The Man Who Stuck His Head Inside a Particle Accelerator

http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/5.12/science.html

by hhm • 18 years ago

24 10 18 years ago

jmah• 18 years ago

FTA: "though we don't know of anyone else who has been exposed to radiation in the form of a proton beam moving at about the speed of sound"

Do they mean "speed of light"?

michaelneale• 18 years ago

hmm.. yes. Otherwise it wouldn't be that different to shooting a jet of hydrogen from a tank at someones head (assuming some would be stripped of their electrons on the way out the tank !).

mhb• 18 years ago

Note to self: "Keep head out of proton beam".

josefresco• 18 years ago

Note to self: "Keep self out of Soviet Russia".

timr• 18 years ago

"Do not look into proton beam with remaining eye."

compay• 18 years ago

Isn't this old news?

http://tinyurl.com/2dr69e

phaedrus• 18 years ago

I would have thought the chamber these beams travel through would have to be kept at vacuum to work -?

RK2• 18 years ago

They don't really provide details, but generally yes. If you have achieved your desired energy, you might then want to irradiate something in air (remember some of this was used in weapons research). So he could have stuck his head in front of the beam exit, or they might have pulled apart a section of the accelerator, sealed it off, but for some reason the beam was still run and the beam simply passed through the seal.

I'm guessing that he was probably working on one of the beam dumps (not the main accelerating ring), which meant that the beam could have already been accelerated many times around the synchrotron.

RK2• 18 years ago

If anyone is interested in sticking their head in a proton beam, you could try proton therapy. Like most things, the dose makes the poison.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proton_therapy

opal• 18 years ago

I guess he got bored with the pickle slicer.

The Man Who Stuck His Head Inside a Particle Accelerator

Related Stories