Ask the Hivemind!

[The Enigmatic Dr X]

Curious? Confused? Stumped? Think no one can help? Then Ask the Hivemind!

This thread is for those New Scientist "Last Word" type questions. A place to seek answers to the odd conundrums life throws at us.

Like, my question:

Hivemind, why do you sometimes get a single bolt and washer threaded into a pavement?

[Jim_Campbell]

Hivemind, why do you sometimes get a single bolt and washer threaded into a pavement?[/size]

Well, duh... to keep the pavement in place in the event of localized gravity failure.

Cheers

Jim

[Hoagy]

Dear Hivemind,

   Do you think toying with antimatter will lead to the end of the world/ universe/ loss of remote control?

[Peter Wolf]

Dear Hivemind,

   Do you think toying with antimatter will lead to the end of the world/ universe/ loss of remote control?

If you are talking about CERN then they dont have much of a clue themselves but that doesnt seem to be a deterrent to trying to create a mini black hole.I listened to someone else talking about this a few days ago and personally i think its irresponsible and unnecessary and a waste of cash.CERN admit that by creating what is known as Quark Gluon Plasma [the densest material ever known] they can recreate the big bang and they admit that doing this could create a black hole but they have to do the experiments to see what happens...............

Absolute idiots and science out of control and if they admit that they are not 100 percent sure what they are doing and that there is a probability of creating a black hole then logic dictates that conducting the experiments is a very bad idea but unfortunately it doesnt work like that .

[Jim_Campbell]

Best not sail to the horizon, in case you fall off the edge of the world. Don't create fire, you might anger the gods.

Reactionary luddite twaddle, Peter. The things created in the Hadron Collider and other experiments by CERN and their ilk are so incomprehensibly small and exist for spans of time so incomprehensibly brief that they hover on the very threshold of most definitions of 'existing' at all.

These things are only 'dangerous' in the minds of people who think -- like Dan Brown -- that you can keep antimatter in jars.

Bah!

Jim

[Zarjazzer]

IS there an equation that describes the multiverse and everything in it?

[Hoagy]

Dear Hivemind,

   Do you think toying with antimatter will lead to the end of the world/ universe/ loss of remote control?

If you are talking about CERN then they dont have much of a clue themselves but that doesnt seem to be a deterrent to trying to create a mini black hole.I listened to someone else talking about this a few days ago and personally i think its irresponsible and unnecessary and a waste of cash.CERN admit that by creating what is known as Quark Gluon Plasma [the densest material ever known] they can recreate the big bang and they admit that doing this could create a black hole but they have to do the experiments to see what happens...............

Absolute idiots and science out of control and if they admit that they are not 100 percent sure what they are doing and that there is a probability of creating a black hole then logic dictates that conducting the experiments is a very bad idea but unfortunately it doesnt work like that .

Best not sail to the horizon, in case you fall off the edge of the world. Don't create fire, you might anger the gods.

Reactionary luddite twaddle, Peter. The things created in the Hadron Collider and other experiments by CERN and their ilk are so incomprehensibly small and exist for spans of time so incomprehensibly brief that they hover on the very threshold of most definitions of 'existing' at all.

These things are only 'dangerous' in the minds of people who think -- like Dan Brown -- that you can keep antimatter in jars.

Bah!

Jim

For every hydrogen the is an anti-hydrogen? Of course! Cheers Hivemind.

[Peter Wolf]

Best not sail to the horizon, in case you fall off the edge of the world. Don't create fire, you might anger the gods.

Reactionary luddite twaddle, Peter. The things created in the Hadron Collider and other experiments by CERN and their ilk are so incomprehensibly small and exist for spans of time so incomprehensibly brief that they hover on the very threshold of most definitions of 'existing' at all.

These things are only 'dangerous' in the minds of people who think -- like Dan Brown -- that you can keep antimatter in jars.

Bah!

Jim

I dont know why you didnt call me a Twat like Brian Cox does to anyone who disagrees with the experiments conducted by Cern and there isnt a very broad consensus amongst physicists that CERN is risk free and the only consensus that has determined that CERN is risk free is CERN themselves so in my mind there is too much ego involved and groupthink and its very very easy to talk up the discoveries that will arise from this while talking down the risks.There are people involved in CERN and its the nature of people to think they are infallible when they are not.


I have said my bit and its perfectly valid and if they already knew what they were doing they would not be having to conduct experiments that frequently have unexpected outcomes as they admit that they are finding things out through the outcome of the experiments.

Experiments can go wrong in unexpected ways so in this instance you cannot factor out risk and the low probability of the experiment going wrong is based on their limited experience and understanding in these matters so i do have a valid point.Physicists admit there is a risk involved in these experiments.

Bear in mind how much of the experimentation at CERN is based on hypothesis/conjecture and then take into consideration how that hypothesis/conjecture can change at any minute which is the nature of science and then consider that there is no absolute at this stage which means that CERN experimentation is not risk free and that probabilities are based on hypothesis and conjecture and not fact and that CERN has made it possible for it to be applied science [theory] so in reality it all remains to be seen......

NO absolutes at this stage.

Trivialising the risks involved doesnt make the risks none existent and nor does derision.

[Proudhuff]

I bet you shout at cars

[Proudhuff]

Hivemind, why do you sometimes get a single bolt and washer threaded into a pavement?[/size]

Well, duh... to keep the pavement in place in the event of localized gravity failure.

Cheers

Jim

Twat, we all KNOW the earth is hollow and these bolts hold the outer and inner earth together after an 'Experiment' went wrong in unexpected ways, Physicists DO admit there is a risk involved in these experiments.

However, trivialising the Hollow Earth FACTS doesnt make them none existent and nor does derision.

Cheers
Huff

[exilewood]

Mini black holes already exist all around us - they seem to eat guitar picks exclusively.

I lose hundreds of guitar picks in my flat on a monthly basis. My flat should be full of them. I should be literally wading through guitar picks. And yet, I am not.

Where have they gone? And why?

[JOE SOAP]

You need one of these:





http://www.firebox.com/product/3140/Pickmaster-Plectrum-Punch

[Dandontdare]

These things are only 'dangerous' in the minds of people who think -- like Dan Brown -- that you can keep antimatter in jars.

Well, coincidentally, The Guardian reports today that CERN scientists have created and stored antimatter - http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2011/jun/05/scientists-create-antimatter-study?INTCMP=SRCH - only for 16 minutes, but that's 's still quite impressive.

They don't mention if the jar is a screw-cap or whther it's has a bit of greasproof paper and a rubber band.

[Emperor]

I bet you shout at cars

He chases them biting at the wheels.

[Spaceghost]

When is a door not a door?

When it's ajar of anti-matter.




Oh yes, you ARE lolling.