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From: langer@lasspvax.UUCP (Stephen Langer)
Newsgroups: net.physics,net.sci
Subject: Re: What's All This, Then (Workshop on Exploding Particle Accelerators)
Message-ID: <793@lasspvax.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 6-Feb-86 21:25:01 EST
Article-I.D.: lasspvax.793
Posted: Thu Feb  6 21:25:01 1986
Date-Received: Sun, 9-Feb-86 05:41:04 EST
References: <572@hounx.UUCP>
Reply-To: langer@lasspvax.UUCP (Stephen Langer)
Organization: LASSP, Cornell University
Lines: 32
Xref: watmath net.physics:3831 net.sci:513

In article <572@hounx.UUCP> kort@hounx.UUCP (B.KORT) writes:
>The current issue of Smithsonian has a guest column on modern-day worries
>by Richard Wolkomir.  The author picks up a nasty new macroworry:
>
>	They have a notion that new particle accelerators
>	may create subatomic collisions intense enough to trigger a
>	chain reaction and thus vaporize the entire Universe!
>	....And for thousands
>	of people the last thought before the cosmos winks out, is
>	sure to be, "Darn, why didn't I start a petition?"
>
I've heard of a theory that the universe is really in a metastable state
and that some low temp experiment might someday reach a temperature
low enough to initiate the phase transition to the universe's
true ground state. Fortunately, you don't have to worry about anything --
the phase boundary will propagate at the speed of light so
you won't see it coming.  :-)
-- 

            0))
       ((0       0
            __    
          <|..|>  :0_
      _0:   \/   /
        \    |  /
         ~~~| |~
            | |    Steve Langer
            / \    Physics Department, Clark Hall
           /   \   Cornell University
          \     \	 Ithaca, NY 14853
          _\     \_,
       {ihnp4,decvax,allegra,vax135}!cornell!lasspvax!langer