December 8, 2009 • 34 mins
In this episode of Stuff You Should Know, Josh and Chuck discuss the Large Hadron Collider, from its purpose and origins to how likely it is to wipe out all life in the universe.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve Camray.
It's ready. Are you welcome to stuff you should know
from house Stuff Works dot com. Hey, and welcome to
the podcast. I'm Josh Clark with me as always as
Charles W. Bryant, as well as our producer Jerry. You
(00:22):
can just call me Boson Higgs Boson. No one's going
to call you that. It would be a great name, though, Yeah,
Higgs Boson. What up pigs. I wonder if that thing
is discovered, if somebody will name their kid Higgs Boson,
you know, Michael Wits or whatever. Well, if someone names
her kid yet Detroit. I think someone could potentially name
the kid Nigs Boson. There's a there's even a comma
(00:46):
I think in there and there and yet Detroit. Yeah,
I don't remember an exclamation point. Yeah, there's some sort
of punctuation. When you get punctuation into your name. Your
parents were messed up. Yes, Chuck's talking about a theoretical
article called the Higgs Boson, and we'll talk about it
in a minute, but first we're going to talk about
the place where they're hoping to find proof positive that
(01:09):
the Higgs Boson particle exists, yes, Josh. And this is
very science heavy, super science heavy, because it's about science,
so science heavy that Chuck and I um are a
little nervous about this one. I'm not afraid you have
dark matter using out of my ears, which is proof
that it exists. Exactly. You just you just amended the
standard model. Chuck. All right, let's talk about this, dude.
(01:32):
What what what is this? We're talking about the large
Hadron collider. Right, but you may have heard about, you
may know a lot about, and if you do, I
imagine we'll probably get some angry emails from you when
we mess it up. And right, but on the border
between Switzerland and France. Yes, a hundred meters underground, beautiful country. Sure,
(01:55):
that's a good skiing out there. Sure, Um. There is
a facility with track that's what seventeen miles long, think
seventeen point seven sixteen points, we'll just call it seventeen
seventeen Uh and around this track, Uh, they shoot beams
of light. Pretty simple, It is pretty simple. And we
stop now, Yes, we can that there there's a large
(02:16):
had round collider, everybody, that's what it's called. It's called
the Large had dron collider. Um it's been built. I
think they started in the twenty first century and finally
went online for the first time in two thousand and eight.
So far, it's cost six billion dollars to construct. Yeah,
I've heard any up to ten even depending on who. Yeah. Well, yeah,
and there's a lot of countries involved. There's thousands of
(02:36):
scientists who are going back to their home countries and
saying we need more money, we need more money. Um
and uh the the but yeah, France and um Switzerland
to run in the show there. Ye. CERN is the
name of the company we should point out right well,
the organizations the European Organization for Nuclear Research abbreviated en
Francais CERN. Okay, I was about to say those letters
(02:58):
don't match up something here, So what is it, chuck?
They shoot beams of like. It's a particle accelerator and
it is the largest and most badass particle accelerator in
the history of particle accelerators. True that that's the easiest
way to say. We've got particle accelerators that look like um,
old donkeys pulling carts with square wheels compared to this thing. Seriously,
(03:22):
this is as big as it gets. It's as ambitious
as it gets um. And basically, what they're trying to
do our several fold. They're trying to prove the existence
of the Higgs Boson particle, the god particle. Well, let's
talk about this. Why why would anyone want to prove
the existence of a theoretical particle? Should we go back
(03:43):
to the standard model? Yeah? Should we back into this,
let's do it. Basically, it tries to define the fundamental
particles that make uh, the universe, the forces, the forces, right,
You've got strong nuclear force, strong like bull, weak nuclear force,
electromagnetic force. So the standard model, which combines um Einstein's
theory of relativity with quantum physics I believe um theory
(04:07):
and all that other stuff you just said. It combines
those two, uh, and it proves the existence that it
counts for those three forces. The problem is gravity still
remains unaccounted for. That's the fourth fundamental force, Like we
can account for theoretically, but we can't say, yes, this
is why gravity exists, and this is all the stuff
gravity does. We're still with with strong nuclear force, weak
(04:29):
nuclear force, and electromagnetic force. We've advanced leaps and bounds
beyond classical physics, Newtonian physics. But we're still at the
apple falling off the tree level. Uh, as far as
this goes when it comes to gravity. So the Higgs
Boson particle, if we find it, if we detect it um,
it will fill out the standard model exactly. And it's
(04:51):
a theoretical particle at this point that we're looking for, right,
And they they think that it exists and that basically
it's responsible for giving mass or matter mass right right,
which is important, they say, because not all matter has mass,
things called neutrinos, delicious and nutritious. Neutrinos do not have maths.
(05:15):
I've practiced that one did. It's actually written down. Uh.
So not everything has mass. And and the idea is
that if you explain uh the existence of mass using
the Higgs mechanism, we'll all be better for it and
understand our origins. Ultimately, that's what it comes down to,
is where like theory, theory is not good enough, we
(05:36):
have to know, you know. So the Higgs Boston particle
is one of the bigger ones named after Peter Higgs.
By the way, physicists who theorized it um. How do
you how do you know a theoretical particle when you
see it. That's a good question. Do you know? This
is what I understand, Um that you can't just say, oh,
(05:57):
there must be this particle out there and name it
after me. By the way, I think Peter Higgs went
a little further and said, this particle must exist, and
if it does exist, this is basically this is its
um energy, it's mass, So find this name it after me,
right exactly? And uh so if they what's going to
(06:18):
happen when they when they turn the large Hadron collider
on what this Christmas? Right? I think it begins the
process which will take several months after that to collide. Yeah,
they'll they'll have their sensors looking for particle that's created
that has that I guess mass, that energy, that that whatever,
(06:39):
um however, it's described mathematically. My stuff. It's coming out
of my ears right now. So darker matter is another
one that they're hoping to find, right. Uh, yeah, you've
got to coming out your ears tell us about it, Chuck. Well, Uh,
here's the deal. Dark matter is. Right now, humans can
(06:59):
observe about four of all the matter that must exist
in the universe. That's all we can account for. That's
not very much. Uh, there's a theory that um dark
matter is this undetectable matter and that coupled with the
matter that we can detect, makes up only about which
is still not much. And the other three quarters is
(07:20):
what they think might be a force called dark energy, right,
which UM. Scientists have become alarmed over the last few
decades when they've detected that the universe is actually expanding
and they don't know why well, and they think that
dark energy may be the reason. Right, So they're looking
for that too. UM. A lot of once you again,
once you theorize something, you kind of have to back
(07:41):
it up with, and this is what it's going to
look like, right, and so that you you sense for it, right. Sure.
They're also looking for anti matter, which is matters hated
foe and they like to cancel each other out. Yeah,
that's how it supposedly worked, is that there was more
anti matter matters, right, more matter than antimatter when the
Big Bang happened, which is how we're here. But they
(08:04):
don't know why, and they're hoping and that is um,
that is the hook, Chuck, what they're going to do.
They want to find all this stuff and more, um
by recreating the Big Bang, that the the what the
universe looked like a trillionth of a second after the
Big Bang? Right right, because we think what happened was
(08:28):
the universe expands and cools and all these particles floating
around join up together and form larger particles and then
all of a sudden, what do you what do? What's
what's the word evolution? Sure it starts rolling if you
believe in that kind of thing, right, Um. They're also
looking for some other stuff, um, slightly stranger stuff than
(08:49):
you know, dark matter and anti matter. They're looking for
evidence well, adherence of string theory. Are looking for evidence
of string theory, which would we mean another dimension several
up to eleven. I believe who I think theorized eleven.
