Scientists Get Death Threats Over Big Bang Experiment

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The New York Sun

The scientists behind the world’s biggest-ever scientific experiment have received death threats from critics who claim it could cause the end of the world.

Experts are attempting to recreate the forces that occurred in the immediate aftermath of the Big Bang, which created the universe.

The $8 billion machine at Cern, the European nuclear research organization based near Geneva, will be switched on this Wednesday. Some of the scientists working on the experiment, who include a Welsh miner’s son and a former pop star, have received threatening e-mails and been besieged by telephone calls from worried members of the public who fear the machine could cause earthquakes and tsunamis that will destroy the world.

The Large Hadron Collider will fire particles around its 17-mile circumference tunnel. It will then smash protons — one of the building blocks of matter — into each other at energies up to seven times greater than any achieved before.

Scientists hope to recapture conditions not seen since near the birth of the universe almost 14 billion years ago. They could find answers to some of the biggest questions in physics, such as why the universe looks the way it does, and how to explain mass, gravity and mysterious “dark matter.”

Some skeptics remain unconvinced about its safety. A German chemist from a group of scientists mounting a last-minute court challenge to the project, Otto Rossler, is especially worried about the creation of black holes. He believes it is possible that the black holes will grow uncontrollably and “eat the planet from the inside.”

Other scientists say this is complete nonsense. They point to the fact that cosmic rays hitting the Earth’s atmosphere should also be creating mini-black holes. Yet to date none of them has swallowed up the planet.

One of the leading figures behind the experiment is Dr. Lynn Evans, the son of a miner, who said his fascination with science started as a boy, when he would create small explosions with his chemistry set.

Another is a professor at Manchester University, Brian Cox who played keyboards with D:Ream, whose hit “Things Can Only Get Better” was adopted by the Labour Party as its 1997 election anthem.

He said members of the team had received death threats.


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