Popular Science

Stated as fact on recent television news programs:

Further development of nuclear fusion is dangerous because of the risk of Chernobyl-like accidents.

Glass office buildings are putting employees at risk for skin cancer due to excessive sun exposure.

Physicists don't seem to care about the possibility that the world's most powerful particle accelerator may create a black hole, putting the Earth at risk.


Goddamnit.


Nuclear fusion is different from nuclear fission, the latter of which is the basis for all existing nuclear technology. Unlike nuclear fission, nuclear fusion is not a self-sustaining process, and will cease reaction immediately in the event of an equipment failure. A "meltdown" is impossible. Further, its potential for energy output (~10x that of nuclear fission) would, at the very least, provide a sizable crutch by which we could ease ourselves off of our oil dependence.

UV rays don't go through glass. You don't get a tan, let alone skin cancer, from sitting inside.

The production of black holes in modern day particle accelerators will not occur at the proposed energy levels unless an unforeseen mechanism alters the laws of gravity at microscopic scales. Such a modification to the laws of physics would suggest the existence of "higher dimensions" above and beyond the space and time we're all accustomed to. Even if we cannot rule such possibilities out, such black holes would be microscopic in size and would "evaporate" due to quantum fluctuations faster than they could suck in any nearby matter, disappearing before they have a chance to destroy even a single atom.

Be wary of "scientific" claims. Beware of slippery slopes. Science is still a human profession.

(P.S.: Tonight's winner: a neurobiologist who thinks that 1/4 of the world's population resides within the United States.)