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Asked by lmjinc to Charlie, Eoin, Jemma, Julian, Steve on 11 Mar 2011.
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Eoin Lettice answered on 11 Mar 2011:
Hi, Thanks for your question.
No I don’t think it’s dangerous at all. In fact, I think there are lots of exciting things we can learn from big science experiments like this!
Eoin.
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Stephen Moss answered on 11 Mar 2011:
I’m a biologist and not a physicist so I don’t completely understand what it does. However, I know scientists think a lot about safety and I very much doubt the LHC is dangerous.
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Julian Rayner answered on 11 Mar 2011:
Not enough of a physicist (as in not anything of a physicist) to provide a rational answer, so I just have to trust the scientists involved. To me, the LHC is just a great example of scientists from all over the world collaborating to answer fundamental questions about the world. Now, if just 50% of the money spent on it could spill over to malaria research, it would have quite the impact…
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Jemma Ransom answered on 11 Mar 2011:
It depends on what you mean by dangerous. I certainly wouldn’t want to be stood in the collision chamber when protons are being hurtled around, and the whole thing is cooled by liquid helium, which could be quite dangerous. If however you mean are we going to be sucked into a black whole created at the Franco-Swiss border, I don’t think that’s a credible danger. Ultra-high energy cosmic rays constantly bombard our atmosphere, and yet we are all still here!
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Charlie Ryan answered on 11 Mar 2011:
No not at all!! It would be dangerous if you were standing next to it – as would many a large piece of engineering – but is it a risk to the general France/Swiss population, no!
The LHC is a fascinating experiment in physics and well worth doing – even tho it has an expensive price tag!
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