Will the lhc destroy the world?
The LHC will allow scientists to observe particle collisions at an energy level far higher than any previous experiment. Some people worry that such powerful reactions could cause serious trouble for the Earth. In fact, a few people are so concerned that they filed a lawsuit against CERN in an attempt to delay the LHC’s activation. In March 2008, former nuclear safety officer Walter Wagner and Luis Sancho spearheaded a lawsuit filed in Hawaii’s U.S. District Court. They claim the LHC could potentially destroy the world [source: MSNBC]. What is the basis for their concerns? Could the LHC create something that could end all life as we know it? What exactly might happen? One fear is that the LHC could produce black holes. Black holes are regions in which matter collapses into a point of infinite density. CERN scientists admit that the LHC could produce black holes, but they also say those black holes would be on a subatomic scale and would collapse almost instantly. In contrast, the black