I don't buy string theory. Yeah, and you've always I have.
I have a real problem, and it's most likely I
(09:11):
just don't understand it. But from what I understand, very
very smart people don't understand it either. Well, there's no
compression that Kiku is like this is what he didn't
come up with the measurements to back it up, you know,
But you're on the same page as a lot of scientists,
though they also say that it's it's a philosophy. It's
not a science, right under his theory or under his philosophy,
(09:31):
however you want to say it. Um, there's up to
eleven different dimensions. We're currently aware of four um height,
with depth and time. Yes, those are four dimensions that
we exist in UM. Under k KU there's eleven total,
so there's another eight that are unaccounted for UM, and
that all matter in the universe is made up of
tiny vibrating strength. Some are closed like little rubber bands,
(09:55):
some are open like little um oh, I don't know,
tape worms, like a cut rubber band, right, sure, And
these strings can vibrate and like a guitar string, and uh,
one vibration might make it look like an electron. One
might make it look like a neutrino, delicious and netritious neutrino.
And that's string theory and it's most simplest form. But
(10:17):
even still, the strings are highly hypothetical UM, and even
if they were created, we apparently wouldn't be able to
sense them. What they're looking for the string theorists is
evidence of supersymmetry, right, and supersymmetry is you have a
particle and it has a UM an opposite particle like
(10:37):
a neutron, and a positron positive and negatively charged an antiparticle.
Sure right, Um, even further those are superpartners, even further
into supersymmetry. And this will somehow, I guess, prove string theory.
I don't understand how it will. But um, and oh
my god, can you imagine the length of the emails
(10:58):
we're going to get from people who explain how this
proves string theory. I'm already uh, suffering from brain melt.
I can't imagine anymore. So you've got the neutron and
the positron, yes, and those are superpartners. But each of
those have a UM positive partner to rather than an opposite,
they have one that's like them as well. Each one
has their own partners, So each particle will have three
(11:22):
partner particles, three counterparticles, counterparticles, perfect chutes. So that would
be supersymmetry. And apparently if they find evidence of supersymmetry,
then but a boom, but a being string theory is right, right,
and it also helps to explain dark matter, Yes it does,
so wow, is anyone still out there? Yes? Sticks like this, everybody.
(11:43):
We're muddling through this part, but it's about to get
a little more interesting. There's like ten nerds that are like,
this is the best thing ever know. They're like carving
their knives. Yeah, ready to slice us up? Yes, um,
so that's what they're looking for. And also I think
this is what I find most fascinating about at it.
Most of the scientists out there, I think there are
very few who are looking for evidence at back up
(12:05):
their theories. Most of them are actually hoping to learn
like everything they know is wrong and there's all this
new stuff so that they can go out there and
figure out what how this fits here and all that.
I find that very interesting. It's a very ambitious project.
And as Strickland points out in this article, very comprehensive article.
By the way, um there is no practical application for this. Yeah,
(12:29):
it's all just to see what happens. Yeah, which is
pretty cool to sink six to ten billion into you know. Well,
and if you've ever seen the thing, I mean, the
pictures of this, the hay drunk glider is just unbelievable.
It's ginormous. It's ginormous. So what are they going to
be doing, Chuck, how does this thing work? Uh? Well, Josh,
there are eight sectors at the hay Drunk collider, and um,
(12:52):
they basically use magnets to steer these beams of light,
these protons in a circle, because otherwise it's just straight right.
Do you love that part? Well? Yeah, because that's the
only part that makes sense, right, Um, the the magnets
are actually super cool, the right chuck. Yeah, Well, there's
ninety magnets. If you want a little uh status statuts,
this one stat heavy. So ninety magnets. Many of them
(13:17):
weigh several times which is pretty uh, pretty big, pretty big.
And they are cool Josh to one point nine degrees kelvin,
which is negative to seventy one celsius or negative fahrenheit,
which is just above absolute zero. Yeah. And the reason
why they would want to cool and electro magnet um
(13:37):
to just above absolute zero is there's very little electrical
resistance when you turn that thing on, so it can
operate smoothly, exactly ideally, right, because it's it's um. It's
purpose isn't to, like, you know, to a jokey attract
all of the pots and pans at a certain facility
to it. I mean it has a purpose. It's steering
beams of light, which is much more difficult. You go
(13:59):
out there trying to steer a beam a light. I've trying. Yeah,
it's tough. Okay, So well how do they cool it though?
That's a pretty cool staff. They cool at using liquid
hydrogen and helium, right, liquid nitrogen. Yeah, that stuff burns
ten thousand, eight hundred tons of liquid nitrogen and sixty
tons of liquid helium to to finish up right, that's
(14:22):
pretty hardcore. Um. Okay, So you've got these magnets, and
actually inside the magnets are pipes which are vacuumed. Yeah,
we gotta have a vacuum. So basically, if you hear
you've heard vacuum and almost absolute zero. Um. This sounds
an all awful lot like outer space, like deep space exactly. Yes, Um,
(14:42):
So they're they're creating a vacuum um to keep any
particle outright, any particle could screw this whole thing up.
So imagine that there's inside this almost seventeen mile track,
there's nothing. They're creating deep space threet below the Earth's
crust without the space jump. That's okay, So chuck a
(15:07):
long this and also those UM the eight sectors. Each
one is an arc, like you said, so it's basically
one big circle. And along UM along this big circle
are six stations basically, and each one of these is
outfitted with you know, tons of centers is a hundred
and fifty million centers I think UM throughout the whole
(15:28):
collider um. And so each station is basically working to
UM measure one thing or another. Right, And we could
go into detail here, but this is really when people
would tune out, but just suffice to say there are
eight main stations where they're looking for or six of them.
Six main stations, four of which are really ginormous collecting
(15:52):
lots of info, and then two kind of smaller ones, right,
and remember these they're they're collecting things like UM, information
about radiation, sudden changes in mass, gravitational fields, electromagnetic fields,
that kind of stuff, and then it's going to sort through.
And actually, another interesting thing about CERN is that it's
getting something like fifteen petabytes of data gathered every year,
(16:14):
which is a fifteen million gigabytes, that's and they're constantly
the sensors are constantly feeding back information. Yeah, would they
say that was enough information to fill one thousand DVDs,
which is not as impressive as I would have thought.
I'm pretty impressed. Okay. Um, and they're actually using a
grid computing, using off the shelf computers, which is pretty cool. Yeah,
(16:36):
they just linked them together. Why they do that? Uh,
it's more efficient from what I understand. Yeah, and it's cheaper, right, Um,
they're saving Speaking of cheap, you know what's not cheap
their power bill? Did you see that unbelievable thirty million
dollars per year just to power this thing after they've
already sunk between six and ten billion into it. And
(16:58):
once this once this thing it's revved up. What they're
going to do first? The first step, chuck, and this
is like the big experiment. Basically, they're just shooting beams
of light and then smashing them into each other. Okay,
So what they're gonna do first is they're going to
take hydrogen atoms. They're gonna strip them of their electrons, right, yeah,
which produces protons. They're gonna take the protons and they're
(17:19):
going to send them through a machine that fires them
as beams. The PS booster, that's the accelerator, right. I
think that's what gets there's a bunch of them, but
that's what gets it going, right, So it's just a
beam and then it's a right right okay, chuck. So
when they get these beams ready, right, when the when
the whole thing is ready to go online for the
big experiment, uh sometime early next year hopefully. So the
(17:43):
first step is to take hydrogen atoms and strip them
of their electrons, which makes protons, right, and there we
have our protons because this is ultimately as a proton accelerator, right. Um.
