How can we know if it’s safe?
This is a site about the safety of the the LHC (Large Hadron Collider). It is not aimed at scientists; it is not a discussion at a technical level. I can’t refute the smallest part of anyone’s theory of particle physics and I don’t have my own theories. Instead, I am looking at the issue more generally. Here’s my ‘elevator pitch’ summary:
CERN is the organisation which operates the LHC. On their website, they mention aspects of the experiments that will sound like science fiction to many of us – the possibility of matter moving to and from other dimensions, the detection of dark matter (invisible matter of almost unknown characteristics), investigation of anti-matter, the possibility of black holes being created. To emphasise – this is what the physicists are saying, not ‘crackpot’ opponents of the LHC.
Most of this knowledge is of necessity theoretical. It is in an area that is potentially highly destructive with no really satisfactory way of assessing the risk. Because of this, there is a reasonable case for not carrying out the experiments at all. If we do carry out these experiments, it would be advisable to be extremely cautious and to treat them as unsafe, proceeding very slowly, over a time-scale of years rather than months. CERN has said there is no danger and is discouraging suggestions that there might be. They might be wrong. We/they should encourage disagreement with the positive safety assessment (real or “devil’s advocate” opposition). In fact, the opposite is the case: there is almost a propaganda campaign against dissenters. This is not a sensible approach, however convinced physicist may be that there is no danger.
That was the summary. The rest of the site builds on that.
I try to prove what I’m saying by choosing references you can check, from respectable sources, such as CERN themselves, reports from the BBC, the NASA website.
We non-physicists can’t really understand all the arguments why it is said to be safe. But where we are thinking about how the safety argument is being conducted by those in favour of the LHC experiments, the opinions of philosophy professors, journalists, lawyers, safety experts or risk analysers are more important than those of physicists.
The work of the LHC has only just started. It is going to operate at increasing power levels in the future. The fact that apparently nothing significant has gone wrong so far does not mean the issue is settled.