

The Man Who Stuck His Head Inside a Particle Accelerator - hhm
http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/5.12/science.html

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

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RK
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.

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jmah
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"?

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michaelneale
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 !).

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RK
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>

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

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

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opal
I guess he got bored with the pickle slicer.

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compay
Isn't this old news?

<http://tinyurl.com/2dr69e>

