Will we ever know, in its entirety, the experiments of C.E.R.N.? Are we prepared to understand?

We strive to become the laboratory that the U.S. turns to first for technology solutions to the most challenging problems that threaten peace and freedom for our nation and the globe.

At Sandia, national security is our business. We apply advanced science and engineering to help our nation and allies detect, repel, defeat, or mitigate national security threats. Our national security mission has grown from responding to the threat of the Cold War to countering a range of threats - some nuclear, others involving chemical and biological weapons of mass destruction, and other acts of terrorism.

Will we ever know, in its entirety, the experiments of C.E.R.N.? Are we prepared to understand?

I would be more concerned with the projects at Sandia Laboratories than C.E.R.N.
C.E.R.N. is an expensive, highly controversial scientific establishment. A world entity which is in the public spotlight whenever there is activity. Its a particle accelerator. There is only so much you can do with a particle accelerator.

Sandia National Laboratories:



Research Foundations at SNL:



Bioscience
Computing and Information Science
Engineering Science
Geoscience
Materials Science
Nanodevices and Microsystems
Radiation Effects and High Energy Density Science

Now, THAT, is scary...

or this...lol

http://blog.dilbert.com/post/157571909611/scariest-thing-you-will-see-today

Many are not aware that most of our water supply and water treatment plants have minimal security. Do you realize how easy it would be to introduce a viral weapon into major water supplies? With global transportation what it is. Infect one city and the world gets infected in a very short time.

Who really knows what is being put in the water supply? It may not even be deadly. It may be something that makes people docile? Most people don't even know of local 'Boil Orders' when a water main breaks. We just don't pay attention to things unless they are in our face.

an airborne virus would be the most effective way, if they had a large enough amount...

There's a fuel supply that is costless, unlimited and that gives off no pollution at all when you use it. There's just one minor problem. When you try to use it, you may accidentally blow up part of the Universe.

It will be over before anyone can say `sorry'. In a laboratory somewhere, someone tries to get hold of a weird and completely new, exotic type of energy. But boy, the experiment goes out of hand. Suddenly, there's a BIG explosion. And then there's nothing -- our planet, the sun, all planets in our solar system and even some stars surrounding our solar system have been blown to smithereens.

And explaining what went wrong isn't even simple. We're talking quantum physics here: the physics of the vanishingly small building blocks that make up all matter in the Universe.

In quantum physics, everything is totally different from daily life. Quantum particles can be in two places at the same time, and can behave both like waves and particles. In fact, when you hear a quantum physicist say `particles', don't think of little, round balls. Quantum `particles' are better compared with tones of music: they're definitely there, but you can't see them or catch them.

One of the most mind-boggling properties of quantum particles is that they come into existence out of nowhere. Suck every molecule of air out of a bottle, making it completely vacuum -- and quantum particles will still be there. They pop up in pairs out of nowhere. And within a tiny fraction of a second, they merge together and -- zzzip! -- they're gone.

It is precisely this odd `quantum vacuum' that may one day open the door to a very new source of energy. Suppose you're able to snatch some of those out-of-nowhere particles away. Admittedly, you'll have to be REALLY fast. But if you do succeed, you'll have harvested particles out of nowhere. And since matter and energy are basically the same stuff (according to Einstein's E=mc2), you'll have energy out of nowhere!

The advantages would be unimaginable. Here's an energy source that never runs out, is everywhere around, is extremely cheap, and causes no pollution whatsoever.

But then again, there is a small, but alarming risk. There may be simply energy too much. Mining the quantum vacuum might bring about an unstoppable chain reaction, releasing an ever increasing amount of energy. In fact, no-one knows how much energy will be released: calculations done by physicists give answers anywhere between zero and infinity.

Obviously, too much energy would mean trouble. The explosion could be huge enough to blow apart our entire solar system and everything around it. And of course, infinite energy would bring about infinite destruction, bombing not just a handful of stars, but everything in the entire Universe.

Gladly, no present-day scientist is capable of mining the quantum vacuum. On the other hand: one day, there will be. And that day may arrive sooner than you think: some estimate around 2020 science will be ready. Let's hope physicists finally have their calculations straightened out by then.

So it's `wait and see'. And talking about `seeing': as the famous science-fiction writer Arthur C. Clarke once pointed out, whenever you see an unexplained burst of energy coming from the cosmos (and there are a lot of them), it may be some alien civilization, blowing itself to kingdom come while experimenting with the quantum vacuum...

