Not signed in (Sign In)

WorldWeird: Stable Strangelets

Bottom of Page

1 to 9 of 9

  1.  
  1.  (946.1)
    Hi, kids, did you miss me? I missed you. Now an offical Seattlite.


    Now, on to the important things:
    Stable Stragelets
    From the Flikr account of Arenamontanus, the sign and a description: "If strangelets are stable at zero pressure and have a positive charge, they can absorb ordinary matter and convert it into more strangelets. A great energy source, but also potentially a planet- or star-eater."

    Discuss.
  2.  (946.2)
    Welcome back, sweetheart.

    -- W
    • CommentAuthornleavitt
    • CommentTimeFeb 10th 2008
     (946.3)
    zero pressure and stars don't exactly coexist
    •  
      CommentAuthorLuke
    • CommentTimeFeb 10th 2008
     (946.4)
    The strangelet theory is a great one - among other things, it's a reason why people are protesting to prevent the Large Hadron Collider from being turned on. One guy even "worked out" (for a certain definition of "worked out") that there was a 10% chance of it detonating the planet one way or another, but considering that his math was "tiny chance based on assumptions multiplied by DESTROYING THE UNIVERSE, so that's BIG!" he doesn't seem to be getting anywhere.

    Strangelets are great from the name alone.
  5.  (946.5)
    if we have to go, we can at least be offed by something with a really cool name. Ideally just enough of the events surrounding our death will have passed out into the cosmos as radio waves to give adequate warning not to follow us to other advanced races.
    • CommentAuthorseldon
    • CommentTimeFeb 10th 2008
     (946.6)
    If the planet is going to go, Id rather it be something cool like the Annihilatrix.

    that being said, its a neat theory on a seemingly easy high-energy generation system.
    • CommentAuthorKosmopolit
    • CommentTimeFeb 11th 2008
     (946.7)
    As I recall from discussions of quantum black holes, a strangelet would be subatomic when it forms. The rate of absorption and conversion would initially be limited by the extremely small amount of matter it could absorb.

    The rate of conversion would grow exponentially but from a very low base, so we'd have years or longer to try and do something about the strangelet before it got big enough to seriously threaten the Earth.
  8.  (946.8)
    Kosmopolit - but also, based on how we currently handle things, I don't think we would be able to contain it unless we immediately started a plan of shutting it down before starting it up - we're not very good at handling exponentiality (I hope that's a word, if not, it is now).

    I wonder what else could destroy the world... is it like human beings with our internal environment, and that anything in excess (even water) can kill us?
    • CommentAuthorradian
    • CommentTimeFeb 11th 2008
     (946.9)
    It'll be fine. Someone will be able to travel back to 2008 from the future and put a stop our meddling with the universe. :)

1 to 9 of 9

  1.