On the other side of the black hole

September 11, 2008 By 14 Comments

Well, we made it. The earth apparently didn’t get sucked into a singularity (a.k.a. black hole) generated by the mega-particle accelerator in Geneva. We can breathe a sigh of relief. Your life today is a gift. Although it may be that we HAVE been sucked into the singularity and been spit out into another dimension. So if your day proves weird today, that might be the explanation.

Filed Under: Science 14 Comments
About Gene Veith

Professor of Literature at Patrick Henry College, the Director of the Cranach Institute at Concordia Theological Seminary, a columnist for World Magazine and TableTalk, and the author of 18 books on different facets of Christianity & Culture.

  • WebMonk

    You do realize that yesterday was just a warm up? They were just testing sending some beams around, not colliding them together.

  • http://www.homesteadblogger.com/gonorthyoungpack Jenn W

    So, do we all go BANG when they actually start colliding them? ;) Shot heard around the world sort of thing? Ok, I’m leaving now. Must need coffee! ;)

  • http://cyberbrethren.typepad.com/cyberbrethren/2008/06/to-live-with-christ-daily-devotions-by-bo-giertz.html Rev. Paul T. McCain

    I did, however, sense a disturbance in the Force!

  • WebMonk

    The first collisions are scheduled for October 21st if I remember correctly. Those won’t be full powered blasts though, and will still be in the range of what other particle accelerators have already done. The power levels of the collisions will be ramped up to full over the following couple months. I’m not sure of when the first full powered collision will take place.

  • Dennis Peskey

    I find great irony witnessing the attempts by particle physicists who spend their lives going in ever increasing circles is search of meaning. When I was younger, I found spinning in circles only made me nauseous – the lesson learned was a straight and narrow path leads to truth.

  • http://www.toddstadler.com/ tODD

    Dennis (@5), a “straight and narrow path” also takes you out of orbit, never to return. :)

  • CRB

    WebMonk: A thought just occured, what if the world ends *before* the tests are completed?! :>]

  • Anon The First

    Full-energy collisions are scheduled for late next year, at the earliest. It is those which might produce a Higgs. If Higgs Bosons really exist. They probably don’t, there seem to be better explanations for mass and inertia out there.

  • http://maplemountain.blogspot.com/ s.d. smith

    I noticed that my friend, a Vulcan, has a goatee!

    I knew something was up.

  • Michael the little boot

    Black holes may not exist either. Right? I’m no physicist though…

  • WebMonk

    Michael, black holes or something that is functionally identical to what we think of as a black hole have been verified numerous times with direct astronomical observation.

    It’s not impossible (VERY unlikely but technically not impossible) that we are completely off-target as to what they actually are, but at the very least, there is something that behaves exactly like what we think a black hole ought to behave and has all the properties of what we think it should have.

    Now, micro-black holes – those are theoretical and we don’t have any evidence pro or con. That’s one of the things the LHC may give us.

  • Michael the little boot

    WebMonk,

    Thanks! I was in the dark about that…

    …hee-hee. In the dark…

    So the debate between Hawking and Susskind is about the nature of black holes, rather than about whether they exist? I’m getting ready to read The Black Hole War, which will probably answer that question…

  • WebMonk

    Pretty much. Susskind “won” his “war” when Hawking came around to the view that Susskind’s view was correct, at least in most regards.

    The war was sort of one-sided since Hawking wasn’t particularly defending his theories. Hawking’s apparent actions were along the lines of “Well, that’s my theory and I think it works, but if you think it doesn’t then go right ahead and see if you can do it.”

  • Michael the little boot

    That sounds like Hawking. He doesn’t seem concerned with being absolutely correct. He seems to like competing theories.