Girl kills self over "Big Bang" fear

[Mayissa]

BHOPAL, India (Reuters) - A teenage girl in Madhya Pradesh killed herself on Wednesday after being traumatised by media reports that a "Big Bang" experiment in Europe could bring about the end of the world, her father said.

The 16-year old girl from Madhya Pradesh drank pesticide and was rushed to the hospital but later died, police said.

Her father, identified on local television as Biharilal, said that his daughter, Chayya, killed herself after watching doomsday predictions made on Indian news programmes.

"In the past two days, Chayya had asked me and other relatives about the world coming to an end on Sept. 10," Biharilal was quoted as saying.

"We tried to divert her attention and told her she should not worry about such things, but to no avail," he said.

For the past two days, many Indian news channels held discussions airing doomsday predictions over a huge particle-smashing machine buried under the Swiss-French border.

The machine, called the Large Hadron Collider, was switched on on Wednesday, at the start of what experts say is the largest scientific experiment in human history.

The machine smashes particles together to achieve, on a small-scale, re-enactments of the "Big Bang" that created the universe.

Leading scientists and researchers at the European Organisation for Nuclear Research, said the experiment was safe. They dismissed as "pure fiction" doomsday predictions that the experiment could create anti-matter, or black holes.

But in India fears about the experiment and the minor risks associated with it spread rapidly through the media.

In east India, thousands of people rushed to temples to pray and fast while others savoured their favourite foods in anticipation of the world's end.

"There were a thousand more devotees yesterday as well as today compared to (any) other normal day," Benudhara Sahu, a temple official in Orissa, told Reuters.

Many women and children rushed to temples and observed fasts as they prayed for deliverance, officials and witnesses said.

Assurances by scientists and the media that nothing would happen counted for nothing for housewife Rukmini Moharana.

"I visited temple, prayed to god," Moharana said. "I am observing the fast for safety because god can only save us."

[Mayissa]

Big Bang experiment triggers panic

Statesman News Service
SILIGURI, Sept. 9: The news that an experiment would be conducted inside a 27-km tunnel at the French-Swiss border at 12:30 a.m IST tomorrow to recapture conditions not seen since the birth of the universe, has caused panic here. Many believe that it would spell doom.
While many like Mrs Sweta Roy Cooch behar have cancelled their trips and tours to different parts of India tomorrow, a few people like Mrs Soma Sarkar of Jaleshwari, Jalpaiguri have stopped eating since yesterday.
Anticipating that the universe may end tomorrow, many people, especially those in the rural areas spent the entire day today talking to their friends and relatives in far-off places. “I spoke to all my school and college friends today, as I may never again be able to speak to them,” said Mrs Panchali Saha of Naxlabari.
With doom-mongers working overtime, many students and office-goers have decided to skip school, college and office tomorrow. Said a 36-year-old marketing manager, “Both my wife and I have decided to stay indoors tomorrow as the experiment could create a shower of unstable black holes that could devour the planet from within.”
Many shops and business establishments in the region may remain shut tomorrow as a sizeable section of traders and businessmen today admitted that they would not venture out in the open tomorrow. “I will not open my shop tomorrow as I would prefer to die at home along with my family,” said Mr Gopal Saha, owner of a grocery shop in Hakimpara, Siliguri.
Both Mr Rajiv Nath, project co-coordinator, North Bengal Science Centre and Mr Swapanendu Nandi, secretary, Darjeeling district Pashim Banga Vigyan Mancha, however, are dismissive of the “doom-mongers.”

