Here’s something that’s kinda out there…  A science experiment that will start next year will be to create “mini Big Bangs”.  They are going to use a 27-kilometer long circular particle accelerator to try to recreate the Big Bang on a smaller scale.  Scientists hope the machine will create tiny black holes, and they hope to find particles that offer evidence that there are more than three dimensions.

As you may know, black holes are dangerous things… if one were to enter our galaxy, it would either destroy everything or send us out into space.  But Brian Cox of Manchester University says their experiment isn’t too dangerous, that the probability of it destroying the earth is “at the level of 10 to the minus 40.”  I discussed this with a colleague, and we agreed that anytime you have to calculate the probability of an experiment destroying the earth, it’s probably wise to cancel the whole thing.  But perhaps the potential destruction is much smaller.  Maybe that’s why they put this machine on the border of France, so if any country might be destroyed if this experiment goes crazy, it might as well be France.   🙂

The scientists expect these tiny new black holes to dissolve, but what if they grow?  This is normal for black holes.  They consume everything in their path (kinda like Unicron), except that they cannot be stopped.  A black hole can grow to millions or billions of times the mass of our Sun.  If this were to happen here, it would in all scenarios be quite a bad thing.  Although we still have one secret weapon which has not yet been tested by a black hole : the combined forces of Chuck Norris and Mr. T.  If they couldn’t stop it, then all hope would be lost.  (I think they could pull it off, though… I have no idea how, but I don’t know how anything could stop those two together.)

The reason they want to find more than three dimensions is, as Cox surmised, “It could be that there is a whole new universe a millimeter away from our heads but at right-angles to the three dimensions that are here.”  Just what our scientists need — another universe to explore.  How much of ours have we explored?  Astronomers have estimated the universe is at least 156 billion light-years wide.  We’ve been to our moon.  We’re spending billions of our tax dollars on space exploration yet have hardly been anywhere.  We simply can’t afford another universe…

Something else the article fails to mention — if we were to find another universe, we may regret it, like if they come kick our butts.  They may not be friendly, and we can’t afford another war.  Plus, we can’t even get along with ourselves on this planet!

Another angle of this is that this whole thing is extremely nerdy.  Some people make fun of Star Trek fans, but here you have people who really believe that kind of stuff and are spending millions of our tax dollars to try to prove it.  (Oops, that last part may not be so funny!)

Here’s the full article : Giant machine set to probe secrets of the universe.

In a different article about black holes, I read this, which surprised me :

With their X-ray vision, and other techniques, researchers are monitoring the chaotic environments around these black holes trying to solve some longstanding mysteries.

They have X-ray vision?!?  I thought only Superman had that…  Was this an accidental slip that reveals that mutants really do dwell among us?  Hmm…

I debated whether I should publish this stuff here, since there are a couple of evil mad scientists who sometimes visit this blog.  They may not need to know about being able to create their own black holes or getting X-ray vision.  But they’re probably aware of such technology anyway.  Besides, it was published in the news for everyone to see anyway…