The Speculist

It's just not my usual style. However, I couldn't help but pause for a moment upon reading this (via Paul Hsieh):

Tiny black holes could soon be made on demand in particle accelerators, but shortly after their birth, they might blink out of existence. In the 14 October PRL, a team proposes a mechanism for this vanishing act: The space around these black holes could wrap upon itself and bud off, forming a new baby universe that is invisible to us. Such an event might signify the existence of extra dimensions beyond the three we are familiar with and might give clues to the properties of the extra dimensions.

Tiny black holes, baby universes, extra dimensions--these are my kind of people. Still, I can't help but wonder...

What if the tiny black hole doesn't fade into it's baby universe on schedule? I mean, I realize that it's tiny but it's also a BLACK HOLE. Haven't they been known to like, swallow things? Like planets? I'm just asking.

Or what if the tiny black hole drops off into its little universe on schedule, are we sure the process is through? We don't really have much of an idea as to the dynamics of relationships between universes, now do we? Is it possible that if you send something into another universe, some kind of equilibrium insists that something else comes back? Sure, it would probably be benign and, of course, "tiny" but then again... we don't really have any reason to assume either of those things. Something huge and nasty might come back. Something tiny and nasty might come back.

There are a lot of options.

Finally, have the scientists planning these tests read this book?

The scientists in this story try something equally inoccuous-sounding, but they accidentally trigger the destruction of the universe. Oops. Who knew?

Sure, it's just science fiction. But very recently, any talk of tiny black holes and baby universes would have been science fiction, too.

UPDATE: Thanks to reader Cole Kitchen for getting me straight on which Greg Egan book I was thinking about.