It has cost £4.4billion and is designed to unlock the secrets of the
Big Bang.But rather than providing vital information about the
beginning of life, the world's biggest experiment could cause the end
of the world, say scientists. They fear that the Large Hadron Collider
- due to be switched on in nine days' time - will create a black hole
that could swallow the planet.
The
Large Hadron Collider smashes particles together at nearly the speed of
light. By smashing sub-atomic particles together at close to the speed
of light, the LHC aims to recreate the conditions that existed a
fraction of a second after the birth of the universe or Big Bang,
shedding light on the building blocks of life.
But critics claim
that the 'time machine', which has been built 300ft beneath the
French-Swiss border near Geneva, could instead spawn a shower of
mini-black holes.Within four years, one of these 'celestial vacuums'
could have swollen to such a size that it is capable of sucking the
Earth inside-out, said Otto Rossler, one of a group of scientists
mounting a last-minute court challenge to the project.They claim the
experiment violates the right to life under the European Convention of
Human Rights. However, the case at the European Court of Human Rights
is not expected to delay the switch on, scheduled for Wednesday of next
week.Professor Rossler, a German chemist, said the European
Organisation for Nuclear Research, or CERN, has admitted its project
will create black holes but doesn't consider them to be a risk.
Above
Pic Shows Artist's impression of the Big Bang, the titanic explosion
which cosmologists believe created the Universe about 15 billion years
ago.
He warned: '
My own
calculations have shown it is quite plausible that these little black
holes survive and will grow exponentially and eat the planet from the
inside. I have been calling for CERN to hold a safety conference to
prove my conclusions wrong but they have not been willing.'
Those
involved in the project have dismissed the claims as 'absurd' and
insist that extensive safety assessments have found the experiment,
which is funded by 20 countries, including the UK, to be safe.
A
report written earlier this year stated: 'Over the past billions of
years, nature has already generated on Earth as many collisions as
about a million LHC experiments - and the planet still exists.'The
lifespan of any mini-black holes would be 'very short', it added.
Critics say the LHC could create a black hole which expands until it swallows the Earth, See The Pic Above.
CERN
spokesman James Gillies said the arguments before the European Court of
Human Rights had been answered in 'extensive safety assessments'.He
told the Sunday Telegraph: 'The Large Hadron Collider will not be
producing anything that does not happen routinely in nature due to
cosmic rays. If they were dangerous we would know about it already.'
Scientists
have used large particle colliders to smash atoms and pieces of atoms
together for 30 years, but this machine has attracted so much attention
because it is the most powerful ever built.
In the LHC beams of
protons will be propelled through an 18-mile-long circular tunnel. More
than 5,000 magnets lining the tunnel will accelerate the hundreds of
billions of tiny particles to almost the speed of light, allowing them
to complete one circuit in one-11,000th of a second.There will be two
beams going in opposite directions, each packing as much energy as a
car travelling at 100mph.When they reach almost the speed of light,
they will be smashed head on into each other, breaking them into their
constituent parts, including, perhaps, the building blocks of the
universe.
Google
Android will debut on its first cell phone next week. T-Mobile will
showcase its new smartphone based on the open platform. The platform is
widely expected to broaden.
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