If OJ made one thing perfectly clear, it's that the word "reason," at the root of "reasonable doubt" has lost all meaning in the US court system. So what do you think will be the outcome of a new lawsuit claiming that CERN's Large Hadron Collider is a Doomsday machine? The suit filed in Hawaii's US District Court by Luis Sancho and a former nuclear safety officer by the name of Walter Wagner, seeks to put the already delayed LHC launch on hold pending a new safety review. It's worth noting that the same doomsday scenarios of micro black holes and strangelets (think: the Midas Touch of death) have been raised by Wagner previously with the launch of other accelerators -- they've also been summarily dismissed by the scientific community as "beyond reasonable." It's also worth noting that the 27km-long LHC crisscrosses the border between France and Switzerland, not the US. An initial conference on the lawsuit is scheduled for June 16th, a few months before the first collisions are scheduled to begin and well before LHC is capable of its 4 trillion electron-volts maximum power. Peter Higgs, we feel your pain.
[Thanks Aaron,
Original Image courtesy of Ute Kraus]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 4)
Rich @ Mar 28th 2008 7:23AM
"and a former nuclear safety officer"
D'oh!
ReggieXuk @ Mar 28th 2008 7:58AM
lol
Flashpoint @ Mar 28th 2008 7:59AM
4 Trillion electron Volts is ALMOST enough power to run a computer that is playing Crysis in highest detail.
TeV @ Mar 28th 2008 9:20AM
4TeV is about 10^-7 Joules, i.e. 1 part in ten million of a Joule. For comparison, 1 Watt is defined to be 1 Joule per second, and a typical PC that's able to play Crysis would have to use about 200-300 Watts.
Barbaric @ Mar 28th 2008 10:40AM
It would just be cooler if it ts max power was
1.21 jigawatts!
(spelling nazis be damned. I know its gigawatt, but its pronounced jigga (like Jay-Z), look it up.)
OneLove @ Mar 28th 2008 11:51AM
just make a stargate already.
Josh @ Mar 28th 2008 3:30PM
I am up for a trip to atlantis... anyone else with me?
mark @ Mar 28th 2008 7:23PM
How much does black hole insurance go for these days?
cristian negureanu @ Apr 9th 2008 9:54AM
1)Bible:
"The Universe was formed at God's(elohim/ anunnaki) command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible."(Hebrews 11:3).
2)Google(www.ufodigest.com):
- Modern Science and the Ancient Writings on the Genesis of the Solar System
- The Heart Kidneys Theory and the Psychology of the Future
- The Genesis of the Monkey People and the Genesis of the Anunnaki People
3)The book "Planet Eris and the Global Warming" (can be found at Amazon).
4)Google:
- CPH Theory NASA AND PLANET X
(CPH = Creative Particles of Higgs)
http://www.australia.to/story/0,25197,23040466-937,00,00.html
Jamie Marsden @ Mar 28th 2008 7:25AM
I'm slightly astonished that an American court feels that it has jurisdiction to hear a case about about the LHC in Switzerland. Comity, anyone?
Jonathan @ Mar 28th 2008 7:32AM
The usual US arrogance in play!
Anthony @ Mar 28th 2008 7:36AM
Second paragraph of the actual article, the second defendant is a company based in Illinois.
Nothing about arrogance here. Just one idiot that happens to be an American.
shanoboy @ Mar 28th 2008 8:39AM
So, do other countries really have the ability to file lawsuits about things that aren't related to their country in any way?
aendschl @ Mar 28th 2008 8:48AM
No, the other countrys don't have to care about it,
we don't have courts that have the right to decide whats best for the entire world.
Ellianth @ Mar 28th 2008 9:00AM
@aendschl
"we don't have courts that have the right to decide whats best for the entire world."
Remember the great internet outage of 2007? Well that was around the time that the memo, stating what you just said, was emailed to the world. I guess that guy didn't get a copy.
Anyway, my point is, I deleted my copy of that email, could you be a dear and forward a copy of yours to him.
yoshi @ Mar 28th 2008 9:09AM
Anyone can bring a lawsuit against anyone in a U.S. court. That doesn't mean that the court feels it has jurisdiction. It just means that you can get to stand before the judge and plead your case. And then the judge will tell you, "sorry, I don't have jurisdiction, tough luck".
Nate @ Mar 28th 2008 9:56AM
Anyways, after something goes wrong in Europe, we always have to swoop in and fix it, help pay for reconstruction, etc. It's something we've gotten used to doing for the past 100 years, so you'll forgive our propencity to babysit ad nauseam.