What they do is they feed these into a machine
called the line Nex two, which fires the beams of
protons into the accelerator, which is the PS booster. Yes,
(18:05):
and dude, that uses radio frequency electric field to push
the protons along and kind of get them started on
their journey to uh just below light speed. Right. It's like, yeah,
get along a little proton, right, and well you're gonna
meet some other guys later that are gonna whip you
even harder. Right. Yeah. That PS booster makes them go
from you know, a beam of light to a beam
(18:25):
of light right right, Okay, it's a good way to
say thank you very much. Um. And the magnets are
going to come in. Now they're keeping these proton beams
on track and the things going along pretty quick, pretty quick,
and then the PS booster injecton into another accelerator called
the super Proton Sinco tron. Hey, it sounds like a
children's toy, it does. It's very expensive one. So the
(18:49):
beams are now really picking up speed and they're divided
into bunches. Okay, so you have just imagine one beam
and it's divided um into I think hundred bunch and
eight per beam per beam. Uh, and each bunch has
one point one times ten to the eleventh power protons.
(19:09):
And this is important to say that they shoot one
counterclockwise and one clockwise in two different two different tunnels.
So yeah, they're going different directions, but they're getting faster
and faster, and they're actually coming very very close to
the speed of light. At one point, remember this is
a seventeen mile track. At one point is these beams
(19:29):
are getting to their their top speed. They make eleven thousand,
two hundred and forty five trips around the track per second.
Stat of the year that it may be, dude, it's
what is this mid November and that's the stat of
the year. Yeah, more than eleven thousand trips around a
sixteen mile track per second. If you ever wondered how
(19:50):
fast the speed of light is, that's nine nine percent there. Yeah,
but you gotta you gotta admit that, um hundredth of
a percent is pretty substantial. I wonder how many any
trips they make at the speed of light. Yeah. The
fact that we have figured out how to do that's
not h and I obviously humans have figured out I
do this is pretty amazing. It works amazing or terrifying,
(20:10):
which we'll get to in a minute. Yes, and then Josh,
you know what happens? Then they converge. Yeah, they direct
these bunches of beams of protons and to each other
and kaboom, six hundred million collisions per second at that point.
And I get the impression also that um it wasn't clear,
but the beams can be directed towards one another at
(20:32):
each of the six censor stations. Okay, I think so,
because I think you have to have your centers right there,
right right. We'll see that makes sense, we'll find out.
So we're going by the way, I already booked as
a trip. Um So what happens, Josh, is they theoretically
they're gonna collide and they're gonna break up into small
particles like quarks, and there their accompanying energy called gluon.
(20:59):
You know, one keeps it all together, which is why
it's called glue on. Is it really? Of course not.
But quarks are really unstable and they will decay in
just like a fraction at the second. But we have
all these sensors to pick up what happens exactly exactly. Um.
I think that's that's part of the problem with why
we can't detect this stuff in the universes. It's already happened, right,
(21:22):
and we're witnessing its effects, were part of its effects,
right right. Um, So they want to recreate the beginning
of the universe to see if these things really exist
and what their effects are, etcetera, etcetera. Um, there's possibly
going to be some other things that are created, uh inadvertently, Yeah,
photons and muans and black holes chuck. Yeah, that's possible.
(21:47):
It's very possible. Actually, even certain said it was possible.
That's one of the critics. Uh. One of the things
that critics point out is you may create a black
hole and you may destroy the earth so much so
that sue dudes sued them basically to try and stop it.
And not just two dudes, um, a guy named Walter
Wagner and Luis Sancho. Walter Wagner was the former nuclear
(22:09):
safety officer for the large Hay Drunk Collider. He was
like the guy who was in charge of safety, and
he filed the lawsuit in the U. S. District Court
in Hawaii to to file an injunction to create an
injunction to stop that thing from being turned on. Because
you know what a black hole is. It's a bad
Mama jamas where it's h I love. How Strickland puts it,
(22:30):
black holes are regions in which matter collapses into a
point of infinite density. Not good, No, it's not. And
uh again, as Chuck said, Cerin has said, yeah, maybe
they may create some black holes, but really teeny ones.
Well that's what they're saying. They're saying, Yeah, the black hole,
you know, and love is a star collapsing on itself.
We're talking about um sub atomic particles collapsing on themselves.
(22:54):
So it's a black hole, but you know it's gonna
be tiny. Um. One of the Uh. The concerns that
Wagner in Sancho have is that, sure, it may be tiny,
but no one's ever done this before. And you guys
have no idea whether this is safe or not. Just
too much unknown, right. And they're like, no, no, our
magnets are safe. They're they've been tested. They're like, we're
(23:16):
not talking about the magnets, we're talking about all this stuff.
You have no idea what's going to happen. And they
also said, I love the response. One of certain's response
was and there's no one allowed down in there while
it's going on, right, And they're like, um, dude, what
about the Earth? Yeah, being swallowed up into a black hole? Sure,
forget the one scientist that's you know, wants to watch
the explosion, forget him. Yeah he can write out of
(23:38):
the black hole what's going on down there? You know? Yes?
Uh Josh, And you know what, you know what else
they think they might produce the strange lit Yeah, yeah,
these things are a little scary. Yeah, it could be worrisome. Uh,
strangelets could possess a gravitational field that could convert them
and the entire planet Earth into a lifeless hulk. Right,
(24:01):
They think that strangelets have this um they have. They're
very dense. I think they're theoretical as well, right, Yeah,
the hypothetical um they they apparently have the property of
lending their incredible density to any other particle it touches
and setting off a chain reaction, kind of like rogue
(24:21):
from X Men, kind of. I think there's a lot
of quantum physics and the X Men in my p brain.
That's what I'm gonna think. So, um, they're worried that
if a strangelet is created, it could set off a
chain a chain reaction that turns all matter on Earth
into this ultra dense, dead like lifeless hulk, including us
(24:42):
on Earth because we're on Earth. Yes, but certain dismisses
that for a few reasons. They say, Um, first of all,
that it's hypothetical, so we don't even know that, so
don't get your panties in a wide yet. Um. I
believe that's what the memo said, actually, And then they said, actually,
there's an electromatic field that would really pell normal matter
instead of changing it, so don't sweat it. Then they say,
(25:04):
even if it does exist, it would be really unstable
and would probably just decay like instantaneously, like those black holes. Right.
And then the final thing they say is that high
energy cosmic rays would produce this stuff naturally anyway and
should be hitting the Earth already, and we're still here,
so don't worry about it. The one that I have
the real problem with was the third one that should
(25:25):
decay almost instantaneously. Should Does it really do well? No?
I mean, does it really take a very long time
for a strangely to transfer that to set off an inaction?
