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Tuesday, July 1, 2008

And so, the Large Hadron Collider at CERN is just about getting ready to go sometime this August. Supposedly able to achieve temperatures as low as 2 Kelvins, the LHC is theorised to be able to shed light on several things, such as whether or not liquid cake will ever be made, and to allow scientists to figure out how elementary particles can possess mass.
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It's that big.

Now, I'm not exactly an expert on supercolliders, but if there's one thing I know, it's that a supercollider that's larger than the previous one isn't going to end the world. It's amazing, really. There actually are people who have the impression that the world is going to end when the LHC goes online. I mean, judging from the wording, they believe that the universe will spontaneously turn itself into the shape of Jar Jar Binks. Which would be really bad. I don't think anyone could stand the thought of being part of anything to do with Jar Jar Binks.

Now, the thing is, it's not actually known whether the Large Hadron Collider is going to be able to produce micro-black holes. For one, it's not really that easy to tell if they came into existence in the first place, given that they supposedly evaporate via Hawking radiation. And this whole thing about magnetic monopoles- If my memory serves me, the LHC shouldn't even be able to make monopoles that do anything wacky. Such as turning the universe into a cake.

In any case, maybe I should get started on Fabric of the Cosmos, now that I'm just about done with Origin. Origin was really just a huge illustration of stuff that we already knew. For the modern reader, On the Origin of Species is but an affirmation to the model of evolution. Enlightening in some aspects, as there are just certain things that you cannot find on Wikipedia, and also wonderful, when you realise that Darwin lived over a century ago. You know, around the time when leading physicists would burn you at the stake for witchcraft if you showed them a cellphone.

Zeeky boogy doog.

If they make the Zeeky. H Bomb out of the LHC, I'm going to convert to a new religion.

Today just felt like a bad day. It is likely that this has much to do with tomorrow, when I will lose my afternoon to something that involves helping the first batch of biofuel. I also feel like I have signed away my weekends for a few months sometime in the future.

And I've never had such unappealing homework, ever.
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-Joe


Lost @ 8:01 PM