When plans for the Large Hadron Collider were first announced there were some people who feared that it might rip up a hole in the space-time continuum when it was turned on, effectively destroying all life on Earth. Obviously, that never happened with the particle accelerator instead ushering in a new age in particle physics as several game-changing discoveries unfolded, including the confirmation of the existence of the Higgs boson, the so-called God particle that gives other particles mass.
However, part of me wonders if some of those same fears might return upon news of CERN’s latest plan for a new particle accelerator (the FCC – Future Circular Collider) that would dwarf the current size of the LHC as it tries to figure out what Dark Matter is and solve the mysteries of the Universe. After all, the sheer size of the thing (62 miles long and x10 more powerful) surely must invite some kind of risk, even if the LHC worked out swimmingly.
If that’s not the case and there really is no risk at all regardless of size then why not go all in on the concept of smashing atoms at high speeds?!
As Futurism reports:
“’We have to draw a line somewhere otherwise we end up with a collider that is so large that it goes around the equator,’ former U.K. chief scientific advisor David King told the BBC of the plans for the FCC. ‘And if it doesn’t end there perhaps there will be a request for one that goes to the Moon and back.’”
Come to think of it both of those sound like good ideas to me! Secrets of the Universe here we come!
Is the FCC the Greatest Idea Ever?
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