Sunday, April 5, 2015
Wednesday, April 1, 2015
The truth behind the strange phenomena that caused 2 men to sue the world’s largest particle lab
Although this event is highly-anticipated around the world, there are two men who have remained silent: now-retired nuclear safety office, Walter Wagner, and Spanish journalist, Luis Sancho.
They have a history with the LHC.
Months before the particle collider was scheduled to turn on for the first time in 2008, Wagner and Sancho filed a lawsuit against the organizations behind the monster machine. The plaintiffs were:
- U.S. Department of Energy
- Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory
- National Science Foundation
- European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN).
Needless to say, it takes a lot of guts, and perhaps a little insanity, to try and sue any one of those organizations, which are brimming with some of humanity's brightest intellectuals, let alone all of them. Especially right before they finished a $6 billion, 30-year project. In the two men's defense,Wagner and Sancho were trying to save the world from, what they thought, was almost-certain annihilation.
Among their concerns was that the LHC had the power to produce a mini black hole that would, quite literally, swallow Earth. In their lawsuit they state:
"Eventually, all of Earth would fall into such growing micro-black-hole, converting Earth into a medium-sized black hole, around which would continue to orbit the moon, satellites, the ISS, etc."
Ultimately, the lawsuit was dismissed because the men failed to prove a "credible threat to harm." While the men's fears were clearly misguided — Earth is still here after the LHC has run for multiple consecutive years — it's important to understand why using the LHC for science is safe.
Below are the three concerns Wagner and Sachos proposed in their lawsuit and why none of these should worry you.
Death by black hole
So far, no one has made or observed a microscopic black hole — not even the LHC. But before it was turned on for the first time in 2008, Wagner and Sancho feared that by accelerating subatomic particles to 99.99% the speed of light and then smashing them together, it would create a particle mash-up so dense as to spawn a black hole.
The physicists at CERN report that Einstein's theory of relativity predicts that it's impossible for the LHC to produce such exotic phenomena. But, Wagner and Sancho argued, what if Einstein was wrong?
Even so, another theory, developed by world-renowned astrophysicist Stephen Hawking, predicts that even if a a microscopic black hole formed inside of the LHC , it would instantly disintegrate, posing no threat to Earth's existence.
In 1974, Hawking predicted that black holes don't just gobble stuff up, they also spit it out in the form of extremely high-energy radiation, now known as Hawking radiation. According to the theory, the smaller the black hole, the more Hawking radiation it expels into space, eventually wasting away to nothing. Therefore, a microscopic black hole, being the smallest kind, would disappear before it could wreak havoc and destruction. This could also by why we've never seen a micro black hole.
Death by strange matter
Wagner and Sancho worried that this strange matter could fuse with normal matter "eventually converting all of Earth into a single large 'strangelet' of huge size," they write in their lawsuit.
However, the precise behavior of strange matter, or even a single strangelet, is unclear, which is partly why these particles have been suggested as candidates for the mysterious material called dark matter the permeates the universe.
To support that theory, physicists at the Brookhaven National Laboratory in New York, have been trying to create a strangelet particle with Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider since the turn of the century. So far, nothing that resembles a strangelet has popped up. And because of the energies and types of particles that the LHC collides, Brookhaven has a better chance of making this strange matter.
If it succeeded, the concern is that the strangelets would bind with normal matter in a runaway reaction that would transform you, me, and everything on Earth into a clump of strange matter. Whether we would survive such a transformation and how that would change things is anyone's guess. But that unknown is scary enough.
Physicists at CERN, however, say that if Brookhaven succeeded in making a strangelet, its chances of interacting and binding with normal matter are slim:
"It is difficult for strange matter to stick together in the high temperatures produced by such colliders, rather as ice does not form in hot water," they explain on their website.
Death by magnetic monopoles
More than a century later, however, this particle, called a magnetic monopole, has never been made in the lab or observed in nature. So, it's purely hypothetical. But that didn't stop Wagner from suggesting that a powerful machine like the LHC could make history by creating the first ever magnetic monopole that could destroy Earth.
