Originally Posted by Warren Platts

Hey Van Rijn,

I've come around to your way of thinking when it comes to what the LHC was designed for. The LHC cannot be designed as a black hole factory, because otherwise they would never have used the double beam design! The double beam design is totally dangerous if there's the slightest possibility that black holes could be produced. A true black hole factory would only use the single beam design so that any black holes produced would be flung harmlessly away from the Earth, just like cosmic rays. We wouldn't be having this discussion if the LHC was of a single beam design. Talk about a major design flaw! I guess you'll have that, though, when you use 20th century technology to investigate 21st century particle physics. . . .

But this idea suggests a simple fix and compromise that can make everyone happy: only use one beam at a time at the LHC. The energy produced will still be 35 times more than RHIC produces. That's pretty good, and ought to keep them busy until a new single beam collider with even more energy can be constructed.