Some physicists think there is a chance that a physics experiment scheduled to take place in November at the Brookhaven National Laboratory may destroy the planet, using government funding, no less.
The experiment will be done on a new particle accelerator called the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider. The RHIC will smash gold nuclei into each other at such high energy densities that the experimenters hope to create a primordial form of matter called a quark-gluon plasma.
The problem is that no one really knows what will happen at such unprecedented energy densities. Some physicists have theorized that the experimenters may create a microscopic black hole that will swallow up the planet or something else equally nasty.
I am not kidding. While this issue has been scandalously neglected, there have been articles published in the Times of London and at abcnews.com (at http://abcnews.go.com/sections/tech/FredMoody/moody.current.html?) and letters printed in the July 1999 issue of Scientific American that contain more information about it.
We don't let our children play with dynamite in our basements. Why should we let a bunch of physicists risk all of our lives? Of course, if nothing is done about it, and the worst occurs, there will be no recriminations because there will be no anything.
I strongly urge everyone to call or write their legislators immediately to insist that a complete inquiry be conducted before this experiment is allowed to go forward.
Vincent DiCarlo
Davis
Wednesday, September 21, 1999
Dear Editor,
This letter is a response to Vincent DiCarlo's letter of Sunday, September 19,1999 ("Scary Experiment"). The letter addresses recent articles published by the Times of London and abcnews.com about the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) facility at Brookhaven National Laboratory.
Our research group at UC Davis is actively involved in the experiments taking place at the RHIC facility. We feel it is our responsibility to refute concerns that these experiments pose any threat. The earth and all celestial bodies in the solar system are continuously bombarded with a high flux of cosmic radiation. This radiation naturally contains a broad spectrum of energies larger than those we will create in the controlled environment of the laboratory. There is a wealth of strong experimental evidence from the study of high energy cosmic rays which proves that nothing threatening, such as a black hole, could ever be generated in these collisions.
The articles in the Times of London and abcnews.com are both intentionally alarmist. The authors misquoted colleagues of ours and cited sources who know very little about the field, while dismissing the explanations of experts. In Scientific American, a question was posed in the letters to the editor which was expertly refuted. No reputable physicists believe that there is any threat.
On the contrary, the results from RHIC will yield a greater understanding of the earliest phases of the universe and of celestial objects such as neutron stars and supernovae. The lessons learned about the nature of plasma might have long-term implications for useful energy technology. The challenges of handling the complex data from these experiments have already led to the creation and development of the internet and world wide web and will continue to drive information technologies.
We invite interested readers to contact us here at the UC Davis Physics Department to learn more about the exciting scientific possibilities that we are exploring at RHIC.
Sincerely,
Daniel Cebra
James E. Draper
Thomas D. Gutierrez
Jennifer Klay
Ramona Vogt
UC Davis Nuclear Physics Group
Department of Physics
University of California, Davis