That's true, We'll find out if the world's a lifeless
hulk this uh, this February. Sweet. Um, there's a couple
of guys, remember that Higgs boson particle that we talked
(25:47):
about at the beginning, right, Um, there are a couple
of guys who are actually very well respected physicists, right, chuck. Uh,
That's what I'm told, who have um come up with
a couple of papers that they basically say, and these
are real physicists, These are real respected physicists, and they're
not joking. They're saying that the Higgs boson has already
(26:10):
been created in the future at CERN at the Large
Hadron Collider. And it was so abhorrent that it rippled
back in time and sabotaged itself so that it could
never be created, sabotaged the LHC so it can never
be created. So what's what's the analogy they're liking it too?
Coming back from the future to kill your father so
(26:33):
you will never be born your grandfather's whatever. That's actually
a paradox. You can't do that, or else you never
would have been born in the first place, exactly. But
they make the case that it's not a paradox to
travel back in time to push your grandfather out of
the path of an oncoming bus, which is they're what
they're saying the Higgs boson is doing. And the reason
they say this is because it has failed on a
spectacular level so far. Has there's some strange things, you
(26:58):
could say, well, for there have been some strange ones.
The first one wasn't that strange. It was a coolant leak,
and uh, it destroyed a lot of the magnets, which
was pretty expensive to fix. So that knocked it off
track for quite a while, off track literally, and um
then Josh, you know what happened last week? A bird
dropped a baguette, a piece of bread into this thing. Yeah,
(27:23):
into one of the magnets. This is really what happened. Yeah.
Can you believe that? I can because I'm kind of
with the two physicists who think that the boson has
been created and traveled back in time. Yeah. So this
bird drops us into a piece of the outdoor machinery
and uh overheated the parts of it, and it was
not operational at the time, but they said that it
produced such a spike that if it had been turned on,
(27:46):
that dropping this bread would have enabled the automatic fail
safe and it would shut it down. Piece of bread
from a bird. That's a little hinky, it is, But
at the same time, if you think about it, it's
not really that hinky. But this everyone is so everyone
paying attention is so like this could be really great
(28:06):
or it could conceivably end life as we know it.
And see what happens. So anything that happens to it,
um is just hugely under the microscope. Yes, yes, um,
And I just realized that I was agreeing with the
string theorist. One of the physicists is Holger beck Nielsen
(28:27):
and his um compatriot Japanese physicistem say Oh Nino Mia.
And these are the two that are saying that the
Higgs boson was created and traveled back in time. They
have a very easy way of solving whether or not
the LHC should be put online. How's that a card game? Really? Yeah?
(28:48):
They want to come up with basically, let's say a
hundred million cards and million thousand and ninety nine of
these cards say go ahead, right, and then one card
says shut it down. And obviously this is all software,
not actual cards. And then you ask the LHC to
(29:08):
pick one, and if the LHC picks the one that
uh says shut it down, then we should shut it down.
Shut it down. Then it's fine. Wo Yeah. Are they
actually gonna do this? I don't think I don't think so,
because they have no say over certain anyway. You know,
they don't. They're they're not related to Swart, but like
I said, they are both respected physicists and the physics community.
(29:31):
When they first heard about this, for like, and then
they read it and they're like, yeah, yeah, because it
is possible hypothetically, and if the LHC is involved in anything,
it's hypothesis and theory big time. And until it proves
everything or destroys the universe. We should say to that
this uh baguette in the works has not thrown it
(29:54):
off schedule. Apparently this time just shut it down for
the time being, the chilling schedule. Like you said, I
think they're gonna start cranking it up sometime this winter
and then they're gonna break for Christmas and come back
and then booms. See what happened, Chuck. I propose and
I also proposed this to all of our listeners having
a big old party on the day that they do this,
(30:15):
because it could be our last could be. I also
want to point out that I just saw this in
the news today. One of the scientists was arrested in
France as an al Qaida suspect. Mhm. Is that weird?
And of course they're saying that this has nothing to
do with al Qaida trying to get their hands on
the LHC or anything like that. It was just kind
of one of those things. And there's I think seven
(30:35):
thousand scientists working on it, so you know, it's not
that big of a deal. Oh, I guess it is
for him. He's in big trouble. Yeah. So that's the LHC,
the Large hay Drown Collider yeah, and probably talk about
it again at some point in time, don't you think. Yeah,
we should follow up when it happens. If it happens,
and uh, I will probably read one of the emails
(30:56):
from one of the physicists that write in and let
us know how per symmetry could prove string theory, right, yeah,
I look forward to that. Yeah. So if you want
to read this article, I strongly recommend it. We didn't
cover all of it's good good article written by Strickland.
You can type in large hay drawn collider in the
search bar at how stuff works dot com and bring
(31:17):
your drip pan to catch the melting brain the anti
matter that it's dense and uh, I guess it is
now Chuck, it's time for a listener mail, right, yes,
it is, Josh. My favorite portion of today's show. We're
gonna call this um a response to my my admission
that Emily and I fight before every plane trip. When
(31:39):
I said that, so we have someone out there that
agrees that are not agrees, but it happens to her
in her husband as well. They've been married for sixteen
years and every time before we take a trip, my
husband has a major anxiety attack. And acts like a
total a hole. I know that's what it is, and
I am pretty tolerant, But until he's on the plane
or in the car, he refuses to acknowledge the reason
(32:00):
for his tension or even that he's particularly grouchy, which
is what I do. So a few days before we
travel are always fraught and we always end up fighting
about the only time we do fight. Once we're on
our way, he's fine. I'm still totally aggravated though, from
him being such a jerk earlier. This snivid married sixteen
years and it's not just talking. Earlier this year we
(32:20):
went to Chile for a month, and when I booked
the flights, I seriously considered getting separate seats. I threatened
it next time, I'm booking my flight a few days
earlier than his. Anyway, just wanted to share this so
you know you're not alone. That's night. As always, thanks
for the great podcast. The site is great in general.
Searching for unicorns linked me to some information on hardy roses,
(32:41):
which I had actually recently been looking for, and that
is from Anne in New York City, and A says,
as a ps, I could not find your team on Kiva.
How do I find it well, and you can find
it ask by going into the U R O bar
of your web browser and typing w w W dot Kiva,
dot org, slash team slash stuff you should know and Chuck, Uh,
(33:08):
there's all the more reason. By the way, I wanted
to say, I could not be prouder of our team, Chuck.
The stuff you should know Army is awesome. We're at
straight up a more, are we really? Yeah? Something like
seven d fifty members and seven loans were in four weeks.
Everybody we donated twenty thousand dollars. That's phenomenal. And Colbert
(33:32):
has already been left in the dust. His his his
leaky team is is donating like eight grand. I think
they might be at nine grand so far. Chuck and
I actually issued a video challenge to Mr Colbert. We did.
We want to see who can be the first two
what we decide on um a hundred thousand dollars. I
think that's a pretty pretty big undertaking, I would say,
(33:53):
but I think we can do it. So everybody, we
have challenged Colbert's team to see who can get to
a hundred thousand. Yeah, and you know he's ignored it
so far. So if anyone knows Mr Colbert, or if
anyone has any connection with this show or you're a fan,
go smack him on his big fat head and tell
tell him about the little challenge. Damn right, That's what
I said. So again, that's www dot kiva dot org,
(34:16):
slash team slash stuff you should know, And if you
have an email for Chuck or Me or Jerry or
the large Hadron Collider, you can send it to Stuff
podcast at how stuff works dot com. For more on
this and thousands of other topics, is it how stuff
(34:36):
works dot com. Want more how stuff works, check out
our blogs on the house. Stuff works dot com home page.
Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve camera.
It's ready, are you
Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve Camray.
It's ready. Are you welcome to stuff you should know
from house Stuff Works dot com. Hey, and welcome to
the podcast. I'm Josh Clark with me as always as
Charles W. Bryant, as well as our producer Jerry. You
(00:22):
can just call me Boson Higgs Boson. No one's going
to call you that. It would be a great name, though, Yeah,
Higgs Boson. What up pigs. I wonder if that thing
is discovered, if somebody will name their kid Higgs Boson,
you know, Michael Wits or whatever. Well, if someone names
her kid yet Detroit. I think someone could potentially name
the kid Nigs Boson. There's a there's even a comma
(00:46):
I think in there and there and yet Detroit. Yeah,
I don't remember an exclamation point. Yeah, there's some sort
of punctuation. When you get punctuation into your name. Your
parents were messed up. Yes, Chuck's talking about a theoretical
article called the Higgs Boson, and we'll talk about it
in a minute, but first we're going to talk about
the place where they're hoping to find proof positive that
(01:09):
the Higgs Boson particle exists, yes, Josh. And this is
very science heavy, super science heavy, because it's about science,
so science heavy that Chuck and I um are a
little nervous about this one. I'm not afraid you have
dark matter using out of my ears, which is proof
that it exists. Exactly. You just you just amended the
standard model. Chuck. All right, let's talk about this, dude.
(01:32):
What what what is this? We're talking about the large
Hadron collider. Right, but you may have heard about, you
may know a lot about, and if you do, I
imagine we'll probably get some angry emails from you when
we mess it up. And right, but on the border
between Switzerland and France. Yes, a hundred meters underground, beautiful country. Sure,
(01:55):
that's a good skiing out there. Sure, Um. There is
a facility with track that's what seventeen miles long, think
seventeen point seven sixteen points, we'll just call it seventeen
seventeen Uh and around this track, Uh, they shoot beams
of light. Pretty simple, It is pretty simple. And we
stop now, Yes, we can that there there's a large
(02:16):
had round collider, everybody, that's what it's called. It's called
the Large had dron collider. Um it's been built. I
think they started in the twenty first century and finally
went online for the first time in two thousand and eight.
So far, it's cost six billion dollars to construct. Yeah,
I've heard any up to ten even depending on who. Yeah. Well, yeah,
and there's a lot of countries involved. There's thousands of
(02:36):
scientists who are going back to their home countries and
saying we need more money, we need more money. Um
and uh the the but yeah, France and um Switzerland
to run in the show there. Ye. CERN is the
name of the company we should point out right well,
the organizations the European Organization for Nuclear Research abbreviated en
Francais CERN. Okay, I was about to say those letters
(02:58):
don't match up something here, So what is it, chuck?
They shoot beams of like. It's a particle accelerator and
it is the largest and most badass particle accelerator in
the history of particle accelerators. True that that's the easiest
way to say. We've got particle accelerators that look like um,
old donkeys pulling carts with square wheels compared to this thing. Seriously,
(03:22):
this is as big as it gets. It's as ambitious
as it gets um. And basically, what they're trying to
do our several fold. They're trying to prove the existence
of the Higgs Boson particle, the god particle. Well, let's
talk about this. Why why would anyone want to prove
the existence of a theoretical particle? Should we go back
(03:43):
to the standard model? Yeah? Should we back into this,
let's do it. Basically, it tries to define the fundamental
particles that make uh, the universe, the forces, the forces, right,
You've got strong nuclear force, strong like bull, weak nuclear force,
electromagnetic force. So the standard model, which combines um Einstein's
theory of relativity with quantum physics I believe um theory
(04:07):
and all that other stuff you just said. It combines
those two, uh, and it proves the existence that it
counts for those three forces. The problem is gravity still
remains unaccounted for. That's the fourth fundamental force, Like we
can account for theoretically, but we can't say, yes, this
is why gravity exists, and this is all the stuff
gravity does. We're still with with strong nuclear force, weak
(04:29):
nuclear force, and electromagnetic force. We've advanced leaps and bounds
beyond classical physics, Newtonian physics. But we're still at the
apple falling off the tree level. Uh, as far as
this goes when it comes to gravity. So the Higgs
Boson particle, if we find it, if we detect it um,
it will fill out the standard model exactly. And it's
(04:51):
a theoretical particle at this point that we're looking for, right,
And they they think that it exists and that basically
it's responsible for giving mass or matter mass right right,
which is important, they say, because not all matter has mass,
things called neutrinos, delicious and nutritious. Neutrinos do not have maths.
(05:15):
I've practiced that one did. It's actually written down. Uh.
So not everything has mass. And and the idea is
that if you explain uh the existence of mass using
the Higgs mechanism, we'll all be better for it and
understand our origins. Ultimately, that's what it comes down to,
is where like theory, theory is not good enough, we
(05:36):
have to know, you know. So the Higgs Boston particle
is one of the bigger ones named after Peter Higgs.
By the way, physicists who theorized it um. How do
you how do you know a theoretical particle when you
see it. That's a good question. Do you know? This
is what I understand, Um that you can't just say, oh,
(05:57):
there must be this particle out there and name it
after me. By the way, I think Peter Higgs went
a little further and said, this particle must exist, and
if it does exist, this is basically this is its
um energy, it's mass, So find this name it after me,
right exactly? And uh so if they what's going to
(06:18):
happen when they when they turn the large Hadron collider
on what this Christmas? Right? I think it begins the
process which will take several months after that to collide. Yeah,
they'll they'll have their sensors looking for particle that's created
that has that I guess mass, that energy, that that whatever,
(06:39):
um however, it's described mathematically. My stuff. It's coming out
of my ears right now. So darker matter is another
one that they're hoping to find, right. Uh, yeah, you've
got to coming out your ears tell us about it, Chuck. Well, Uh,
here's the deal. Dark matter is. Right now, humans can
(06:59):
observe about four of all the matter that must exist
in the universe. That's all we can account for. That's
not very much. Uh, there's a theory that um dark
matter is this undetectable matter and that coupled with the
matter that we can detect, makes up only about which
is still not much. And the other three quarters is
(07:20):
what they think might be a force called dark energy, right,
which UM. Scientists have become alarmed over the last few
decades when they've detected that the universe is actually expanding
and they don't know why well, and they think that
dark energy may be the reason. Right, So they're looking
for that too. UM. A lot of once you again,
once you theorize something, you kind of have to back
(07:41):
it up with, and this is what it's going to
look like, right, and so that you you sense for it, right. Sure.
They're also looking for anti matter, which is matters hated
foe and they like to cancel each other out. Yeah,
that's how it supposedly worked, is that there was more
anti matter matters, right, more matter than antimatter when the
Big Bang happened, which is how we're here. But they
(08:04):
don't know why, and they're hoping and that is um,
that is the hook, Chuck, what they're going to do.
They want to find all this stuff and more, um
by recreating the Big Bang, that the the what the
universe looked like a trillionth of a second after the
Big Bang? Right right, because we think what happened was
(08:28):
the universe expands and cools and all these particles floating
around join up together and form larger particles and then
all of a sudden, what do you what do? What's
what's the word evolution? Sure it starts rolling if you
believe in that kind of thing, right, Um. They're also
looking for some other stuff, um, slightly stranger stuff than
(08:49):
you know, dark matter and anti matter. They're looking for
evidence well, adherence of string theory. Are looking for evidence
of string theory, which would we mean another dimension several
up to eleven. I believe who I think theorized eleven.
