Our last day on Earth - What are YOU going to do with it?

A black hole in our backyard

Alistair Fairweather


As I write this, a group of scientists are trying to create a black
hole on earth. Yes, a black hole - one of those giant black vacuum
cleaners in space which people in sci-fi movies use to travel between
dimensions. The ones that swallow up the light around them, and crush
entire solar systems.

In a closely guarded underground facility that sprawls between France
and Switzerland, the scientists are already testing the largest
machine ever built - a giant, ring-shaped atom smasher called (in
typical scientific understatement) the "Large Hadron Collider" (LHC).
The thing is 27 kilometres around - Bloody Enormous Hadron Collider
would be a better name.

So are they a bunch of white-coated doctor evils intent on
obliterating us all with their Doomsday device? Hardly. They are
physicists from around the planet, trying to prove the existence of a
few missing particles that would tie up all their theories once and
for all.

How will they do this? They will start by accelerating tiny amounts of
matter to close to light speed in opposite directions around the rings
of the LHC. Then, when they're at full gallop, they will cross the
beams and smash the matter together inside four giant detectors. It's
a bit like little boys gleefully running their toy trains into each
other at full speed to see which bits fly off. Except this train set
cost $15bn to build.

Theory

Currently they're looking for a particle that only exists in theory -
the Higgs Boson, which the media insist on calling the "God
Particle" (a name that makes most scientists wince). Describing this
particle tends to make us non-physicists frown or fall asleep, but
essentially it's one of the vital missing components in a neat
description of the universe called the Standard Model.

Think of Higgs Boson as a piece of a jigsaw puzzle for which we've
lost the solution picture. Scientists can see the gap, and they just
need to find a piece that is the right shape. If they don't find it
with the LHC, then their whole conception of the puzzle may be wrong.
What they think is a picture of a pony may in fact be something else
entirely. An octopus perhaps. And that "grass" may in fact be
seaweed.

If they do find Higgs Bosoun, then there are a whole range of other
puzzle pieces they want to find - mysterious beasts like gravitons
(that would help explain gravity) and neutralinos (trust me - you
don't want to know).

But hang on, what about this black hole business? It is a possibility,
though a distant one. The conditions within the LHC approximate those
present when dead stars collapse in on themselves and give birth to
black holes. Not to worry, the scientists tell us, even if a black
does form it will be microscopic and should quickly dissipate.

Don't Panic

If that doesn't comfort you, remember that the scientists at the
Manhattan Project warned the US army that testing the first atomic
bomb might set off a chain reaction that would vaporise the entire
atmosphere. The generals went ahead anyway (America, heck yeah!) - and
we're all still breathing. So if the white-coats aren't even worried
this time, we should all be fine.

At least one person is hoping fervently that they do make a tiny black
hole or two. If it happens, the radiation that they give off when they
evaporate will win Stephen Hawking an instant Nobel prize.

He theorised its existence back in 1974 (hence its modest name,
"Hawking radiation") but has obviously found it quite hard to prove.
Black holes are difficult to observe up close - being billions of
light years away and prone to crushing everything around them. But
these bite-sized holes are just the trick.

So is all of this just more science for the sake of science, with no
practical application? In the short term, yes, but properly
understanding the fundamental laws that govern the universe is bound
to open the door to all manner of technologies and tools.

I'm thinking time travelling jet-packs.


Alistair Fairweather is 24.com's Social Networking Product Manager.
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