YOU can give them this: the doomsayers convinced that the Large Hadron Collider will kill us all certainly have a flair for drama.
Last week a group in Austria and Germany, some of them scientists, tried to persuade the European Court of Human Rights that the LHC should not power up on 10 September. They fear the experiment will spawn planet-munching black holes, or 鈥渒iller strangelets鈥�, as well as the new nightmare of bosenovas 鈥� tiny explosions in atomic systems at a few billionths of a kelvin.
The group cited the European Convention on Human Rights under Article 2 (鈥渞ight to life鈥�) and Article 8 (鈥渞ight to respect for private and family life鈥�). Three days later the court rejected their plea for an injunction. The group鈥檚 appeal now joins over 100,000 others to be decided by the court.
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鈥淲e fully understand our need to respond to legitimate scientific concerns,鈥� says CERN鈥檚 John Ellis. 鈥淏ut our scientific arguments cannot counter irrational fears, no matter how hard we try.鈥�
As New Scientist went to press, a court in Hawaii was hearing a similar case brought against the US Department of Energy in March for its role in the LHC.
The Large Hadron Collider 鈥� find out more about the world鈥檚 biggest experiment in our cutting-edge special report.
