6 ms·
Not on this particle but relevant if you're interested in cosmic particles: For my son's 5th grade Science Fair project we are building a cloud chamber to detec
by Jun8 9y ago
Not on this particle but relevant if you're interested in cosmic particles: For my son's 5th grade Science Fair project we are building a cloud chamber to detect cosmic particles! As crazy as that sounds we've decided on this project after watching videos showing how ridiculously easy it is to build one, e.g. see this one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pewTySxfTQk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pewTySxfTQk. Most designs call for dry ice (cheap, ~$10 for 10 lbs but may be hard to find a local store) but you can also build one using an air duster: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QCAVlMTBMe0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QCAVlMTBMe0!
Fun fact that I've learned from him during research: humans are exposed to cosmic radiation which is on average equivalent to 10 chest x-rays per year. It would be interesting to look at the impact of this on, e.g. cancer rates among people living at sea level versus cities with high elevation, e.g. Quito in Ecuador.
- Varcht 9y agoVolume/time - pour slowly into a funnel and it works, pour too fast the funnel overflows and you get cancer. People accustomed to high altitudes likely have bigger funnels.
- IntronExon 9y agoWhat isn’t known about the relationship between exposure regimes and poor outcomes could fill the complete OED. Is it really a hormesis model? Linear No Threshold? Linear? Supra-linear? Linear-quadratic? We don’t know, and generally speaking it would be unethical to try and find out using humans.
- itp 9y agoIt would be interesting to look at the impact of this on, e.g. cancer rates among people living at sea level versus cities with high elevation, e.g. Quito in Ecuador. It is interesting, and there are some studies exploring this and related issues. The results are not always immediately intuitive! https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4113517/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4113517/ is one good place to start.
- jamesash 9y agoWas just wondering today how to build one, thank you.
- AndrewOMartin 9y agoI frequently go to Quito and the radiation you get from the sun at midday (bang on the equator, thin atmosphere) feels equivalent to about 10 chest x-rays per second. I guess that counts as cosmic radiation.
- arethuza 9y agoFun trivia: cloud chambers were invented by a Scot to investigate the formation of clouds while he was based on top of Ben Nevis (the UK's highest and possibly most cloud covered) mountain. I will remember this fact to cheer myself up next time I am on a misty Scottish mountain top!
- alphydan 9y agoLet me know if it works. I tried the "easy methods" from youtube several times and saw exactly zero particles.
- IntronExon 9y agoFun!! You should consider getting a small sample of an alpha emitter; the tracks of the little helium nuclei are very striking. Your son is a lucky young man.
- erikpukinskis 9y agoIt just occurred to me there is a relationship between children’s science fairs and the crisis of novel positive results publishing in science. It always bothered me that science fair projects were “fake science”... nothing new was observed so it wasn’t science at all. It turns out I was very wrong, and journals that only publish novel positive results and institutions that only reward them are committing a grave scientific error. If journals start publishing confirmations of previously reported experiments, then students who confirm long reported results will be doing very real science. Journals could even publish brief (two sentence) articles from students on a back page. I think it would do a lot of good.