Apr 15, 2008

Great Moments in Science Journalism

The New York Times this morning takes up the question of whether CERN's new Large Hadron Collider will destroy the Earth. There are some interesting bits about how scientists calculate risk (or fail to consider it), but the real highlight of the piece is this:

Besides, the random nature of quantum physics means that there is always a minuscule, but nonzero, chance of anything occurring, including that the new collider could spit out man-eating dragons.


Now that would be worth the $8 billion it cost to build the thing. Imagine the spike in public interest in science!

In other news, the Tigers staged a dramatic late-inning rally to beat the Twins 11-9. But they still gave up nine runs.

In other other news, Guardian blogger Peter Wright thinks SF fans are okay.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Turning the tide a little bit...

Ladies and germs,
I would like to introduce to you:
Mr. Robert E. Howard.
-not your average nerd...

http://www.rehoward.com/reh-bio.htm

Anonymous said...

I saw the Stephen King's "The Mist".
The ending left me misty eyed.
If the collider causes catastrophes like the ones in the film I will wait a few hours before... well before doing what that guy did. Talk about a contrived story line! Man!