Diego k.

How many of you have heard of the large hadron collider? (wait for
no one to raise their hand) well for those of you who have not, alow me, the
large hadron collider is the largest particle accelerator in existence, its 17
mile long circular structure spans both Switzerland and France. Funded
and built by thousands of scientists and engineers from around the world it
sports an impressive budget of almost 9 billion US dollars.
I assume you are now are curious as to what a particle accelerator
is, so im going to walk you through it. An atom is made up of 3
components, protons, electrons, and neutrons. It is the variation in
combinations of these 3 particles that creates the different types of atom
(ie: silver atoms have 46 protons/electrons and 60 neutrons whereas gold
atoms have 79 protons/electrons and 117 neutrons) the large hadron
collider is designed to take the most simple atom in the universe: hydrogen
(1 proton/electron 0 neutrons) and strip it of its electron leaving only a
proton.
It then fires that proton into a series of rings, each larger the the last,
all the while accelerating the proton using thousands of massive
electromagnets until it eventually enters the final ring, causing it to meet
max velocity at which point occurs somewhat of a scientific miracle.
The proton, travelling at 99% the speed of light can no longer
accelerated due to Einsteins light speed barrier. The electromagnets, still
exerting energy upon the particle are unable to accelerate it any further,
creating excess energy, this excess energy is then (believe it or not)
converted to mass.
Here is where the Collider bit comes into play, the massive
accelerated proton, along with several other identical protons are
repeatedly introduced to intersections within the ring until eventually, the
seemingly impossible happens, and they collide due to their increased
mass.

The collision causes the two extremely fast and heavy protons to
fragment into particles known as quarks. These quarks are similar to ones
prevalent immediately after the big bang , they are the the building blocks
of the building blocks of the universe and the reason for the LHC.
Ok (deep breath) now im sure you are wondering why the fuck would
i care? well the simple answer is that it is going to destroy us all.
So how many of you know what a black hole is? it is the fear of
scientists such as Walter L. Wagner that the protons will reach critical
mass, collapsing in on themselves and creating a series of micro black
holes when would then fuse to create a massive vacuum that would
consume most of our solar system. This is just one of the many different
catastrophic events made possible by the LHC.
What gives the few the right to risk the lives of the many?
So what would I have you do to prevent this disaster? Well i would
ask that you dedicate your lives to the decommissioning of the Large
Hadron Collider, ultimately saving the world, but since that seems unlikely, I
would instead i suggest that you enjoy life while it lasts because it wont
last much longer.