I don't buy string theory. Yeah, and you've always I have.
I have a real problem, and it's most likely I
(09:11):
just don't understand it. But from what I understand, very
very smart people don't understand it either. Well, there's no
compression that Kiku is like this is what he didn't
come up with the measurements to back it up, you know,
But you're on the same page as a lot of scientists,
though they also say that it's it's a philosophy. It's
not a science, right under his theory or under his philosophy,
(09:31):
however you want to say it. Um, there's up to
eleven different dimensions. We're currently aware of four um height,
with depth and time. Yes, those are four dimensions that
we exist in UM. Under k KU there's eleven total,
so there's another eight that are unaccounted for UM, and
that all matter in the universe is made up of
tiny vibrating strength. Some are closed like little rubber bands,
(09:55):
some are open like little um oh, I don't know,
tape worms, like a cut rubber band, right, sure, And
these strings can vibrate and like a guitar string, and uh,
one vibration might make it look like an electron. One
might make it look like a neutrino, delicious and netritious neutrino.
And that's string theory and it's most simplest form. But
(10:17):
even still, the strings are highly hypothetical UM, and even
if they were created, we apparently wouldn't be able to
sense them. What they're looking for the string theorists is
evidence of supersymmetry, right, and supersymmetry is you have a
particle and it has a UM an opposite particle like
(10:37):
a neutron, and a positron positive and negatively charged an antiparticle.
Sure right, Um, even further those are superpartners, even further
into supersymmetry. And this will somehow, I guess, prove string theory.
I don't understand how it will. But um, and oh
my god, can you imagine the length of the emails
(10:58):
we're going to get from people who explain how this
proves string theory. I'm already uh, suffering from brain melt.
I can't imagine anymore. So you've got the neutron and
the positron, yes, and those are superpartners. But each of
those have a UM positive partner to rather than an opposite,
they have one that's like them as well. Each one
has their own partners, So each particle will have three
(11:22):
partner particles, three counterparticles, counterparticles, perfect chutes. So that would
be supersymmetry. And apparently if they find evidence of supersymmetry,
then but a boom, but a being string theory is right, right,
and it also helps to explain dark matter, Yes it does,
so wow, is anyone still out there? Yes? Sticks like this, everybody.
(11:43):
We're muddling through this part, but it's about to get
a little more interesting. There's like ten nerds that are like,
this is the best thing ever know. They're like carving
their knives. Yeah, ready to slice us up? Yes, um,
so that's what they're looking for. And also I think
this is what I find most fascinating about at it.
Most of the scientists out there, I think there are
very few who are looking for evidence at back up
(12:05):
their theories. Most of them are actually hoping to learn
like everything they know is wrong and there's all this
new stuff so that they can go out there and
figure out what how this fits here and all that.
I find that very interesting. It's a very ambitious project.
And as Strickland points out in this article, very comprehensive article.
By the way, um there is no practical application for this. Yeah,
(12:29):
it's all just to see what happens. Yeah, which is
pretty cool to sink six to ten billion into you know. Well,
and if you've ever seen the thing, I mean, the
pictures of this, the hay drunk glider is just unbelievable.
It's ginormous. It's ginormous. So what are they going to
be doing, Chuck, how does this thing work? Uh? Well, Josh,
there are eight sectors at the hay Drunk collider, and um,
(12:52):
they basically use magnets to steer these beams of light,
these protons in a circle, because otherwise it's just straight right.
Do you love that part? Well? Yeah, because that's the
only part that makes sense, right, Um, the the magnets
are actually super cool, the right chuck. Yeah, Well, there's
ninety magnets. If you want a little uh status statuts,
this one stat heavy. So ninety magnets. Many of them
(13:17):
weigh several times which is pretty uh, pretty big, pretty big.
And they are cool Josh to one point nine degrees kelvin,
which is negative to seventy one celsius or negative fahrenheit,
which is just above absolute zero. Yeah. And the reason
why they would want to cool and electro magnet um
(13:37):
to just above absolute zero is there's very little electrical
resistance when you turn that thing on, so it can
operate smoothly, exactly ideally, right, because it's it's um. It's
purpose isn't to, like, you know, to a jokey attract
all of the pots and pans at a certain facility
to it. I mean it has a purpose. It's steering
beams of light, which is much more difficult. You go
(13:59):
out there trying to steer a beam a light. I've trying. Yeah,
it's tough. Okay, So well how do they cool it though?
That's a pretty cool staff. They cool at using liquid
hydrogen and helium, right, liquid nitrogen. Yeah, that stuff burns
ten thousand, eight hundred tons of liquid nitrogen and sixty
tons of liquid helium to to finish up right, that's
(14:22):
pretty hardcore. Um. Okay, So you've got these magnets, and
actually inside the magnets are pipes which are vacuumed. Yeah,
we gotta have a vacuum. So basically, if you hear
you've heard vacuum and almost absolute zero. Um. This sounds
an all awful lot like outer space, like deep space exactly. Yes, Um,
(14:42):
So they're they're creating a vacuum um to keep any
particle outright, any particle could screw this whole thing up.
So imagine that there's inside this almost seventeen mile track,
there's nothing. They're creating deep space threet below the Earth's
crust without the space jump. That's okay, So chuck a
(15:07):
long this and also those UM the eight sectors. Each
one is an arc, like you said, so it's basically
one big circle. And along UM along this big circle
are six stations basically, and each one of these is
outfitted with you know, tons of centers is a hundred
and fifty million centers I think UM throughout the whole
(15:28):
collider um. And so each station is basically working to
UM measure one thing or another. Right, And we could
go into detail here, but this is really when people
would tune out, but just suffice to say there are
eight main stations where they're looking for or six of them.
Six main stations, four of which are really ginormous collecting
(15:52):
lots of info, and then two kind of smaller ones, right,
and remember these they're they're collecting things like UM, information
about radiation, sudden changes in mass, gravitational fields, electromagnetic fields,
that kind of stuff, and then it's going to sort through.
And actually, another interesting thing about CERN is that it's
getting something like fifteen petabytes of data gathered every year,
(16:14):
which is a fifteen million gigabytes, that's and they're constantly
the sensors are constantly feeding back information. Yeah, would they
say that was enough information to fill one thousand DVDs,
which is not as impressive as I would have thought.
I'm pretty impressed. Okay. Um, and they're actually using a
grid computing, using off the shelf computers, which is pretty cool. Yeah,
(16:36):
they just linked them together. Why they do that? Uh,
it's more efficient from what I understand. Yeah, and it's cheaper, right, Um,
they're saving Speaking of cheap, you know what's not cheap
their power bill? Did you see that unbelievable thirty million
dollars per year just to power this thing after they've
already sunk between six and ten billion into it. And
(16:58):
once this once this thing it's revved up. What they're
going to do first? The first step, chuck, and this
is like the big experiment. Basically, they're just shooting beams
of light and then smashing them into each other. Okay,
So what they're gonna do first is they're going to
take hydrogen atoms. They're gonna strip them of their electrons, right, yeah,
which produces protons. They're gonna take the protons and they're
(17:19):
going to send them through a machine that fires them
as beams. The PS booster, that's the accelerator, right. I
think that's what gets there's a bunch of them, but
that's what gets it going, right, So it's just a
beam and then it's a right right okay, chuck. So
when they get these beams ready, right, when the when
the whole thing is ready to go online for the
big experiment, uh sometime early next year hopefully. So the
(17:43):
first step is to take hydrogen atoms and strip them
of their electrons, which makes protons, right, and there we
have our protons because this is ultimately as a proton accelerator, right. Um.
