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FAQ "CAN LHC BE DANGEROUS ?"

1 I have read a scary speculation that the LHC accelerator of CERN might produce black holes which could then eat up the entire Earth.

2 If the LHC can recreate the conditions that existed within less than a billionth of a second after the "Big Bang" explosion, isn't it remotely possible that we (humanity) will be able to actually recreate the "Big Bang" and create a new universe?

3 J'habite ý une centaine de metres du LEP (enfin de l'anneau) et comme j'entends beaucoup de choses concernant les ondes qu il va developper lors de son fonctionnement (100 fois celles d une ligne a haute tension parait-il), Je voudrais savoir ce qu il en est exactement, et quel organisme ou association s'occupe d informer la population locale.

1. Nature is FAR more violent than even our most powerful accelerators: all the time particles from cosmic rays hit our atmosphere with enormous energies, which are many orders of magnitude greater than energies that can be reached in e.g. the LHC. These particles are the same we use in accelerators, but they occur naturally in space and we can neither control their direction nor their energy. We have been living with this cosmic bombardment for at least 4.5 billion years, but the Earth and all life on it could develop and no black holes have been seen. Therefore it does not appear that such particle collisions would pose a threat to humanity.

Research at the same kind of energy levels is already going on at Fermilab (http://www.fnal.gov) and RHIC. We would actually much prefer to use the free high energies of cosmic rays, <learn why we don't>.

2. Well, it's a nice idea, but not really possible, since all the LHC collider will do is study what (a tiny part of) the Universe looked like shortly after the Big Bang. We're not recreating the Big Bang here, but just probing the physics that took place shortly after it happened. We simply don't have (and never will have) the energy necessary to recreate a Big Bang. Learn more about the <difference between energy and energy density>.

3. Pour des rÈponses plus ÈlaborÈes je vous invite ý visiter le CERN si vous ne l'avez pas encore fait. Le centre de visiteurs est ouvert tous les jours y compris le samedi. Nous avons une equipe de jeunes physiciennes et physiciens qui seront votre guide.

Le LEP est maintenant totalement demantelÈ et sera remplacÈ par le LHC. Comme le LEP, le LHC est une machine ý courant continu, donc il n'y a pas d'ondes (Dans les lignes de haute tension, c'est du courant alternatif).

Nous avons un programme d'information avec la population locale et nous organisons reguliËrement des prÈsentations dans les communes du pays de Gex et Meyrin.

Le LHC se trouve dans un tunnel souterrain ý 60 ý 160 m de profondeur (minimum 60 m ý Meyrin, max. 160m sous le Jura).

Vous pouvez Ègalement consulter
http://environnementCERN.cern.ch/

1	I have read a scary speculation that the LHC accelerator of CERN might produce black holes which could then eat up the entire Earth.
2	If the LHC can recreate the conditions that existed within less than a billionth of a second after the "Big Bang" explosion, isn't it remotely possible that we (humanity) will be able to actually recreate the "Big Bang" and create a new universe?
3	J'habite ý une centaine de metres du LEP (enfin de l'anneau) et comme j'entends beaucoup de choses concernant les ondes qu il va developper lors de son fonctionnement (100 fois celles d une ligne a haute tension parait-il), Je voudrais savoir ce qu il en est exactement, et quel organisme ou association s'occupe d informer la population locale.