The collider panic
Stories from Physics
for 11-14
14-16
Following sensational media reports that the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) might produce a black hole when switched on, James Gillies, the head of public relations at CERN, had to field phone calls from tearful members of the public expressing fears for their children. The Nobel Prize winning physicist, Frank Wilczek, received death threats from people fearful about the consequences of the LHC’s experiments. The CERN website reassured visitors that: “If micro black holes do appear in the collisions created by the LHC, they would disintegrate rapidly, in around 10 27 seconds.”
References
The collider panic
R. Highfield, Scientists get death threats over Large Hadron Collider, 5th September 2008, The Telegraph Website, http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/science/science-news/3351119/Scientists-get-death-threats-over-Large-Hadron-Collider.html