Not that the reports of recent months actually stirred up much opposition to the Large Hadron Collider – despite a certain hysteria that spread through blogs and disreputable outlets. But CERN’s safety committee has looked again at some silly people’s worry its collidings might trigger a planet-eating black hole right on this planet. Their first answer was no no no, now it’s more like no to the no-wayth power. Not only does theory say very firmly that any black holes spun from its collisions will promptly evaporate, but the reviewers calculated how many super cosmic rays are out there smashing about, whamming neutrons stars and other heavy objects. They duplicate a gazillion years worth of operation by an LHC on steroids – and with no discernible killer black hole spawn.

Stories:

BBC Paul Rincon ; Science News Ron Cowen includes, thank you very much, the arXiv hep-ph link to the study (in Grist below) ; New Scientist Hazel Muir ;

*UPDATE: Just learned (June 27) from the man himself that NYTimes’s Dennis Overbye was ahead of the pack, with a full story June 21.

Grist for the Mill: CERN study ;

See Also: Bad Astronomy’s Phil Plait blogs expertly, excerpts concisely on the report ;

Pic source ;

-CP

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