A black hole in our backyard

2008-08-08 09:06

Alistair Fairweather

As I write this, a group of scientists are trying to create a black hole on earth. Yes, a black hole - one of those giant black vacuum cleaners in space which people in sci-fi movies use to travel between dimensions. The ones that swallow up the light around them, and crush entire solar systems.

In a closely guarded underground facility that sprawls between France and Switzerland, the scientists are already testing the largest machine ever built - a giant, ring-shaped atom smasher called (in typical scientific understatement) the "Large Hadron Collider" (LHC). The thing is 27 kilometres around - Bloody Enormous Hadron Collider would be a better name.

So are they a bunch of white-coated doctor evils intent on obliterating us all with their Doomsday device? Hardly. They are physicists from around the planet, trying to prove the existence of a few missing particles that would tie up all their theories once and for all.

How will they do this? They will start by accelerating tiny amounts of matter to close to light speed in opposite directions around the rings of the LHC. Then, when they're at full gallop, they will cross the beams and smash the matter together inside four giant detectors. It's a bit like little boys gleefully running their toy trains into each other at full speed to see which bits fly off. Except this train set cost $15bn to build.

Theory

Currently they're looking for a particle that only exists in theory - the Higgs Boson, which the media insist on calling the "God Particle" (a name that makes most scientists wince). Describing this particle tends to make us non-physicists frown or fall asleep, but essentially it's one of the vital missing components in a neat description of the universe called the Standard Model.

Think of Higgs Boson as a piece of a jigsaw puzzle for which we've lost the solution picture. Scientists can see the gap, and they just need to find a piece that is the right shape. If they don't find it with the LHC, then their whole conception of the puzzle may be wrong. What they think is a picture of a pony may in fact be something else entirely. An octopus perhaps. And that "grass" may in fact be seaweed.

If they do find Higgs Bosoun, then there are a whole range of other puzzle pieces they want to find - mysterious beasts like gravitons (that would help explain gravity) and neutralinos (trust me - you don't want to know).

But hang on, what about this black hole business? It is a possibility, though a distant one. The conditions within the LHC approximate those present when dead stars collapse in on themselves and give birth to black holes. Not to worry, the scientists tell us, even if a black does form it will be microscopic and should quickly dissipate.

Don't Panic

If that doesn't comfort you, remember that the scientists at the Manhattan Project warned the US army that testing the first atomic bomb might set off a chain reaction that would vaporise the entire atmosphere. The generals went ahead anyway (America, heck yeah!) - and we're all still breathing. So if the white-coats aren't even worried this time, we should all be fine.

At least one person is hoping fervently that they do make a tiny black hole or two. If it happens, the radiation that they give off when they evaporate will win Stephen Hawking an instant Nobel prize.

He theorised its existence back in 1974 (hence its modest name, "Hawking radiation") but has obviously found it quite hard to prove. Black holes are difficult to observe up close - being billions of light years away and prone to crushing everything around them. But these bite-sized holes are just the trick.

So is all of this just more science for the sake of science, with no practical application? In the short term, yes, but properly understanding the fundamental laws that govern the universe is bound to open the door to all manner of technologies and tools.

I'm thinking time travelling jet-packs.

Alistair Fairweather is 24.com's Social Networking Product Manager.

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