New US$1 million scifi podcast explores unassessed risk at CERN

Sept. 22, 2009 - PRLog -- The scientists at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) admit that they might make microscopic black holes when the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) starts up again, probably in November, but claim that any such holes would be of only momentary existence but even if they were persistent the scientists claim they would be safe.
However a new novel which began podcasting on iTunes this week by UK author Wyken Seagrave is based on a new possibility which has never been considered by any scientific risk assessment as far as the author can discover. This risk depends on a theoretical particle called a magnetic monopole being captured by the strong magnetic field inside one of the detectors.

A black hole is an object with such a strong gravitational field that nothing can escape, not even light. The principal arguments for the safety of the LHC depend upon evidence from cosmic rays. These are high energy particles from space, huge numbers of which have been bombarding the Earth for the past 4.5 billion years, some of them with much higher energies than any of the particles they will make in CERN. The scientists argue that 1) high energy particles cannot create a black hole and 2) if they could make a black hole it must be safe, because otherwise these cosmic particles would already have made one and destroyed the Earth.
For example the LHC Safety Assessment Group [1] reported that:
“If some hypothetical microscopic black holes should be stable, we review arguments showing that they would be unable to accrete matter in a manner dangerous for the Earth. If some microscopic black holes were produced by the LHC, they would also have been produced by cosmic rays and have stopped in the Earth or some other astronomical body, and the stability of these astronomical bodies means that they cannot be dangerous.”
The LHC Safety Assessment Group also considered whether monopoles could be formed inside CERN. They reported:
“Magnetic monopoles are hypothetical particles with a single magnetic charge, either a north pole or a south pole. Some speculative theories suggest that, if they do exist, magnetic monopoles could cause protons to decay. These theories also say that such monopoles would be too heavy to be produced at the LHC. Nevertheless, if the magnetic monopoles were light enough to appear at the LHC, cosmic rays striking the Earth’s atmosphere would already be making them, and the Earth would very effectively stop and trap them. The continued existence of the Earth and other astronomical bodies therefore rules out dangerous proton-eating magnetic monopoles light enough to be produced at the LHC.”
However they did not consider the possibility that a magnetic monopole from outer space might be captured by one of the detectors. As Wyken Seagrave says: ‘There is theoretical evidence to believe that at least one magnetic monopole exists in the Universe, and there could be large numbers of them. They are remnants left over from the Big Bang. Because of their magnetic field one might expect that if one came close to the Earth it might be trapped by the huge magnetic fields inside the detectors. This is a scenario which, to the best of my belief, has never been considered by any safety committee anywhere in the world.
‘In Time Crystal I assume that a cosmic magnetic monopole is trapped near to the beam of protons travelling around the LHC at almost the speed of light. I assume that it absorbs protons from the beams and grows into a persistent black hole. The magnetic monopole creates an entirely new type of black hole, different from any which might have been made before by cosmic rays.’

But Wyken has developed this scenario into a complete novel. In Time Crystal, the black hole burns its way through the detector and absorbs two men who are battling to control it. Moments later time stops everywhere in the Universe except near fragments of mysterious blue crystal. Each fragment is surrounded by a bubble of time. Hold a crystal and you’re alive, but without it you’re frozen in time.
The main character, fourteen-year-old Catriona O’Brien, is in an adjacent cavern when the disaster happens. She is finally given a crystal and hears one of the two absorbed men saying that if she can collect all the crystal fragments and bring them down the ‘Time Tunnel’ then he can restart time.
So begins an adventure that will take Catriona back in time. To save the Universe from destruction she must go inside stars and out to the farthest reaches of intergalactic space. She must travel through living cells and solve molecular-scale problems as she collects Time Crystals. On her epic journey she will visit all the major events in history, including the origin of life and the creation of the solar system, the Big Bang and beyond.
One reason it has taken so long to write this story is because of the problem of working out a credible fictional scenario which allows the characters to do these incredible things. For, although mainly an entertainment, this story has a serious educational mission.
‘The listener will live the story,’ Wyken says, ‘so learning without effort. A huge range of different sciences will be merely the stages upon which the episodes are set. Key facts will be absorbed through the listeners’ skin as the adventure carries them along.’
But there is a strong fantasy element to this story as well. Catriona and the other characters have to contend with mysterious and dangerous beings which are coming up the Time Tunnel intent on using the people of Earth for their own evil purposes. There will soon be a sister podcast, the Art & Science of Time Crystal, that will explain which parts of the story are fact and which are fiction.
Wyken Seagrave is passionate about communicating science through history and art, allowing the audience to explore where we came from and how we relate to the rest of the Universe. It was this passion which motivated him to give up his lucrative job as an IT consultant for a multi-national bank and spend eight years researching this story while working part-time for a major UK scientific charity. This career switch has cost him well over US$ 1 million in lost earnings but he thinks it is well worth it.
‘I know I’m never going to make up the money I’ve lost. I’m earning less than one tenth of what I was ten years ago but I’m ten times more fulfilled and a hundred times happier,’ he says. The first Time Crystal episodes, read by the author, are available now as free podcasts on iTunes and Podiobooks (http://podiobooks.com/title/time-crystal).
Wyken is no stranger to the history of the Universe. His website http://www.historyoftheuniverse.com has been a standard on-line reference work for over 10 years as it weaves together a brief account of the main events in history and an introduction to basic science.
Wyken is available for interview over skype and is very happy to answer questions from radio audience about any aspect of the history of the Universe, the writing of Time Crystal or almost anything else. Contact Wyken Seagrave on tele: +4424 7671 7275, mobile: +447808 294 844, Skype: wyken.seagrave or email: wyken@timecrystal.co.uk

References
[1] The Review of the Safety of LHC Collisions by the LHC Safety Assessment Group can be found at http://lsag.web.cern.ch/lsag/LSAG-Report.pdf

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