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Normally when I see pictures of glowing green things accompanying science articles I assume someone just did an image search for "glowing green thing" and stuck

by samdk 16y ago

Normally when I see pictures of glowing green things accompanying science articles I assume someone just did an image search for "glowing green thing" and stuck it at the top of the article. In this case (as the caption in this article says), the glowing green thing is actually (part of) the device used to make the measurement. It's nice to get a reminder once in a while that science isn't just papers and publishing and long tedious experimentation. Science may not be exactly what I idealized as a kid, but there's still a place and a use for boxes filled with green lasers. And that makes a part of me very happy.

jcdreads 16y ago
When I first switched from theoretical physics to experimental physics I thought the same way as you. Now, after years of aligning green laser beams through optical paths that include microscopes and experimental matter, the sight of a green laser beam on a crowded and otherwise dark optical bench makes me unendingly (well, somewhat) glad that I quit physics entirely and became a programmer. Since 2002 those poor bastards have been pointing lasers down that same optical path! Please do not even speak of the effort that's probably required to align the beam. And let's assume that their detectors are easy to align and otherwise mostly hassle-free. But the fact that they've run such a cool experiment, and with such interesting results, makes me very happy, too. [Edit: added this:] Good lord, I didn't even think of the cyclotron, curved separator with its tuned magnetic field, the whole damn thing under vacuum, the hand-rolled lasers. No wonder so many authors.
hugh3 16y ago
The secret of photographing experimental equipment is that anything can be made to look far more exciting with coloured lights. That equipment viewed under ordinary lab lighting would look incredibly dull.

by samdk 16y ago

jcdreads 16y ago

When I first switched from theoretical physics to experimental physics I thought the same way as you. Now, after years of aligning green laser beams through optical paths that include microscopes and experimental matter, the sight of a green laser beam on a crowded and otherwise dark optical bench makes me unendingly (well, somewhat) glad that I quit physics entirely and became a programmer. Since 2002 those poor bastards have been pointing lasers down that same optical path! Please do not even speak of the effort that's probably required to align the beam. And let's assume that their detectors are easy to align and otherwise mostly hassle-free. But the fact that they've run such a cool experiment, and with such interesting results, makes me very happy, too. [Edit: added this:] Good lord, I didn't even think of the cyclotron, curved separator with its tuned magnetic field, the whole damn thing under vacuum, the hand-rolled lasers. No wonder so many authors.

hugh3 16y ago

The secret of photographing experimental equipment is that anything can be made to look far more exciting with coloured lights. That equipment viewed under ordinary lab lighting would look incredibly dull.