Alright, so accidents happen. But the accident that happened today is a rather awful one. Scientists triggered the end of the Universe. By mistake, that is.

It was all supposed to be under control. Sure, in the 1990s, there were some oddball scientists who gave off warnings that things might one day go terribly wrong at the lab. But no-one really cared.

Unfortunately, the oddballs were right. Today, during an experiment in high-energy physics, the inconceivable happened. The experiment triggered what scientists call a quantum vacuum collapse. And one second later, the dreaded phenomenon has wiped out all matter on the planet. The world with everything and everyone on it has simply ceased to exist.

But that's not all. Traveling at the speed of light, a huge wave of destruction sets out from where the Earth used to be. Like the shockwave of a bomb exploding, it flings off into all directions. And everywhere it passes, it brings about mayhem and destruction. Voom! -- there goes the Moon. Slam! -- that was the Sun. Spat! -- Mars, Jupiter, Pluto; all gone. The shockwave never stops. It will expand and expand. And expand, until every molecule in the Universe is dead.

So, what exactly is going on? The answer takes you to the heart of quantum physics: the chunk of science that deals with the tiny particles that make up everything in the Universe. Quantum theory predicts that the Universe is filled with so-called vacuum energy -- which is the average energy of all those zillions of particles that pop into and out of existence everywhere around us each moment. As the Universe expanded, the vacuum energy dropped down to the lowest possible level. Well, in theory, that is.

There is, however, a small possibility that the theory is wrong. The Universe may be still `hung up' in an unstable energetic state. If so, a fierce jolt of energy in just the right place may be exactly what it takes to tip the balance. It would be like putting a needle into a balloon. Within a fraction of a second, a HUGE blast of energy will set free, as the quantum vacuum plunges into a lower energetic state.

The destructive energy that is unleashed will be quite different from everything we know. Literally every atom in our part of the cosmos will spew out energy. You can't even BEGIN to imagine the bizarre consequences this would have. For one thing, ordinary matter will become unstable and cease to exist.

So what would spark off the collapse? Well: particle accelerators, for example. In a particle accelerator, science smashes all kinds of tiny particles into each other to learn more about matter and the Universe. Now that's neat -- but according to critics, there's a real possibility such collisions may yield enough energy to push the Universe off balance. `The Universe can be blown to smithereens', as one of them (Paul Dixon) cosily put it in 1998.

If you find all this hard to understand, don't worry. Even specialized physicists don't fully understand how the quantum vacuum works. So their line of reasoning is simple: everywhere in the Universe, all kinds of atoms, molecules and particles slam into each other constantly. So if the quantum vacuum indeed were unstable, it would have had plenty of opportunity to collapse already. Simply put: the Universe cannot be a barrel of gunpowder, since nature constantly throws all kinds of burning fuses into it.

Phew, that indeed seems reassuring. On the other hand: as some physicists have pointed out, there is also a possibility nature simply hasn't found the right fuse yet. And here on Earth, we're experimenting with all kinds of new fuses -- for example, we're doing and planning particle accelerator experiments with rare elements such as gold and with elements that are so unstable they don't exist in `real' nature.

What's more, accidents happen. And the bigger the science, the bigger the accidents. So please, dear physicists. If you read this, please be a little careful.

i think they are doing something secret at Cern, not sure what, but spending 10 billion dollars on something that doesn't make money in return just doesn't seem very likely to me...

Compositeness

The unprecedented energy of proton collisions at the LHC could be what scientists need to find a possible substructure for subatomic particles

Cosmic rays: particles from outer space

Earth is subject to a constant bombardment of subatomic particles that can reach energies far higher than the largest machines

Dark matter

Invisible dark matter makes up most of the universe – but we can only detect it from its gravitational effects

Extra dimensions, gravitons, and tiny black holes

Extra dimensions may sound like science fiction, but they could explain why gravity is so weak

Heavy ions and quark-gluon plasma

CERN physicists collide heavy ions to free quarks - recreating conditions that existed in the universe just after the Big Bang

Subatomic particles

CERN scientists are probing the fundamental structure of the universe to find out what the elementary particles are and how they interact

Supersymmetry

Supersymmetry predicts a partner particle for each particle in the Standard Model, to help explain why particles have mass

The early universe

All matter in the universe was formed in one explosive event 13.7 billion years ago – the Big Bang

The search for antimatter

The big bang should have created equal amounts of matter and antimatter. So why is there far more matter than antimatter in the universe?

