Particle Collider Prompts Doomsday Suit

Device could spark fatal black hole, claimants say

By Matt Cantor, Newser Staff

Posted Mar 30, 2008 2:45 PM CDT

(Newser) – A particle smasher in Switzerland could suck up Earth and possibly the whole universe, a US lawsuit claims. The suit warns that the $8 billion Large Hadron Collider near Geneva could spark a matter-sucking black hole or a "strangelet" that turns our planet into "strange matter." But one Princeton scientist dismisses the claim, saying the Collider is as likely to "make dragons that might eat us up," the New York Times reports.

Walter Wagner and Luis Sancho, who filed the suit, warn that the project should be shut down pending a safety review; Wagner calls past reviews "propaganda." But scientists behind the Collider say a Hawaiian court has no jurisdiction over their work. One theorist admits that an Earth-eating black hole is possible, but is “too serious a threat to leave as a matter of argument among crackpots."

Shown is a building at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) in Geneva. ((c) zipckr)

Above, the magnet core of the world's largest superconducting solenoid magnet at the European Organization for Nuclear Research's Large Hadron Collider particle accelerator, Geneva, March 22, 2007. (AP Photo/Keystone, Martial Trezzini, file)

A wooden "Globe" is seen at CERN's entrance. (Getty Images)

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Particle Collider Prompts Doomsday Suit

Device could spark fatal black hole, claimants say

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Device could spark fatal black hole, claimants say

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Large Hadron Collider Observes First New Particle

Chi-b (3P) will help scientists understand nuclear forces

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Teams spot promising bumps, but can't prove particle exists

'God Particle' Hunters Set to Bare Results Today

Physicists' understanding of the universe is at stake

Glimpse of 'God Particle' Nigh?

Scientists may be just days from spotting mysterious Higgs Boson particle

Faster-Than-Light Findings All Wrong: New Study

Scientists refute labmates' shocking results

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