Is the Large Hadron Collider the biggest mistake of all time?

AFTER OUTLINING THE VARIOUS ANXIETIES REGARDING BLACK HOLES AND THE LHC, HASSETT CONCLUDES:

HASSETT/BW:

... the safety arguments that have justified turning on the LHC are each a little less decisive than was originally believed.

Oxford University’s Toby Ord, a philosopher by training, adds one last concern.

It may be that the models that we use to make predictions about the possibility of catastrophe are themselves flawed.

One in 1,000

Adjusting for this possibility, Ord estimates that the odds of the LHC producing a disaster are between one in 1,000 and one in 1 million.

Whatever the likely benefits from this experiment, it is impossible that they would be significant enough to justify accepting a cost that includes a real risk of the Earth’s destruction.

If Ord’s numbers are correct, and they may not be, then the LHC is the biggest policy error of all time.

WE WILL SOON KNOW WHETHER THE LHC WAS A BAD IDEA: FEBRUARY 20TH THEY WILL BEGIN TO INJECT ANOTHER BEAM WITH RESULTS PERHAPS A MONTH LATER...

STAY TUNED...

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