Matt @ Mar 28th 2008 10:24AM
hey Nate, if you guys could run your own country properly, maybe your belief that you need to babysit everyone else wouldn't make the rest of us throw up in our mouths a little.
papafew @ Mar 28th 2008 2:03PM
@ nate + sam
thank you personaly for WW2
by chance, here in europe, we are not directed by the biggest asshole ever and we never saw 2 towers "magicaly" falling down to start a war for money and oil.
DWells55 @ Mar 28th 2008 6:25PM
Oh, enough with this "war for money and oil" crap. In case you haven't noticed, gas prices in the US are hitting record highs and the country is on the verge of a recession. I don't like the war either, but I don't like it because I don't feel it's worth the money and American lives it's cost us, not because of ridiculous conspiracy theories.
Vik @ Apr 2nd 2008 4:50AM
"The lawsuit, filed March 21 in U.S. District Court in Honolulu, seeks a temporary restraining order prohibiting CERN from proceeding with the accelerator until it has produced a safety report and an environmental assessment. It names the U.S. Department of Energy, the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, the National Science Foundation and CERN as defendants....
...Why should CERN, an organization of European nations based in Switzerland, even show up in a Hawaiian courtroom?
In an interview, Wagner said, "I don't know if they're going to show up." CERN would have to voluntarily submit to the court's jurisdiction, he said, adding that he and Sancho could have sued in France or Switzerland, but to save expenses they had added CERN to the docket here. He claimed that a restraining order on Fermilab and the Energy Department, which helps to supply and maintain the accelerator's massive superconducting magnets, would shut down the project anyway."
That's why.
http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/03/29/europe/physics.php
Luis Corujo @ Mar 28th 2008 7:29AM
What has a United States based law court suit to do with the CERN - European Organization for Nuclear Research??!??
Nathan @ Mar 28th 2008 12:09PM
"On Monday, District Judge Helen Gillmor assigned the case to a magistrate judge, Kevin S.C. Chang, for an initial conference on June 16. Wagner said he planned to ask for a more immediate hearing on the request for a restraining order - that is, once he has served the federal government with the court papers."
See that, it hasn't even gone before a judge yet!
In the United States, any legal citizen has the right to bring suit against ANYONE in the world, for ANYTHING. It doesn't mean it will make it to trial!
Any reasonable judge will put this claim through a series of tests to establish, through what are called "long-arm statutes," whether or not the court even has the ability to make a ruling that can be upheld (read: jurisdiction).
Most likely the court will find that there will be no jurisdiction and the case will be dismissed, so don't get in a huff about what the American courts can and can't do, because most likely they can't or won't deal with this (preposterous) claim.
All you people with no idea about how the United States legal system works getting your panties in a twist over what you see as a world policing action and all it is, is a LEGAL MOTION.
Would you all get this worked up if I went and filed a motion for a restraining order against the Queen of England from waving in that stuffy, British fashion?
dsfgdfgdf @ Mar 28th 2008 7:32AM
Shouldn't he be suing in the EU states (who pay for most of the project) or at least in Switzerland?
Suing in Hawaii he won't be successful and we will all be wiped out. I'm crying for humanity.
emailtabs @ Mar 28th 2008 7:36AM
Cern = France, Cern != US, Also it is a multinational scientific community..
What F'in right do the US courts have to tell them whether or not they can perform scientific tests.
Yeah, the LHC does now have the power to create microscopic black holes. thats why the buried it underground. and they need the power in order to study the world around us. ie smash stuff up. (might as well buy a blender eh?)
A man made black hole of the largest size possible (By calculation using possible energy levels at play) will have the power to destroy a part of the machine but will dissipate at such a fast rate that any effects will not reach ground level.
At what point did america give idiotic scaremongeros get the right to stop the scientific community in its tracks.
michas_pi @ Mar 28th 2008 7:36AM
Large Hadron Collider: It's going to fucking kill you dead. May 2008.
Anthony @ Mar 28th 2008 7:37AM
One of the other defendants in the lawsuit is a US-based company from what the actual article stated.
emailtabs @ Mar 28th 2008 7:55AM
If only i could spell
Bob @ Mar 28th 2008 8:48AM
Again, it's NOT America, it's a guy who happens to be American, and if he wants to file a lawsuit and lives in America, he has to use American courts. Quit trying to make us all look bad. Just because there are a few moron Americans doesnt meant the rest of us are arrogant and think we can do what we want. Lay off.
tridge @ Mar 28th 2008 8:58AM
Um, the fact that it could kill everyone!
Wwhat @ Mar 28th 2008 8:58AM
And what if you are wrong? Scientist have been known to be wrong you know, the whole damn team that tested the first nukes strolled up to the crater and all died from cancer later, those were the experts, with lots of info available since madame currie already bought the farm from radiation exposure many decades earlier.
