• Question: from the experiments that you use ,does it effect the earth such as global warming

    Asked by nasteeho to Arttu, Ceri, James_M, Monica, Philip on 22 Jun 2011.
    • Photo: James M Monk

      James M Monk answered on 22 Jun 2011:

      Of course CERN uses a lot of electrical power to run the LHC, but I was pleased to discover that the power for CERN comes from a hydro-electric plant (Switzerland has a lot of hydroelectricity due to the mountains). So in a sense, it’s not too bad.

      You could argue that if it wasn’t being sent to CERN then that power could go to something else, but there is only one LHC in the whole world. When compared to the amount of power used by the whole planet, the amount used by CERN is small and I think easily justified (certainly compared to some of the other things power is used for).

    • Photo: Arttu Rajantie

      Arttu Rajantie answered on 22 Jun 2011:

      I am a theoretical physicist, so I don’t do experiments and therefore don’t contribute much to global warming in that sense. (Although some people would say a lot of what we do is just hot air – and could therefore make the atmosphere warmer…)

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