What they do is they feed these into a machine
called the line Nex two, which fires the beams of
protons into the accelerator, which is the PS booster. Yes,
(18:05):
and dude, that uses radio frequency electric field to push
the protons along and kind of get them started on
their journey to uh just below light speed. Right. It's like, yeah,
get along a little proton, right, and well you're gonna
meet some other guys later that are gonna whip you
even harder. Right. Yeah. That PS booster makes them go
from you know, a beam of light to a beam
(18:25):
of light right right, Okay, it's a good way to
say thank you very much. Um. And the magnets are
going to come in. Now they're keeping these proton beams
on track and the things going along pretty quick, pretty quick,
and then the PS booster injecton into another accelerator called
the super Proton Sinco tron. Hey, it sounds like a
children's toy, it does. It's very expensive one. So the
(18:49):
beams are now really picking up speed and they're divided
into bunches. Okay, so you have just imagine one beam
and it's divided um into I think hundred bunch and
eight per beam per beam. Uh, and each bunch has
one point one times ten to the eleventh power protons.
(19:09):
And this is important to say that they shoot one
counterclockwise and one clockwise in two different two different tunnels.
So yeah, they're going different directions, but they're getting faster
and faster, and they're actually coming very very close to
the speed of light. At one point, remember this is
a seventeen mile track. At one point is these beams
(19:29):
are getting to their their top speed. They make eleven thousand,
two hundred and forty five trips around the track per second.
Stat of the year that it may be, dude, it's
what is this mid November and that's the stat of
the year. Yeah, more than eleven thousand trips around a
sixteen mile track per second. If you ever wondered how
(19:50):
fast the speed of light is, that's nine nine percent there. Yeah,
but you gotta you gotta admit that, um hundredth of
a percent is pretty substantial. I wonder how many any
trips they make at the speed of light. Yeah. The
fact that we have figured out how to do that's
not h and I obviously humans have figured out I
do this is pretty amazing. It works amazing or terrifying,
(20:10):
which we'll get to in a minute. Yes, and then Josh,
you know what happens? Then they converge. Yeah, they direct
these bunches of beams of protons and to each other
and kaboom, six hundred million collisions per second at that point.
And I get the impression also that um it wasn't clear,
but the beams can be directed towards one another at
(20:32):
each of the six censor stations. Okay, I think so,
because I think you have to have your centers right there,
right right. We'll see that makes sense, we'll find out.
So we're going by the way, I already booked as
a trip. Um So what happens, Josh, is they theoretically
they're gonna collide and they're gonna break up into small
particles like quarks, and there their accompanying energy called gluon.
(20:59):
You know, one keeps it all together, which is why
it's called glue on. Is it really? Of course not.
But quarks are really unstable and they will decay in
just like a fraction at the second. But we have
all these sensors to pick up what happens exactly exactly. Um.
I think that's that's part of the problem with why
we can't detect this stuff in the universes. It's already happened, right,
(21:22):
and we're witnessing its effects, were part of its effects,
right right. Um, So they want to recreate the beginning
of the universe to see if these things really exist
and what their effects are, etcetera, etcetera. Um, there's possibly
going to be some other things that are created, uh inadvertently, Yeah,
photons and muans and black holes chuck. Yeah, that's possible.
(21:47):
It's very possible. Actually, even certain said it was possible.
That's one of the critics. Uh. One of the things
that critics point out is you may create a black
hole and you may destroy the earth so much so
that sue dudes sued them basically to try and stop it.
And not just two dudes, um, a guy named Walter
Wagner and Luis Sancho. Walter Wagner was the former nuclear
(22:09):
safety officer for the large Hay Drunk Collider. He was
like the guy who was in charge of safety, and
he filed the lawsuit in the U. S. District Court
in Hawaii to to file an injunction to create an
injunction to stop that thing from being turned on. Because
you know what a black hole is. It's a bad
Mama jamas where it's h I love. How Strickland puts it,
(22:30):
black holes are regions in which matter collapses into a
point of infinite density. Not good, No, it's not. And
uh again, as Chuck said, Cerin has said, yeah, maybe
they may create some black holes, but really teeny ones.
Well that's what they're saying. They're saying, Yeah, the black hole,
you know, and love is a star collapsing on itself.
We're talking about um sub atomic particles collapsing on themselves.
(22:54):
So it's a black hole, but you know it's gonna
be tiny. Um. One of the Uh. The concerns that
Wagner in Sancho have is that, sure, it may be tiny,
but no one's ever done this before. And you guys
have no idea whether this is safe or not. Just
too much unknown, right. And they're like, no, no, our
magnets are safe. They're they've been tested. They're like, we're
(23:16):
not talking about the magnets, we're talking about all this stuff.
You have no idea what's going to happen. And they
also said, I love the response. One of certain's response
was and there's no one allowed down in there while
it's going on, right, And they're like, um, dude, what
about the Earth? Yeah, being swallowed up into a black hole? Sure,
forget the one scientist that's you know, wants to watch
the explosion, forget him. Yeah he can write out of
(23:38):
the black hole what's going on down there? You know? Yes?
Uh Josh, And you know what, you know what else
they think they might produce the strange lit Yeah, yeah,
these things are a little scary. Yeah, it could be worrisome. Uh,
strangelets could possess a gravitational field that could convert them
and the entire planet Earth into a lifeless hulk. Right,
(24:01):
They think that strangelets have this um they have. They're
very dense. I think they're theoretical as well, right, Yeah,
the hypothetical um they they apparently have the property of
lending their incredible density to any other particle it touches
and setting off a chain reaction, kind of like rogue
(24:21):
from X Men, kind of. I think there's a lot
of quantum physics and the X Men in my p brain.
That's what I'm gonna think. So, um, they're worried that
if a strangelet is created, it could set off a
chain a chain reaction that turns all matter on Earth
into this ultra dense, dead like lifeless hulk, including us
(24:42):
on Earth because we're on Earth. Yes, but certain dismisses
that for a few reasons. They say, Um, first of all,
that it's hypothetical, so we don't even know that, so
don't get your panties in a wide yet. Um. I
believe that's what the memo said, actually, And then they said, actually,
there's an electromatic field that would really pell normal matter
instead of changing it, so don't sweat it. Then they say,
(25:04):
even if it does exist, it would be really unstable
and would probably just decay like instantaneously, like those black holes. Right.
And then the final thing they say is that high
energy cosmic rays would produce this stuff naturally anyway and
should be hitting the Earth already, and we're still here,
so don't worry about it. The one that I have
the real problem with was the third one that should
(25:25):
decay almost instantaneously. Should Does it really do well? No?
I mean, does it really take a very long time
for a strangely to transfer that to set off an inaction?