To get back to my point, what if those wonderful all-knowing experts (that for some strange reason still need to study what happens) are wrong in their predictions and start a thing that destroys the planet huh? I'm sure there's a site with lists of things scientist failed with that killed many many people, I don't think it's wrong to question things and to ask for a review if it's really smart to do certain tests.
Lee @ Mar 28th 2008 9:11AM
LOL it's not underground to protect us from miniature blackholes. Any blackhole formed would sink to the center of the earth due to gravity. But it won't have a chance to because if any are actually created they will dissipate almost as quickly as they came into existence.
emailtabs @ Mar 28th 2008 9:32AM
Lee: Its underground to protect us from the dissipated energy released in collisions. That includes blackholes ie when they dissipate they release a huge amount of energy (explosion)
Bob: I am not pissed because someone has questioned the validity of scientific thought, i am pissed that he has even been granted a hearing. It is not a bash at the general american population but a bash at this man and the courts decision to hold a conference on the issue.
Wwhat: many have fallen ill/died in the sake of scientific advancement. they took the risks and got burnt. but without those pioneers we wouldn't be where we are today. also many have not died and not fallen ill. it is a calculated risk that they are willing to take. otherwise they wouldn't work there.
I understand that it is a risky business, but i would rather they experiment and put the theories to test than to assume they are correct. i personally don't believe in string theory and the Higgs boson but if they manage to find one then i will have to change my mind.
Bob @ Mar 28th 2008 8:49AM
Oops, that comment was supposed to be for the emailtabs's response above.
Craig @ Mar 28th 2008 9:20AM
"Just because there are a few moron Americans doesnt meant the rest of us are arrogant and think we can do what we want. Lay off."
Americans elected George W. Bush. Twice. I'd say that's proof that there are more than a "few" moron Americans.
Craig @ Mar 28th 2008 9:24AM
"the whole damn team that tested the first nukes strolled up to the crater and all died from cancer later,"
Uh no, they didn't.
Just because YOU find quantum mechanics difficult to understand and therefore scary doesn't mean you have the right to tell informed, intelligent people to stop what they're doing.
Bob @ Mar 28th 2008 9:26AM
Wow craig, that's hilarious. Don't quit your day job. ;-)
(sarcasm...)
Craig @ Mar 28th 2008 12:48PM
^^^^Thank you! I'm here all week - try the veal!
Mike @ Mar 28th 2008 1:22PM
Technically they only elected Bush once...
zerosozha @ Mar 28th 2008 4:03PM
@ Craig
Actually, the American people elected Gore the first time. The Electoral College chose Bush due to the whole Florida issue, but the Supreme Court later ruled that Gore had won the popular election. So don't blame the American people; blame the American bureaucracy.
Andrew @ Mar 28th 2008 7:37AM
Wouldn't it be quite ironic if the 'Big Bang' that apparently formed the Universe as it is now was a result of a similar experiment on some unknown world countless trillions of years ago :)
As far as I know though no-one in Switzerland gives two hoots about what a Judge thinks in a US Court. I think the two plaintiffs seem to think that US law is applicable in the rest of the world... erm nope.
CHILL_down @ Mar 28th 2008 8:33AM
13.7 billion years ago*
Reader @ Mar 28th 2008 8:45AM
I'm not one to deny the laws of thermodynamics, but when it comes to the age of the universe, I wold say no correction is really necessary. Do I believe the calculation is nearly correct? Yeah, I suppose so, but I sure wouldn't be struck if it's changed tomorrow.
I swear there's a Sci Fi book about this exact scenario; a particle accelerator escalating to a full on black hole. Actually there's probably more than one, just one that I've heard of.
Raheem @ Mar 28th 2008 8:47AM
Lol, ironic or... a very old theory.
elijahlucian @ Mar 30th 2008 7:09PM
haha andrew. thats quite the theory :D lets write a movie together.
John @ Apr 2nd 2008 9:12PM
The problem is that if a United States court decides that it is wrong for the LHC to exist then the United States will pull funding from the project which will slow the project down while they look for someone else to pay for it. So yes, it does matter what the United States thinks.
SimonRichards @ Mar 28th 2008 7:43AM
Hilarious. Im getting flashbacks to y2k.
nh @ Mar 28th 2008 8:02AM
Stop sh1tting us... you're a y2k survivor?!
ReggieXuk @ Mar 28th 2008 8:02AM
Its now apparent that the Millennium Bug wasn't for our computers, it was for us!!!
Wwhat @ Mar 28th 2008 9:01AM
At one time they sold radium drinks to improve your health, what silly people the survivors were eh that questioned it and didn't guzzle it down.
Silly silly survivors.