The search for the Higgs boson

Elementary particles may have gained their mass from an elusive particle – the Higgs boson

The Standard Model

The Standard Model explains how the basic building blocks of matter interact, governed by four fundamental forces

The Z boson

The Z boson is a neutral elementary particle which - along with its electrically charged cousin, the W - carries the weak force

Unified forces

Will we see a unification of forces at the high energies of the Large Hadron Collider?

W boson: Sunshine and stardust

The W boson carries the weak force. It changes the character of particles of matter—allowing the Sun to burn and new elements to form

The World Wide Web, invented at CERN in 1989 by British scientist Tim Berners-Lee

A project to increase the luminosity of the Large Hadron Collider by a factor of 10 beyond its design value by 2020

Well, If you look at the C.E.R.N. project you will see it is a massive and very technical assemblage of scientists and scientific instruments. Many of the parts that make up the facility had to be manufactured specially for that facility and only for that facility. Then you have a shitpot full of high end super computers and all the support equipment to make everything work and maintain its functionality. Then you have workers, scientists and all the staff both directly involved and occasionally involved with construction and operation. Just think of the costs involved with painting the corridor or keeping the acceleration chamber free of particulates.

C.E.R.N.
ACCELERATORS
Linear accelerator 2
Linear accelerator 3
Linear accelerator 4
The Antiproton Decelerator
The Large Hadron Collider
The Low Energy Ion Ring
The Proton Synchrotron
The Proton Synchrotron Booster
The Super Proton Synchrotron


Experiments and Facilities

AEGIS
ALICE
ALPHA
AMS
ASACUSA
ATLAS
ATRAP
AWAKE
BASE
CAST
CLOUD
CMS
COMPASS
DIRAC
ISOLDE
LHCb
LHCf
MOEDAL
NA61/SHINE
NA62
NA63
nTOF
OSQAR
TOTEM
UA9

PHYSICS


All these things cost money. Lots of money.
As with any science project all tolerances must be precise. Precision is expensive. Construction and operation requires expertise. Expertise is expensive.

It even has real world contributions...


Not only is it built and currently functional, it is being expanded.

That is money being spent as a continuing endeavor to make the facility even more complex.

Just because something is expensive does not necessarily mean there is a hidden agenda. That is conspiracy theory thinking.

I disagree... the scientists don't have that kind of money, it's the investors who do... and they don't invest for knowledge, they invest to make money, pure and simple... that's why they are called investors in the first place...
there's a reason for CERN, but only the investors and they scientists they control know what it is...

And this concerns you why?...
Do you feel threatened by all the things that you don't understand?
What a terrible state to be in?

Investors also build children's community playgrounds. People invest in things because they want to. There is not always an ulterior motive.

With scientific research there are many benefits to an investment and one is the "Quest For Knowledge".

Your disagreement is yours. I can see your opinion and refuse it and that is my opinion. It is more difficult to prove a negative.

Occam's razor is used as a heuristic technique (discovery tool) to guide scientists in the development of theoretical models, rather than as an arbiter between published models. In the scientific method, Occam's razor is not considered an irrefutable principle of logic or a scientific result; the preference for simplicity in the scientific method is based on the falsifiability criterion. For each accepted explanation of a phenomenon, there may be an extremely large, perhaps even incomprehensible, number of possible and more complex alternatives, because one can always burden failing explanations with ad hoc hypotheses to prevent them from being falsified; therefore, simpler theories are preferable to more complex ones because they are more testable.
or
Another way of saying it is that the more assumptions you have to make, the more unlikely an explanation is.

same as the so called global warming... it's hard to say it's a real thing

CERN could be a great thing, to understand the universe as best as we can, but if what the information being put out is in the investors best interest and not actual science, then it's meaningless...

if the investors are telling the scientists what to do and say, then where's the truth at?

I would be more concerned with the projects at Sandia Laboratories than C.E.R.N.
C.E.R.N. is an expensive, highly controversial scientific establishment. A world entity which is in the public spotlight whenever there is activity. Its a particle accelerator. There is only so much you can do with a particle accelerator.

Sandia National Laboratories:




Sandia's Z-Machine (Hotter than the Sun)

Research Foundations at SNL:

Bioscience
Computing and Information Science
Engineering Science
Geoscience
Materials Science
Nanodevices and Microsystems
Radiation Effects and High Energy Density Science

Now, THAT, is scary...