For those who are worried that the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) will destroy the planet, you can breath a little easier. It appears that the full force of this colossal machine will not be felt until well into 2012. In fact, some speculate that the LHC may never reach its full potential.
Over the past couple of weeks, I have devoted several articles to describing the science, technologies and alleged risks associated with the LHC (God Particle, Black Holes, Strangelets). My conclusions reflected in those articles were that the potential advances in physics are well worth the $9 billion investment while the feared dangers associated with the act of smashing protons at 99.999999% the speed of light were overblown. At full power, the LHC will not place our planet at risk. Some readers respectfully disagreed with my conclusions and I invite you to read their comments posted at the end of each of these three articles linked above.
This recent wrinkle regarding the timing and nature of the LHC restart comes almost one year after the machine was shut down after a splice between two magnets vaporized (in a display that would justice to a 4th of July extravaganza all be it underground and in a tunnel) and damaged dozens of expensive 35-ton magnets.
Over the past couple of weeks, I have devoted several articles to describing the science, technologies and alleged risks associated with the LHC (God Particle, Black Holes, Strangelets). My conclusions reflected in those articles were that the potential advances in physics are well worth the $9 billion investment while the feared dangers associated with the act of smashing protons at 99.999999% the speed of light were overblown. At full power, the LHC will not place our planet at risk. Some readers respectfully disagreed with my conclusions and I invite you to read their comments posted at the end of each of these three articles linked above.
This recent wrinkle regarding the timing and nature of the LHC restart comes almost one year after the machine was shut down after a splice between two magnets vaporized (in a display that would justice to a 4th of July extravaganza all be it underground and in a tunnel) and damaged dozens of expensive 35-ton magnets.
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