That's true, We'll find out if the world's a lifeless
hulk this uh, this February. Sweet. Um, there's a couple
of guys, remember that Higgs boson particle that we talked
(25:47):
about at the beginning, right, Um, there are a couple
of guys who are actually very well respected physicists, right, chuck. Uh,
That's what I'm told, who have um come up with
a couple of papers that they basically say, and these
are real physicists, These are real respected physicists, and they're
not joking. They're saying that the Higgs boson has already
(26:10):
been created in the future at CERN at the Large
Hadron Collider. And it was so abhorrent that it rippled
back in time and sabotaged itself so that it could
never be created, sabotaged the LHC so it can never
be created. So what's what's the analogy they're liking it too?
Coming back from the future to kill your father so
(26:33):
you will never be born your grandfather's whatever. That's actually
a paradox. You can't do that, or else you never
would have been born in the first place, exactly. But
they make the case that it's not a paradox to
travel back in time to push your grandfather out of
the path of an oncoming bus, which is they're what
they're saying the Higgs boson is doing. And the reason
they say this is because it has failed on a
spectacular level so far. Has there's some strange things, you
(26:58):
could say, well, for there have been some strange ones.
The first one wasn't that strange. It was a coolant leak,
and uh, it destroyed a lot of the magnets, which
was pretty expensive to fix. So that knocked it off
track for quite a while, off track literally, and um
then Josh, you know what happened last week? A bird
dropped a baguette, a piece of bread into this thing. Yeah,
(27:23):
into one of the magnets. This is really what happened. Yeah.
Can you believe that? I can because I'm kind of
with the two physicists who think that the boson has
been created and traveled back in time. Yeah. So this
bird drops us into a piece of the outdoor machinery
and uh overheated the parts of it, and it was
not operational at the time, but they said that it
produced such a spike that if it had been turned on,
(27:46):
that dropping this bread would have enabled the automatic fail
safe and it would shut it down. Piece of bread
from a bird. That's a little hinky, it is, But
at the same time, if you think about it, it's
not really that hinky. But this everyone is so everyone
paying attention is so like this could be really great
(28:06):
or it could conceivably end life as we know it.
And see what happens. So anything that happens to it,
um is just hugely under the microscope. Yes, yes, um,
And I just realized that I was agreeing with the
string theorist. One of the physicists is Holger beck Nielsen
(28:27):
and his um compatriot Japanese physicistem say Oh Nino Mia.
And these are the two that are saying that the
Higgs boson was created and traveled back in time. They
have a very easy way of solving whether or not
the LHC should be put online. How's that a card game? Really? Yeah?
(28:48):
They want to come up with basically, let's say a
hundred million cards and million thousand and ninety nine of
these cards say go ahead, right, and then one card
says shut it down. And obviously this is all software,
not actual cards. And then you ask the LHC to
(29:08):
pick one, and if the LHC picks the one that
uh says shut it down, then we should shut it down.
Shut it down. Then it's fine. Wo Yeah. Are they
actually gonna do this? I don't think I don't think so,
because they have no say over certain anyway. You know,
they don't. They're they're not related to Swart, but like
I said, they are both respected physicists and the physics community.
(29:31):
When they first heard about this, for like, and then
they read it and they're like, yeah, yeah, because it
is possible hypothetically, and if the LHC is involved in anything,
it's hypothesis and theory big time. And until it proves
everything or destroys the universe. We should say to that
this uh baguette in the works has not thrown it
(29:54):
off schedule. Apparently this time just shut it down for
the time being, the chilling schedule. Like you said, I
think they're gonna start cranking it up sometime this winter
and then they're gonna break for Christmas and come back
and then booms. See what happened, Chuck. I propose and
I also proposed this to all of our listeners having
a big old party on the day that they do this,
(30:15):
because it could be our last could be. I also
want to point out that I just saw this in
the news today. One of the scientists was arrested in
France as an al Qaida suspect. Mhm. Is that weird?
And of course they're saying that this has nothing to
do with al Qaida trying to get their hands on
the LHC or anything like that. It was just kind
of one of those things. And there's I think seven
(30:35):
thousand scientists working on it, so you know, it's not
that big of a deal. Oh, I guess it is
for him. He's in big trouble. Yeah. So that's the LHC,
the Large hay Drown Collider yeah, and probably talk about
it again at some point in time, don't you think. Yeah,
we should follow up when it happens. If it happens,
and uh, I will probably read one of the emails
(30:56):
from one of the physicists that write in and let
us know how per symmetry could prove string theory, right, yeah,
I look forward to that. Yeah. So if you want
to read this article, I strongly recommend it. We didn't
cover all of it's good good article written by Strickland.
You can type in large hay drawn collider in the
search bar at how stuff works dot com and bring
(31:17):
your drip pan to catch the melting brain the anti
matter that it's dense and uh, I guess it is
now Chuck, it's time for a listener mail, right, yes,
it is, Josh. My favorite portion of today's show. We're
gonna call this um a response to my my admission
that Emily and I fight before every plane trip. When
(31:39):
I said that, so we have someone out there that
agrees that are not agrees, but it happens to her
in her husband as well. They've been married for sixteen
years and every time before we take a trip, my
husband has a major anxiety attack. And acts like a
total a hole. I know that's what it is, and
I am pretty tolerant, But until he's on the plane
or in the car, he refuses to acknowledge the reason
(32:00):
for his tension or even that he's particularly grouchy, which
is what I do. So a few days before we
travel are always fraught and we always end up fighting
about the only time we do fight. Once we're on
our way, he's fine. I'm still totally aggravated though, from
him being such a jerk earlier. This snivid married sixteen
years and it's not just talking. Earlier this year we
(32:20):
went to Chile for a month, and when I booked
the flights, I seriously considered getting separate seats. I threatened
it next time, I'm booking my flight a few days
earlier than his. Anyway, just wanted to share this so
you know you're not alone. That's night. As always, thanks
for the great podcast. The site is great in general.
Searching for unicorns linked me to some information on hardy roses,
(32:41):
which I had actually recently been looking for, and that
is from Anne in New York City, and A says,
as a ps, I could not find your team on Kiva.
How do I find it well, and you can find
it ask by going into the U R O bar
of your web browser and typing w w W dot Kiva,
dot org, slash team slash stuff you should know and Chuck, Uh,
(33:08):
there's all the more reason. By the way, I wanted
to say, I could not be prouder of our team, Chuck.
The stuff you should know Army is awesome. We're at
straight up a more, are we really? Yeah? Something like
seven d fifty members and seven loans were in four weeks.
Everybody we donated twenty thousand dollars. That's phenomenal. And Colbert
(33:32):
has already been left in the dust. His his his
leaky team is is donating like eight grand. I think
they might be at nine grand so far. Chuck and
I actually issued a video challenge to Mr Colbert. We did.
We want to see who can be the first two
what we decide on um a hundred thousand dollars. I
think that's a pretty pretty big undertaking, I would say,
(33:53):
but I think we can do it. So everybody, we
have challenged Colbert's team to see who can get to
a hundred thousand. Yeah, and you know he's ignored it
so far. So if anyone knows Mr Colbert, or if
anyone has any connection with this show or you're a fan,
go smack him on his big fat head and tell
tell him about the little challenge. Damn right, That's what
I said. So again, that's www dot kiva dot org,
(34:16):
slash team slash stuff you should know, And if you
have an email for Chuck or Me or Jerry or
the large Hadron Collider, you can send it to Stuff
podcast at how stuff works dot com. For more on
this and thousands of other topics, is it how stuff
(34:36):
works dot com. Want more how stuff works, check out
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