In “what do you mean you reversed the polarity on the neutron flow?” news, scientists at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory have created an atom smasher small enough to fit on an average kitchen dinette from Ikea. Wait, what?
The Berkeley Labs invention is, not surprisingly, pretty genius. They shoot powerful laser pulses through plasma, which builds up electric fields and leaves a wake of waves. Wim Leemans, who heads the project, uses a metaphor of surfing. Some of the electrons get caught in front of the waves and ride them, and then can the team can accelerate the waves behind the “surfer” to push it along faster. They also use helium to make the plasma more dense, which makes it slower at first so the surfers can catch the wave, and then they speed it up further. Shut up. You had me at surfing.
This new bite-sized atom-smasher could be used to do the same sort of fundamental physics work that the LHC and CERN does, but on a smaller scale. They can also be used as “sources of intensely bright beams of light” for investigating new materials, biological structures, and green chemistry. Or just tear open a rift in the spacetime continuum from the comfort of your own home.
Somebody really sat down and said, “this is a good idea. What could possibly go wrong?” Residents of California’s east bay had better stock up on iodine …
[Source: Gizmodo]
Does it vacuum too?
I have limited space in the kitchen, so unless it can clean up it’s own mess It’s no use to me! P^)
No, but if it performs a coolant dump it eradicated the floor 😉
We have had particle accelerators for years.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_accelerators_in_particle_physics
Without them we couldn’t have validated some of the predictions of quantum mechanics, and worked out how to make transistors.
Without transistors we couldn’t have computers or the internet, and you couldn’t be irrationally scared of science.
Wow. I don’t know which is worse in this article, the luddite fear of a technology in use for decades now (particle accelerator) or the entirely misguided comment to stock up on iodine, which can protect against radiation (which is radioactive breakdown of an element and entirely separate from work done in an accelerator)
I’m pretty sure that was a joke…