scientists in switzerland prepare to destroy the planet*

[BumbleBeeMouth]

im quietly wishing for it

[duovamp]

Physically impossible imo. Don't the black holes it creates close up almost instantly?

[Eulogy]

if the world ended suddenly i'd be ok with it. not like i'd be missing out on anything fun, you know.

[mccririck]

Originally Posted by duovamp

Physically impossible imo. Don't the black holes it creates close up almost instantly?

Yes I believe they do. But there's always a scare when they ramp up the energy, it's unknown territory...

[BumbleBeeMouth]

What amazes me is that so few people know about this thing

[mccririck]

Originally Posted by BumbleBeeMouth

What amazes me is that so few people know about this thing

If you're not interested in science and dont live in the vicinity of the particle accelerator you're not going to know about it. Unfortunately more people in the world believe in fucked up gods than read Scientific American, New Scientist etc.

[noyen]

this stuff sounds awesome. i'd love to tour the facilities while they're doing their experiments.

[???]

what do you think would happen if you stood in the collider when it was switched on? would you be instantaneously obliterated by all the energy? would your presence (or death) in the collider tunnel affect the results of the experiment?

[mccririck]

Originally Posted by ???

what do you think would happen if you stood in the collider when it was switched on? would you be instantaneously obliterated by all the energy? would your presence (or death) in the collider tunnel affect the results of the experiment?

Well it's a vacuum so you'd be kind of fucked for oxygen.

[???]

Originally Posted by BumbleBeeMouth

What amazes me is that so few people know about this thing

yeah, kindof terrifying isn't it? i suppose they don't want this all over the news cause it would scare people and have rights groups etc going ballistic to stop the project. but what if?

[???]

Originally Posted by mccririck

Well it's a vacuum so you'd be kind of fucked for oxygen.

i would've thought o2 would be the least of your worries when your being pummeled into fine quark mush by a gazillion ultrawaves of electromagnetic monster cock mayhem.

[mccririck]

Originally Posted by ???

i would've thought o2 would be the least of your worries when your being pummeled into fine quark mush by a gazillion ultrawaves of electromagnetic monster cock mayhem.

It would probably punch a hole in you or something, and then cook you. I dont think you'd be coming out alive. Unless you wore lead armor or something, maybe.

[BumbleBeeMouth]

armor:?

thought you were from britain?

[noyen]

i hope this inspires a cool movie. flying to the sun and drilling to the center of the earth are totally stupid compared to opening up black holes on earth. it could be like 'the day after'. except the day after the black hole sucked in part of the earth and Maximilian Schell could be floating around on a frozen turd with wild hair for a few days. and V.I.N.CENT. could come save him and they'd be friends and live on mars together.

[mccririck]

Originally Posted by BumbleBeeMouth

armor:?

thought you were from britain?

Fucking firefox spell checker. it's supposed to be UK english but it isnt. :moop:

[The Jesus]

I hope there's a Scotsman down there with a fail-safe key, in case it all goes tits-up.

[redbull]

Originally Posted by topleybird

I'm not a sucker

YR CITY'S A SUCKER
(HOO HOO)
YR CITY'S A SUCKER
(HOO HOO)
YR CITY'S A SUCKER
(HOO HOO)
YR CITY'S A SUCKER MY CITY'S A CREEP

[redbull]

Originally Posted by The Jesus

I hope there's a Scotsman down there with a fail-safe key, in case it all goes tits-up.

active the jeffries tubes

[???]

Originally Posted by noyen

it could be like 'the day after'. except the day after the black hole sucked in part of the earth and Maximilian Schell could be floating around on a frozen turd with wild hair for a few days.

[tear stained glass]

stuff like this is what got me into physics. the problem is that these experiments are so expensive that particle physicists have gone roughly 25 years without really being able to do anything more interesting than getting a more precise measurement of the mass of a top quark. since i'm going to need ten years of training plus a few years as a postdoc before i can potentially get an associate professorship and do cool research, i've decided that a more dynamic field with somewhat cheaper toys is probably the way to go for me. besides, that was you're in a smaller group and can make more of a difference if you're onto something cool. for example, at my school, the experimental plasma physics group runs the LAPD (LArge Plasma Device--so named so people wouldn't steal their oscilloscopes, which are fast and therefore expensive), which is this gigantic (not by CERN standards, but still housed in a large building) machine with which they can do interesting things like find out how laser pulses lead to density fluctuations. another dude works on sonoluminescence--changing sound energy into light. this phenomenon has been known about for decades, but only recently did anyone think to see the duration of the light pulse--it turns out it's on the scale of picoseconds, which is very, very fast. they're roughly an order of magnitude off from achieving the energy for fusion in the bubbles that produce the light flashes, so it's a potentially very important realm of research. the cool thing is that the sonoluminescence experiments are rougly table top size.

[Azael]

I, for one, will welcome our new headcrab overlords.

[???]

Originally Posted by tear stained glass

stuff like this is what got me into physics. the problem is that these experiments are so expensive that particle physicists have gone roughly 25 years without really being able to do anything more interesting than getting a more precise measurement of the mass of a top quark. since i'm going to need ten years of training plus a few years as a postdoc before i can potentially get an associate professorship and do cool research, i've decided that a more dynamic field with somewhat cheaper toys is probably the way to go for me. besides, that was you're in a smaller group and can make more of a difference if you're onto something cool. for example, at my school, the experimental plasma physics group runs the LAPD (LArge Plasma Device--so named so people wouldn't steal their oscilloscopes, which are fast and therefore expensive), which is this gigantic (not by CERN standards, but still housed in a large building) machine with which they can do interesting things like find out how laser pulses lead to density fluctuations. another dude works on sonoluminescence--changing sound energy into light. this phenomenon has been known about for decades, but only recently did anyone think to see the duration of the light pulse--it turns out it's on the scale of picoseconds, which is very, very fast. they're roughly an order of magnitude off from achieving the energy for fusion in the bubbles that produce the light flashes, so it's a potentially very important realm of research. the cool thing is that the sonoluminescence experiments are rougly table top size.

wow, very intriguing. what is the minimum apparatus required to conduct a visible sonoluminescence experiment? i can imagine artists wanting to use this in their work

[aurel]

Originally Posted by mccririck

There are two images there aurel, they cant both be him.

Disregard the human on the left, you really remind me of the guy on the right.

[tear stained glass]

Originally Posted by ???

wow, very intriguing. what is the minimum apparatus required to conduct a visible sonoluminescence experiment? i can imagine artists wanting to use this in their work

it's just a small, brief flash of light. and if you're thinking you can just place your guitar amp next to a fish tank and get this to happen, it won't. like i said, though, the devices fit on a table top, and from the pictures i've seen, i'd say the maximum spatial dimension is probably no more than 1.5m.

[mccririck]

Originally Posted by aurel

Disregard the human on the left, you really remind me of the guy on the right.

Ah, nice one.