WHAT EXPERTS SAY

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In July, 1999 Scientific American published two highly-edited letters written by physicists Walter L. Wagner and Franck Wilczek in the Letters to the Editors section pertaining to theoretical particles that might be created by colliders. At that time, the LHC was still on the drawing board, and the RHIC [Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider], some 30-fold lower in energy than the LHC, was nearing completion.

This was apparently the first time that consideration was given in the scientific literature to the idea that particle colliders might create miniature black holes, as suggested by Dr. Wagner. Since then, numerous theoretical papers have been published suggesting that miniature black holes might be created under some scenarios, though with most suggesting they would quickly evaporate via "Hawking radiation", an untested theory first postulated by Steven Hawking in the early 1970s, and also suggested by Dr. Wagner as the likely result in his original letter to Scientific American.

The idea that colliders might create strangelets, as suggested by Dr. Wilczek, had been published in the scientific literature previously by other authors.

Those letters are reprinted below:

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• Madhusree Mukerjee's article on the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) at Brookhaven National Laboratory
• HERE IS THE OFFICIAL CERN POSITION ON THE POTENTIAL DANGERS ASSOCIATED WITH OPERATING THE LHC:
• In response to the recent, August 8-9, 2007 U.S. Coast to Coast AM radioshow with host George Noory interviewing Dr. Wagner, the following letter was received from an astute listener:
• The following is a letter from Dr. James Martin, of the Center for Nuclear Non-Proliferation, addressed to Dr. Wagner:
• The following is a letter dated July 21, 2007 from Dr. Paul J. Werbos [of the National Science Foundation] to Mr. James Blodgett [of the Risk Evaluation Forum], forwarded to the Lifeboat Foundation:
• THE FOLLOWING WAS POSTED IN RESPONSE TO A BBC ARTICLE
• The following is a sworn affidavit filed in the U.S. District Court, Eastern District of New York, Walter L. Wagner v. Brookhaven Science Associates, LLC,Case No. 00CV1672 [2000]:
• On May 14, 2007, Ms. Elizabeth Kolbert published an article in The New Yorker about the LHC entitled “Crash Course”, which described her visit and interview with the LHC management.
• The following was posted by a physicist at the Misunderstood Universe website:
• The following was posted on the Misunderstood Universe web-site by its authors:
• The following are some suggested alternative work strategies for physicists at the LHC pending proof of the LHC's safety:

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