Posted Feb 16, 2007 at 03:24AM by Glen D. Listed in: Astrophysics, Astronomy Tags: protons, orb, black hole, Saturn, Stephen Hawking, Barcelona
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BH - Image 1Physicists in Switzerland are inching closer and closer to bringing the most feared space monster to Earth, but don't worry, they'll be making harmless, microscopic versions of the fiend just so we can understand the universe better.

Using the Light Hadron Collider (LHC), scientists Henriette Elvang of MIT and Pau Figueras of the University of Barcelona are pulling out all the stops to test theories regarding space and time. The version of the black hole that they will be making will look a lot different from the ones in space, though. Elwang explains that the Earth-made hole will look more like a tiny black Saturn, meaning it will have one central black orb and a black ring, both of which will spin at high speeds to maintain the existence of the body if only for a few milliseconds.

"If you just had a ring, it would collapse. It's essential that it rotates to keep balanced," says Elwang.

Both the ring and the core are defined by their event horizons- virtual boundaries where gravity is so strong that not even light can escape. What can be seen would be very similar to a flattened microscopic chocolate doughnut.

So why don't they make bigger ones so everyone can see?

That's because they can't. These tiny black holes can only exist in a plane with four dimensions- length, width, height and time. We humans exist in three dimesions, so in a manner of saying, we don't live in the same reality where these things exist. However, scientists have discovered that in very small spaces, the third and fourth dimensions can actually be reconciled. If they smash protons in very small quantities with about a thousand times the gravity of the same subatomic particle, a tiny black hole will be born.

Of course, all of this is theoretical, but if all goes well, detectors in the LHC will light up to herald the vindication of theories by Stephen Hawking and those who followed him.

There's still a lot of doubt as to whether or not the black hole can stabilize before it dissipates, but the scientists in Geneva say that in a few years, it is very likely that they'll create a much smaller black hole to actually bridge the gap between the third and fourth dimensions.

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Posted Dec 31, 2006 at 02:57AM by Mabie A. Listed in: Biomedical Technology Tags: Barcelona, Spain
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Cutie!A Spanish woman reportedly gave birth to twins on Saturday. What's so news-worthy about that? She is already 67 years old! Yep, granny sure still knows how to rock.

Apparently, the unidentified woman, originally from Andalucia, underwent in vitro fertilization in the United States. Reportedly, she chose to give birth in Barcelona, at the Sant Pau Hospital, because it specializes in high-risk births. The hospital officials also kept from divulging the gender of the twins, which were delivered via Caesarian section on Saturday, although they did say that the mother and twins are doing well.

The previous record holder of the oldest mother was Adrian Iliescu, a 66-year-old Romanian citizen back in January 2005.

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