I had posted on this earlier.

I knew I had read this somewhere so I went in search of the original press report. C'est la vie.

Personally, I find the possibility of the formation of a mini-black hole something of a concern.

As you say the probability is non-zero but probably infintessimal. From memory the relaxation time of a Hole due to Hawking Radiation is a function of its mass. A very small hole would have a very small lifetime before it "explodes".

Don't forget that a Hole of mass 1Kg is still looks like a point source of mass 1Kg. The extreme gravitational effects would only be a problem at atomic distances. I don't think we would be in danger if a black hole where to be formed.

Mind you, read Gregory Benfords novle, Cosmos. A story about a high energy physicist at (I assume RHIC) who accidentally creates a ball of strange matter. Haven't finished the book yet but it mirrors some of the furore over RHIC/CERN creating something monstrous or dangerous.

Yelmalio

• Re: Quark-Guon plasma created at CERN. - Kev - February 18, 2000 - 21:01 UTC