Can we say that the LHC isn’t going to destroy the world yet?

Last night, our list of the Worst Predictions for 2009 went live, featuring notables including Rahm Emanuel, George Soros, John Bolton and — for the second straight year — Charles Krauthammer. Posting this year’s edition also provided an opportunity to look back at last year’s list — particularly the unfinished business of the Large Hadron ...

By , a former associate editor at Foreign Policy.
575393_091217_lhc2.jpg
575393_091217_lhc2.jpg
BERLIN - OCTOBER 14: Workers walk past a giant photograph of a part of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at the "Weltmaschine "("World Machine") exhibition on October 14, 2008 in Berlin, Germany. The exhibition documents the LHC and is on display at the Bundestag U-Bahn station from October 15 through November 16. (Photo by Sean Gallup/Getty Images)

Last night, our list of the Worst Predictions for 2009 went live, featuring notables including Rahm Emanuel, George Soros, John Bolton and — for the second straight year — Charles Krauthammer.

Posting this year’s edition also provided an opportunity to look back at last year’s list — particularly the unfinished business of the Large Hadron Collider — the massive particle accelerator in Switzerland. Last year, we put Dr. Walter L. Wagner of Citizens Against the Large Hadron Collider on the list for his prediction about the apocalyptic consequences of activating the LHC. (Wagner’s website also made Newsweek‘s list of the worst predictions of the decade, along with three other examples from last year’s FP list). Here’s the prediction:

“There is a real possibility of creating destructive theoretical anomalies such as miniature black holes, strangelets and deSitter space transitions. These events have the potential to fundamentally alter matter and destroy our planet.” 

An irate Wagner wrote and called in to point out that, at that point, the particle collisions that he was worried about hadn’t actually taken place because of technical problems with the LHC. 

All year I’ve been dreading the possibility that the first LHC collisions would generate black holes. First, because it would mean that I, and everyone I know and love would be dead, but mostly because Wagner’s prediction would be right. However, the LHC was finally fully activated in November and particle collisions began shortly afterward. This month the LHC set a new world record for energy levels created in a laboratory.

No black holes have yet been detected and Wagner’s website doesn’t appear to have been updated in over a year.  

Sean Gallup/Getty Images

Joshua Keating was an associate editor at Foreign Policy. Twitter: @joshuakeating

More from Foreign Policy

Keri Russell as Kate Wyler walks by a State Department Seal from a scene in The Diplomat, a new Netflix show about the foreign service.
Keri Russell as Kate Wyler walks by a State Department Seal from a scene in The Diplomat, a new Netflix show about the foreign service.

At Long Last, the Foreign Service Gets the Netflix Treatment

Keri Russell gets Drexel furniture but no Senate confirmation hearing.

Chinese President Xi Jinping and French President Emmanuel Macron speak in the garden of the governor of Guangdong's residence in Guangzhou, China, on April 7.
Chinese President Xi Jinping and French President Emmanuel Macron speak in the garden of the governor of Guangdong's residence in Guangzhou, China, on April 7.

How Macron Is Blocking EU Strategy on Russia and China

As a strategic consensus emerges in Europe, France is in the way.

Chinese President Jiang Zemin greets U.S. President George W. Bush prior to a meeting of APEC leaders in 2001.
Chinese President Jiang Zemin greets U.S. President George W. Bush prior to a meeting of APEC leaders in 2001.

What the Bush-Obama China Memos Reveal

Newly declassified documents contain important lessons for U.S. China policy.

A girl stands atop a destroyed Russian tank.
A girl stands atop a destroyed Russian tank.

Russia’s Boom Business Goes Bust

Moscow’s arms exports have fallen to levels not seen since the Soviet Union’s collapse.