funding for reconstruction in India and Sri Lanka following the devastating tsunami that struck South-East Asia in December 2004 as well as on the Gulf Coast of the United States after Hurricane Katrina.”
It is an amazing and beautiful compilation of designs. Take a look...
And now, for a little (potential) catastrophia... Let’s re-produce the Big Bang on Earth...
What is CERN?
CERN
“CERN is the European Organization for Nuclear Research, the world's largest particle physics centre. It sits astride the Franco-Swiss border near Geneva.
CERN is a laboratory where scientists unite to study the building blocks of matter and the forces that hold them together. CERN exists primarily to provide them with the necessary tools. These are accelerators, which accelerate particles to almost the speed of light and detectors to make the particles visible.”
What is CERN doing?”
"Collider Experiments
Until very recently, four big collider experiments were running at the Large Electron Positron collider (LEP). With its 27 km circumference, LEP was the biggest machine in the world, used to collide electrons with their antimatter counterparts, positrons.
"The four huge detectors were differently optimised to study in minute detail various physics aspects of the electromagnetic and weak forces. During almost 12 years of running, the experiments have allowed extremely precise tests of the Standard Model, and more results will come from the ongoing data analysis....
"The LEP accelerator has now been stopped and removed from the underground tunnel to make room for the Large Hadron Collider. In the LHC very high energy protons will collide against protons, and heavy ions (like the nuclei of lead) will be smashed against heavy ions.
This will allow scientists to penetrate still further into the structure of matter and recreate the conditions prevailing in the Universe just a few million millionths of a second after the Big Bang (10-12 s).
Five experiments have been approved for the LHC”
Particles Experiments
Should we be worried? No, say many reputable scientists. It will be fine. We’ve never done it before, but, not to worry.
However, other reputable scientists are not so certain.
For example The Lifeboat Foundation
What is Lifeboat?
"The Lifeboat Foundation is a nonprofit nongovernmental organization dedicated to encouraging scientific advancements while helping humanity survive existential risks and possible misuse of increasingly powerful technologies, including genetic engineering, nanotechnology, and robotics/AI, as we move towards a technological singularity."
At LIfeboat, they say,
“Our goal is to prevent, and also make plans on surviving when possible, particle accelerator mishaps including quantum vacuum collapse, mining the quantum vacuum, formation of a stable stranglet, and the creation of artificial mini-black holes.”
Excuse me, did you say creation of mini black holes?
O.k.
Of course, I press the link to black holes. (It is Monday...)
Lifeboat says,
“No, really -- you just don't want to know this. There’s a remote, but extremely terrifying possibility our planet is about to be swallowed from within by a man-made black hole. In fact, our planet could be booby trapped with baby black holes already.
It is one weird way to go. One moment, you’’re here. And the next -- you’’re not. It will be sudden, and dramatic. Within seconds, the planet, with everything and everyone on it, is reduced to nothingness. Or actually: it is squeezed together into a tiny black hole, no more than 9 millimeters wide.
"If you were to play back the tape of what went wrong very slowly, you would see something very peculiar. Suddenly, you would see the Earth deform. Obviously, not a very good sign. Our planet is flattened out to become a disk. Beams of radiation shoot up from where the poles used to be. And then, zzzp, the planet’’s gone. Just like that. Within a split second, it would simply vanish, right before your eyes. “
It is one weird way to go. One moment, you’’re here. And the next -- you’’re not. It will be sudden, and dramatic. Within seconds, the planet, with everything and everyone on it, is reduced to nothingness. Or actually: it is squeezed together into a tiny black hole, no more than 9 millimeters wide.
"If you were to play back the tape of what went wrong very slowly, you would see something very peculiar. Suddenly, you would see the Earth deform. Obviously, not a very good sign. Our planet is flattened out to become a disk. Beams of radiation shoot up from where the poles used to be. And then, zzzp, the planet’’s gone. Just like that. Within a split second, it would simply vanish, right before your eyes. “
All right then. Enough said. I think I’ll go blog coffee... Please join me for a cup...
| 79 |
| Vote |
Add To: 
