Might a laboratory experiment destroy planet earth?

Abstract

Recently some concerns have been raised about the possibility that a high energy ion–ion colliding beam experiment such as the one which has just begun at Brookhaven National Laboratory in the USA, or a similar one that is planned to begin some years hence at CERN in Geneva, might have cataclysmic consequences, hypothetically amounting to the disappearance of planet earth, although the probability of this happening is of course tiny. In the first part of this paper a review is presented of the motivations for such concerns and of the extent to which they have been studied, and in the context of this treatment the appeasing conclusions of the published studies are examined. In the second part, and in the light of the above example, a brief analysis is provided of some scientific, ethical, political, and sociological issues raised by the dangers associated with human endeavours which might entail a tiny probability of an utterly catastrophic outcome – with special emphasis on related responsibilities of the scientific and technological communities.

First Commandment for experimental physicists: ‘Thou shalt put error bars on all observations.’

First Commandment for theoretical physicists: ‘Thou shall get the sign right.’¹

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References

I am grateful to Professor Sebastian Pease for introducing me to these ‘commandments’.

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