Local man-made black holes could end the world
Mike Smith
Issue date: 2/22/07 Section: Culture
With increasing power since the late 1990s, the Z Machine has given scientists the chance to study the effects of intense radiation without having to detonate nuclear bombs. It has melted diamonds into puddles. It has allowed physicists to study the effects of black holes and types of stars on iron. It has taken scientists thrillingly close to harnessing the power of fusion - a clean, limitless, almost miraculous power. It has provided the potential to change our lives forever, or to end them.
The black holes created by the Z Machine generally evaporate immediately, but if one ever happens to be stable, it might destroy the planet.
"If you were to play back the tape of what went wrong very slowly, you would see something very peculiar," according to Exitmundi.nl, a Web site devoted to end-of-the-world scenarios. "Suddenly you would see the Earth deform. Obviously, not a very good sign. Our planet is flattened out to become a disk. Beams of radiation shoot out from where the poles used to be. And then, zzzp, the planet's gone."
And that would be it, the end - not just of life on Earth, but of the Earth itself - and it would be brought to you by New Mexico.
Mike Smith is a UNM history major and the author of Towns of the Sandia Mountains. He will be signing books this Saturday from 2 to 4 p.m. at Borders on 2100 Louisiana Blvd. N.E. E-mail him at AntarcticSuburbs@yahoo.com for more information.
The black holes created by the Z Machine generally evaporate immediately, but if one ever happens to be stable, it might destroy the planet.
"If you were to play back the tape of what went wrong very slowly, you would see something very peculiar," according to Exitmundi.nl, a Web site devoted to end-of-the-world scenarios. "Suddenly you would see the Earth deform. Obviously, not a very good sign. Our planet is flattened out to become a disk. Beams of radiation shoot out from where the poles used to be. And then, zzzp, the planet's gone."
And that would be it, the end - not just of life on Earth, but of the Earth itself - and it would be brought to you by New Mexico.
Mike Smith is a UNM history major and the author of Towns of the Sandia Mountains. He will be signing books this Saturday from 2 to 4 p.m. at Borders on 2100 Louisiana Blvd. N.E. E-mail him at AntarcticSuburbs@yahoo.com for more information.
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Mike Smith
posted 2/22/07 @ 11:05 AM MST
Check out a somewhat extended version of this article, complete with links and photos, at www.mystrangenewmexico.com.
All past installments of "My Strange New Mexico" are posted there as well, and people have reported that merely skimming throught the site has increased their appeal as partners in conversation by nearly 300%. (Continued…)
alokmohan
posted 2/23/07 @ 3:12 AM MST
Is it a thoght or a fact?It confuses.There should be aclarification
john doe
posted 3/06/07 @ 8:57 AM MST
they should put animals inside of them
john doe
posted 3/10/07 @ 1:17 AM MST
http://www.johntitor.com/
All I can say is...wow.
4321
4321
posted 3/18/07 @ 12:06 PM MST
And I don't think the Z machine ever created black holes, though some accelerators did.
4321
4321
posted 3/18/07 @ 12:13 PM MST
Sorry, some accelerators may do it soon, like the LHC.
4321
4321
posted 3/18/07 @ 12:15 PM MST
But they are not dangerous. see Hawking radiation
Walter L. Wagner
posted 9/14/07 @ 12:36 AM MST
The Large Hadron Collider [LHC] at CERN might create numerous different particles that heretofore have only been theorized. Numerous peer-reviewed science articles have been published on each of these, and if you google on the term "LHC" and then the particular particle, you will find hundreds of such articles, including:
1) Higgs boson
2) Magnetic Monopole
3) Strangelet
4) Miniature Black Hole [aka nano black hole]
In 1987 I first theorized that colliders might create miniature black holes, and expressed those concerns to a few individuals. (Continued…)
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