Comments on: Daily Show Explains the LHC

By: Michael Noonan

Michael Noonan — Sun, 10 May 2009 00:36:44 +0000

The probability of 1 in 50 million of a destructive incident was calculated for RHIC in 1994. At those odds the estimate was half a chance of destruction by 2100. Since no time frame was given a half a chance of destruction is still 50/50. The LHC will create a quark/gluon plasma 25 to 30 times greater with the lead cycle. Presumably the 50/50 option will arrive a whole lot sooner.

By: Chronik des Universums: April 2009 « Skyweek Zwei Punkt Null

Chronik des Universums: April 2009 « Skyweek Zwei Punkt Null — Wed, 06 May 2009 23:49:57 +0000

[...] Reparaturarbeiten am LHC machen spürbare Fortschritte: Der letzte Ersatzmagnet ist im Tunnel – aber wie geht’s [...]

By: Ellipsis

Ellipsis — Wed, 06 May 2009 22:03:23 +0000

Did you know …. that Walter Wagner is the evil twin of Harvey Newman at Caltech?

By: j

Tue, 05 May 2009 21:22:02 +0000

@maddox: Um, no. It’s not that these collisions haven’t happened before – it’s that we haven’t been able to do it in an environment that’s controlled and directly observable. Far more energetic collisions happen in the atmosphere all the time, and though I haven’t looked at the sky in the last hour, no black holes. That’s why the probability is so low. Because it’s already been tested. If we were colliding at energies beyond what the earth has experienced or what we’ve observed in the range of our telescopes, then we might be able to say we don’t know the probability.

By: Chris W.

Chris W. — Mon, 04 May 2009 23:35:17 +0000

A bit off-topic: Have you been noticing what sort of stuff Discover is publishing lately?

By: maddox

maddox — Mon, 04 May 2009 22:27:18 +0000

@ NotJohnStewart: ps: If you asked scientists in the 1800s what is the probability for theories like quantum physics, special relativity, and general relativity to be true, they would unanimously
said 0% ! And they would all have been dead wrong.

Nobody knows how to calculate this probability since we don’t what new revolution lies ahead. May be we see quantum gravity at the TeV scale against common expectations and no one really understands this theory. Everyone is quoting probabilities out of their ass but the truth is that nobody really knows.

By: maddox

maddox — Mon, 04 May 2009 21:50:32 +0000

@ NotJohnStewart: Um, yes. at the very least we don’t know what the probability is.

By: NotJohnStewart

NotJohnStewart — Mon, 04 May 2009 16:54:27 +0000

@ maddox: Um, no.

By: graviton383

graviton383 — Mon, 04 May 2009 14:48:55 +0000

z Says: You wouldn’t get that impression after 15min walk through the halls at CERN…I guess the probability is 50%.

By: z

Mon, 04 May 2009 01:04:49 +0000

If I were completely clueless about the physics community, one would get the impression from the daily show report that all physicists at the LHC were white males.

By: Rudolf Uebbing

Rudolf Uebbing — Sun, 03 May 2009 22:34:45 +0000

There are definetly four documents in the media, which shows, that CERN-representatives
uses a perfect-Zero-Risk-language when refering to the LHC. There are other documents in the media, that shows, there exists scientists, who say, the risc is not Zero, although small. This is an important scientific contradiction, which may not stand before beginning the LHC-experiment over the limit of 2 TeV.

By: rpenner

rpenner — Sun, 03 May 2009 09:26:13 +0000

There is nothing good about Wagner’s side of the lawsuit. For one, it was dismissed. In the appeal of the dismissal, Wagner advanced the theory that US Dollars are the only form of money that matters in the world. I mocked this with LOLcat speech and suggested in February that The Daily Show was the proper venue.

By: Jason Dick

Jason Dick — Sun, 03 May 2009 03:04:15 +0000

I have to say my favorite part of that was the dialog very near the beginning:

Oliver: “Evilgeniussayswhat?”
Ellis: “You’re getting incomprehensible.”

I absolutely love the precise language that he uses there to completely circumvent the joke. One of these days, I hope to be well-practiced enough to use language that precisely.

By: maddox

maddox — Sun, 03 May 2009 01:59:36 +0000

since no one knows what physics we will see at the LHC, how can one be sure of anything? There could be physics that we don’t understand that could create black holes and destroy Earth. Since we don’t know what this new physics is, the 50-50 odds could be reasonable. Just because know one yet has come up with a theory of black holes at the LHC, doesn’t mean that it can’t happen. Just sayin’

By: Jennifer West

Jennifer West — Sat, 02 May 2009 21:28:39 +0000

That was irony, student. A form of humor, you know. Anyway, I should have said childish scribbles. And Feynman would have laughed his head off at that joke.

By: Qubit

Qubit — Sat, 02 May 2009 20:52:52 +0000

50-50 Chance of distroying the world? Don’t you mean 99.9% of distroying the world? That why the magnets are in the wrong place; schrodinger’s cat?

High diddle diddle,
The Cat and the Fiddle,
The Cow jump’d over the Moon,
The little dog laugh’d to see such Craft,
And the Dish ran away with the Spoon.

Well am still here! Am pretty sure I can see more imformation about what I wrote above , than the LHC will ever produce and I havent collapsed in to a black hole.

By: student

student — Sat, 02 May 2009 20:21:21 +0000

“I loved his childish drawings especially”

He was drawing a feynman diagram for vector boson fusion. One of the primary higgs production interactions. Not really childish.

By: Science_Boy

Science_Boy — Sat, 02 May 2009 19:48:57 +0000

Well, I’m going to have to change my opinion. I’ll quit rolling my eyes at people who seem to get their real news information from the Daily Show. That was good. That was exactly what this issue needed.

By: Sili

Sili — Sat, 02 May 2009 18:45:20 +0000

Good thing I’ll never get to visit CERN.

I’dn’t be able to keep from humping and smooching John Ellis.

By: Clerk

Clerk — Sat, 02 May 2009 17:57:34 +0000

John Oliver is one of the smartest comedians today!!! Next to Demetri Martin, and Patton Oswald. Bravo John!