4 ms·

Would the LHC blow up your hand? I do the math.

65 points by sbierwagen 16y ago

ugh 16y ago
Da steh’ ich nun, ich armer Thor! Und bin so klug als wie zuvor.
- KoZeN 16y ago
  I take it you didn't read the whole article then? But while losing your life is in question, you would most definitely lose the hand.
  - ugh 16y ago
    That’s what it says but that conclusion doesn’t feel any more solid to me than all those in the video.
    - robryan 16y ago
      Thus confirming that it's actually quiet a difficult problem, important given that quiet a few in the comments on the video suggested they should have definitely knew thing kind of thing off the cuff.
ck2 16y ago
No need for theories when sadly there is real-world data: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anatoli_Bugorski#Particle_accelerator_accident http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anatoli_Bugorski#Particle_accel...
- sbierwagen 16y ago
  The U-70 did, iirc, 70 GeV. A bit under a hundred times less energy per proton, and with an unknown number number of total protons. (Technical data is a bit light on the ground for a 50 year old Soviet particle accelerator.)
- revjx 16y ago
  That's incredible, poor guy. It doesn't sound like he got a great deal of compensation, either - I'd be fairly hacked off if my face was half-melted off because of someone else's / a machine's incompetence.
  - Tichy 16y ago
    He doesn't look very happy in those pictures. A reminder that all sorts of weird stuff can go wrong in life :-(
- Swizec 16y ago
  He is able to function perfectly well, except for the fact that he has occasional complex partial seizures and rare tonic-clonic seizures. How the hell is that perfectly well!? Sounds like something out of a Monty Python sketch ... oh just some small seizures, but he's fine really. It's perfectly safe to stick your head in a proton beam kids. Perfectly safe. Really interesting though, I was under the impression the beams needed a very strong magnetic field to remain stable. How come he was able to stick his head in one?
  - mseebach 16y ago
    It says "except". Except when he's having his occasional or rare seisures, he's functioning perfectly well. Which is pretty good, since the initial medical reaction was to watch him die.
    - pavel_lishin 16y ago
      Right. This is on par with Phineas Gage - considering that they both had something ridiculous pierce their brain, and shouldn't have expected to survive, they both did pretty okay.
- acqq 16y ago
  More, with pictures, Russian but you can use Google Translate: Personal Chernobyl Of Analtoli Bugorski http://www.liveinternet.ru/users/gdobserver/post132042939/ http://www.liveinternet.ru/users/gdobserver/post132042939/
ody 16y ago
Great stuff, I watched the sixty symbols video only yesterday, which is here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_NMqPT6oKJ8 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_NMqPT6oKJ8 for anyone that may be interested.
lutorm 16y ago
The question is somewhat complicated by the fact that to reach the beam, you have to be in vacuum...
jacquesm 16y ago
Lots of comments on this subject in this thread: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1725592 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1725592
Luyt 16y ago
Maybe related are 'criticality accidents', where by accident a critical mass is reached (either by bringing two masses of fissile material together, or by enclosing a fissile mass by a neutron reflector), and someone gets a high dose of radiation, often with lethal result. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criticality_accident http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criticality_accident or http://www-pub.iaea.org/MTCD/publications/PDF/Pub1106_scr.pdf http://www-pub.iaea.org/MTCD/publications/PDF/Pub1106_scr.pd... for a report about the accident in Sarov, where a physicist lost his life.

65 points by sbierwagen 16y ago

ugh 16y ago

Da steh’ ich nun, ich armer Thor! Und bin so klug als wie zuvor.

KoZeN 16y ago
I take it you didn't read the whole article then? But while losing your life is in question, you would most definitely lose the hand.
- ugh 16y ago
  That’s what it says but that conclusion doesn’t feel any more solid to me than all those in the video.
  - robryan 16y ago
    Thus confirming that it's actually quiet a difficult problem, important given that quiet a few in the comments on the video suggested they should have definitely knew thing kind of thing off the cuff.

ck2 16y ago

No need for theories when sadly there is real-world data: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anatoli_Bugorski#Particle_accelerator_accident http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anatoli_Bugorski#Particle_accel...

sbierwagen 16y ago
The U-70 did, iirc, 70 GeV. A bit under a hundred times less energy per proton, and with an unknown number number of total protons. (Technical data is a bit light on the ground for a 50 year old Soviet particle accelerator.)
revjx 16y ago
That's incredible, poor guy. It doesn't sound like he got a great deal of compensation, either - I'd be fairly hacked off if my face was half-melted off because of someone else's / a machine's incompetence.
- Tichy 16y ago
  He doesn't look very happy in those pictures. A reminder that all sorts of weird stuff can go wrong in life :-(
Swizec 16y ago
He is able to function perfectly well, except for the fact that he has occasional complex partial seizures and rare tonic-clonic seizures. How the hell is that perfectly well!? Sounds like something out of a Monty Python sketch ... oh just some small seizures, but he's fine really. It's perfectly safe to stick your head in a proton beam kids. Perfectly safe. Really interesting though, I was under the impression the beams needed a very strong magnetic field to remain stable. How come he was able to stick his head in one?
- mseebach 16y ago
  It says "except". Except when he's having his occasional or rare seisures, he's functioning perfectly well. Which is pretty good, since the initial medical reaction was to watch him die.
  - pavel_lishin 16y ago
    Right. This is on par with Phineas Gage - considering that they both had something ridiculous pierce their brain, and shouldn't have expected to survive, they both did pretty okay.
acqq 16y ago
More, with pictures, Russian but you can use Google Translate: Personal Chernobyl Of Analtoli Bugorski http://www.liveinternet.ru/users/gdobserver/post132042939/ http://www.liveinternet.ru/users/gdobserver/post132042939/

ody 16y ago

Great stuff, I watched the sixty symbols video only yesterday, which is here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_NMqPT6oKJ8 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_NMqPT6oKJ8 for anyone that may be interested.

lutorm 16y ago

The question is somewhat complicated by the fact that to reach the beam, you have to be in vacuum...

jacquesm 16y ago

Lots of comments on this subject in this thread: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1725592 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1725592

Luyt 16y ago

Maybe related are 'criticality accidents', where by accident a critical mass is reached (either by bringing two masses of fissile material together, or by enclosing a fissile mass by a neutron reflector), and someone gets a high dose of radiation, often with lethal result. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criticality_accident http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criticality_accident or http://www-pub.iaea.org/MTCD/publications/PDF/Pub1106_scr.pdf http://www-pub.iaea.org/MTCD/publications/PDF/Pub1106_scr.pd... for a report about the accident in Sarov, where a physicist lost his life.