Are we going to be sucked into a black hole?
I interview Dr Victoria J Martin, reader in particle physics at the University of Edinburgh and team leader at the Large Hadron Collider, to allay some common fears linked to nuclear physics.
WORDS: JOHN C SILCOX
IMAGE: LHR ARCHIVE
STORY FIRST APPEARED IN AUDI MAGAZINE
The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is the biggest, most complex machine ever built. Scientists use it to test theories of particle and high-energy physics by colliding sub-atomic particles against each other at ultra-fast speeds. But it has led to much speculation by conspiracy theorists, who fear the experiments being conducted at the LHC could cause the end of the world.
‘You have to be pretty gullible if you think that some of the world’s cleverest scientists are just playing with something that could destroy the solar system,’ says Dr Victoria J Martin, reader in particle physics at the University of Edinburgh and team leader at the LHC. ‘The overall idea behind the project is to further our understanding of our universe, not to end it. But it’s really fun to look at these horror stories: they give us a chance to explain some of the more interesting research done here, without boring people.’
Could the LHC create a black hole that would swallow the universe?
Yes and no: depending on how gravity works in particle physics – which is something we’re currently unsure about – there is the possibility that we could create black holes. But they would only be tiny black holes that would disappear as fast as we made them. We’re colliding things into the middle of a hydrogen atom at very fast speeds for that scale, but in reality it’s the same strength as a mosquito.
Could the LHC burst the vacuum bubble we live in?
The vacuum bubble theory was put forward by Stephen Hawking, who says our part of the universe is a bubble, where atoms act differently and stick together to create matter. There is a fear that if this is disturbed then our world could disintegrate. The probability of the LHC having any influence on this is next to zero. If we are indeed in a vacuum then this vacuum has existed for a long time before our universe was created, and will continue to exist after our universe has disappeared.
Could the LHC shrink the planet and kill everyone?
This one would be caused by a phenomenon called strangelets – and, without going into the details, it is actually possible. But the odds of it happening are so remote that it doesn’t even bear thinking about. It would be like winning the lottery jackpot three daysin a row. However, the problem with that analogy is that human nature does sometimes make us want to believe in the unbelievable…