Something to make you feel happy about humanity

[jerkto]

You might have heard about this (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7604293.stm) already but today's the first time they actually used it. Sorry if it doesn't have much to do with computers...it does have over 2000 power supplies to fire it up though and I'm sure it has a lot of computer hardware.

Not all is joy though. There have been worries it might create a black hole or something :p

[saphalline]

Oh yeah, the LHC. Pretty cool, I must admit. :cool:

[Sylvander]

Hmm...

I wonder what the cost/benefit ratio is for the project. :confused:

You could save a LOT of [children's?] lives with £5,000,000,000!
There are children dying by the million for want of simple, low-cost intervention. :(

I guess when you weigh the opportunity to DEFINITELY save lives in the short term, against scientific exploration that MAY save lives on the long term, "you pays your money and makes your choice".

Perhaps they figure the human race is a lost cause anyway, and saving lives is pointless.

There's always the upside, and the downside to everything, and when it comes to spending money on ANY project it would be wise to assess its importance in the overall scheme.

[Budfred]

There are any number of projects that they waste considerably more money on each day that will return nothing to anyone... (Think military spending)... The potential for a project like this is hard to estimate... Many of the cutting edge developments in computers have research like this at their roots... The potential for things like a clean and essentially endless energy resource exists in this kind of research... If you want to save money on such things, I can think of dozens more money wasting efforts that could be devoted to humanitarian causes instead of being thrown into the pockets of wealthy arms merchants and other dubious pursuits...

I am anxiously waiting to see what they find with this...

[stepfinder]

The LHC has been in construction for some 13 years, any way is awesome indeed.

[PrntRhd]

They are having some big problems with it, hope it gets fixed soon.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7626944.stm

[MR. HT]

The black hole thing is retarded. We have had particle accelerators in the past just none of this magnitude. This one will be able to help out alot though. It will be able to prove the theory of "black matter" and the Higgs Boson. It could change physics completely. It's pretty cool if you ask me, and well worth it if you ask me.