The staggeringly complex LHC ‘atom smasher’ at the CERN centre in Geneva, Switzerland, will be fired up to its highest energy levels ever in a bid to detect – or even create – miniature black holes.
If successful a completely new universe will be revealed – rewriting not only the physics books but the philosophy books too.
It is even possible that gravity from our own universe may ‘leak’ into this parallel universe, scientists at the LHC say.
Useful clarification:
“Normally, when people think of the multiverse, they think of the many-worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics, where every possibility is actualised.
“This cannot be tested and so it is philosophy and not science.
“This is not what we mean by parallel universes. What we mean is real universes in extra dimensions.
You mean, one in which one didn’t get a speeding ticket and did pay one’s rent?
Can this hype sponsored by the team (?) really be good for science?
Collider teams are doing something useful. But stories like this remind us that the need to believe in something “sciencey” overwhelms judgement.
“Sciencey?” That means the space alien is science but Bigfoot is not. It;s not aobut levels of oproof but about cultural assumptions.
Historically, this used to be a bigger problem with supposed cancer cures or apparitions of saints.
The problem has gravitated, for better or worse, to physics and other sciences. Here is a quick summary of why that happened.
Note: Midmarket tabloid? Well, a lowbrow tabloid would claim that space aliens were part of the project. – O’Leary for News
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