"Such particle might have the ability to catalyze the decay of protons and atoms, causing them to convert into other types of matter in a runaway reaction," he and Sancho wrote.
The theory that a monopole could destroy protons — the subatomic building blocks of all matter in the universe — is speculative at best, CERN physicists explain. But let's say that theory is right. Well, these theories also predict that such a particle would have a certain mass, which happens to be too heavy for anything the LHC would create.
So, suffice it say: We're safe.
"The continued existence of the Earth and other astronomical bodies therefore rules out dangerous proton-eating magnetic monopoles light enough to be produced at the LHC," CERN physicists explain.
Once the LHC is turned back on, physicists will spend the next few months ramping it up to maximum power, which will be about twice the energy it had during its first run. That's not going to change the fact that the chances of the LHC cooking up Earth-destroying mini black holes, strangelets, or magnetic monopoles are next-to-nothing.
If you're still not convinced, or the slightest bit worried, check out CERN's website regarding "The Safety of the LHC" where experts in astrophysics, cosmology, general relativity, mathematics, particle physics, and risk analysis have expressed their opinions on the machine's safety.
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/heres-truth-behind-strange-phenomena-183153083.html
Monday, March 30, 2015
Nuclear War on Mars:
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Sunday, March 29, 2015
Sochi Semi-Finals: Cramling Opens The Score
- PeterDoggers
- on 3/29/15, 12:24 PM.
On the first day of the Women's World Championship's semi-finals GM Pia Cramling defeated WGM Natalija Pogonina, who needs a win tomorrow to stay in the tournament. IM Mariya Muzychuk and GM Harika Dronavalli drew their game.
Photo Nastja Karlovich.
“I like to walk a lot. And I like to read. I find time for these two things,” said GM Pia Cramling in an interview with Nastja Karlovich, published yesterday on the tournament website.
After a long career as a top female chess player, which includes a third place in a world championship, she is suddenly a draw away from playing a final.
Today Cramling scored a very classical win, converting a slightly better rook ending from one of the oldest openings, the Lasker Variation of the Queen's Gambit Declined. White's edge was minimal; it basically consisted of controlling the only open file.
Pogonina decided to wait, and played Kd7-d8-d7 for fifteen (!) moves in a row. Meanwhile Cramling traded a few pawns so that she could activate her king. It looks like Pogonina chose a wrong trade after which the ending was winning for White.
http://www.chess.com/news/sochi-semi-finals-cramling-opens-the-score-1635
Thursday, March 26, 2015
3D printed rifles can fire 7.62mm NATO rounds
In 2013, Defense Distributed created the world's first 3D printed handgun, the .38-caliber Liberator. The following year, they unveiled an AR-15 receiver capable of firing hundreds of 5.56mm rounds without fail. This year, the team has been outdone by a group of fabricators at Printed Firearm who have once again raised the bar. They've successfully crafted and test fired the receiver for a Colt CM109 modular battle rifle -- the AR-15's badass big brother. The CM109 is larger and heavier than the AR-15 as it is built to accommodate a larger caliber round: the 7.62 x 51mm NATO. 7.62mm rounds fly farther and strike with much more force than the 5.56mm, making them far more deadly. It also means that the lower receiver (the bit that holds all the firearm's moving parts) has to be both heavier and sturdier to in order to handle the increased mechanical stresses and harder recoil associated with using a bigger bullet.
Sturdiness, however, isn't typically the first thing that comes to mind when talking about 3D printed items. The first few iterations of both the AR-15 receiver and the Liberator failed after squeezing off just a few rounds. Getting them to stand up to the rigors of repeated use has required a lot of trial and error. From the image above, the group has obviously cleared that hurdle with the CM109 components (at least for the first few seconds of rapid firing). "It has been fired with little to no issues," the group said in a statement. Reportedly, the CM109 team crafted the component using a commercially-available $500 DaVinci 3D printer.
source from
http://www.engadget.com/2015/03/26/great-now-3d-printed-rifles-can-fire-7-62mm-nato-rounds/
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