[Mayissa]

Death threats sent to MIT professor over Big Bang experiment
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. -- A local professor has been getting death threats over what critics call a "doomsday experiment."
Wednesday morning, scientists will attempt to recreate the "Big Bang" on a smaller scale.
Frank Wilczek, an MIT physicist and Nobel laureate, said that the threats came in the form of calls and e-mails; however, Wilczek is not worried.
His eyes are on the groundbreaking experiment in Europe.
"We have very exciting ideas of what might happen," Wilczek said.
Particles will be beamed around 17 miles of underground track at nearly the speed of light. The goal is to find out what makes up the empty space in the universe.
The experiment is controversial because some fear the experiment will create a black hole that will swallow the earth.
Wilczek says that won't happen.
"It will either be wonderful fulfillment or back to the drawing board," Wilczek said.
The experiment is 14 years and $10 billion in the making. Ten thousand scientists have worked on the project.
While Wilczek is not worried about the threats, MIT police have been notified.
(Copyright (c) 2008 Sunbeam Television Corp. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)

[Mayissa]

Bhubaneswar: Fearing that the scientific experiment to study the formation of the universe might have a negative impact on the earth, people in Orissa are flocking to places of religious worship to seek divine help.
Scientists conducting the experiment Wednesday in Geneva have ruled out any trouble but the credulous have said the experiment might bring the end of the universe.
Large Haudron Collider could spell doomsday for Earth!
“Some television channels have shown that the experiment may affect the earth, and we are afraid and are therefore turning to god,” Sanghamitra Biswal a housewife in Bhubaneswar, told IANS.
Biswal, who lives in the Niladri Vihar area of the city, along with her husband and three children, visited a Shiv temple Wednesday morning. She says she is also keeping a fast.
New atom-smasher tries to re-enact big bang,
“It is only god who can prevent trouble and we are praying for our safety and for the safety of the earth,” she said.
Biswal is not alone. According to reports reaching here people visited temples in different part of the state early Wednesday.
Temples in many part of the state witnessed large crowds in the morning, eyewitnesses said.
Science updates
“Large number of devotees performed puja (prayers) Tuesday evening,” said Sudhanshu Mishra, a priest based here.
“Where ever you go there is only one discussion and it is about the experiment,” Raghunath Mohanty, a college teacher in Bhubaneswar, said.
“We have received large number of queries from people. They are asking us if there is any threat to the earth,” said Subhendu Patnaik, director of the Pathani Samanta Planetarium.
“We are telling them it is like any other scientific experiment and nothing bad is going to happen.”
The well-known Welsh physicist, Lyn Evans, dubbed Evans the Atom, will switch on a giant particle accelerator designed to unlock the secrets of the Big Bang as a part of this expensive experiment that has been in the preparation for the last 30 years.
Evans will fire up the Large Hadron Collider, a 17-mile-long doughnut-shaped tunnel that will smash sub-atomic particles together at nearly the speed of light.
Built by the European Organisation for Nuclear Research (CERN), the collider lies beneath the French-Swiss border, near the institution's headquarters in Geneva, at depths ranging from 170 to 600 feet. The 4.4 billion-pound-experiment (over $7.7 billion) aims to recreate the conditions that existed a fraction of a second after the Big Bang - the hypothesised birth of the universe - and provide vital clues to the building blocks of life.

[amalgamate]

A Big Bang test to have happened today? coool

I don't think the forced merging of two particles could have caused any catastrophic event because there's only two particles that they're dealing with.

If them scientists where dealing with a large mass of particles to force them together, and there was warnings that something might leak, then it's time to panic.

right?

who knows the composition of an atomic bomb? do they use only two atoms or is it more complicated than that?

[Al-khiyal]

Some background about the (hugely expensive) experiment here

[Mayissa]

A Big Bang test to have happened today? coool

I don't think the forced merging of two particles could have caused any catastrophic event because there's only two particles that they're dealing with.

If them scientists where dealing with a large mass of particles to force them together, and there was warnings that something might leak, then it's time to panic.

right?

who knows the composition of an atomic bomb? do they use only two atoms or is it more complicated than that?

All I know is that it involves a very large underground tunnel in Switzerland on the French border where they will collide particles to replicate the big bang........I am not quite sure what they will learn from this experiment..........who knows

It has seeminly alarmed many Indians thats for sure