4 ms·

As an FYI, LIGO in Eastern Washington offers full tours of the facility inside and out for free. Was a memorable trip and included a lecture before hand. Highly

As an FYI, LIGO in Eastern Washington offers full tours of the facility inside and out for free. Was a memorable trip and included a lecture before hand. Highly recommend checking it out!

darknavi 3y ago
The Hanford nuclear site is also nearby and also does day tours. Such a cool piece of history.
- Anon4Now 3y ago
  The Goldendale Observatory is a couple hours away, as well. https://www.goldendaleobservatory.com/visit.html https://www.goldendaleobservatory.com/visit.html
dguest 3y ago
A lot of publicly funded projects give free tours. For science experiments and infrastructure this makes a lot of sense: we need to tell tax payers why we're taking their money. I'm a bit sad that it's not more widespread for a lot of critical infrastructure e.g. ferries, power plants, factories, etc: it's a great way to get people interested in engineering and big cool public projects. It's often worth asking, the reactions can vary a lot. For example taking a ferry, I like to poke around and see how everything works: - In Long Island Sound, even without going through any doors I got someone asking why I'm interested and essentially telling me there's no way in hell I could e.g. see the engine. He seemed to be 5 seconds away from calling the police. - In Stockholm the engine mechanic noticed me looking around, invited me to climb down the ladder into the engine room, and showed me how everything worked. It was one of the highlights of that trip.
- nkrisc 3y ago
  > In Long Island Sound, even without going through any doors I got someone asking why I'm interested and essentially telling me there's no way in hell I could e.g. see the engine. He seemed to be 5 seconds away from calling the police. Might have had better luck pre-9/11. > I'm a bit sad that it's not more widespread for a lot of critical infrastructure e.g. ferries, power plants, factories, etc The rationale is clear (you may debate the necessity or effectiveness): the concern is that terrorists would scout critical infrastructure before an attack.
  - dguest 3y ago
    This is the internet: I wouldn't dare debate the necessity or effectiveness of counter-terrorism measures here. But yes: The guy in Long Island said something about DHS or something and both these things happened after 2001.
- newZWhoDis 3y ago
  This is one of the hidden costs of a low-trust society.
- aqfamnzc 3y ago
  My county started offering tours of our new water treatment plant. I HIGHLY recommend doing that in your area if you get the opportunity!
TobTobXX 3y ago
So does CERN. Since 2023 they have a new visitor center, which I have yet to visit.
- mikk14 3y ago
  I have visited it in the Easter week, with my 4 year old. It's nice, but I experienced a major disappointment when visiting the immersive experience about the quantum world: they explain quantum entanglement in the wrong way! The voice-over _clearly_ says: "when two particles are entangled _they can influence each other_ no matter the distance", which is super wrong. If you have two spin entangled particles and you change the spin of one, the spin of the other does not change, there is no influence, only correlation. Maybe they intended something about the wave function collapse, but they didn't say it. If even explanations coming from CERN get this wrong, I despair for the status of science communication in general...
  - radicalbyte 3y ago
    > If you have two spin entangled particles and you change > the spin of one, the spin of the other does not change It really irks me we don't use a simple analogy for entanglement: put two balls of different colors in two boxes. Randomize the boxes. Take one of the boxes to the other side of the room then open it. You now know the colour of the ball in the other box. Only you can't implement faster-than-light communication with that so we instead mislead people..
    - synecdoche 3y ago
      What? That's simple deduction. Is it really that trivial? Am I missing something?
      - cdelsolar 3y ago
        No, that’s not quite right. You’re taking two wavefunctions that have not collapsed yet.
      - 3y ago

As an FYI, LIGO in Eastern Washington offers full tours of the facility inside and out for free. Was a memorable trip and included a lecture before hand. Highly recommend checking it out!

darknavi 3y ago

The Hanford nuclear site is also nearby and also does day tours. Such a cool piece of history.

Anon4Now 3y ago
The Goldendale Observatory is a couple hours away, as well. https://www.goldendaleobservatory.com/visit.html https://www.goldendaleobservatory.com/visit.html

dguest 3y ago

A lot of publicly funded projects give free tours. For science experiments and infrastructure this makes a lot of sense: we need to tell tax payers why we're taking their money. I'm a bit sad that it's not more widespread for a lot of critical infrastructure e.g. ferries, power plants, factories, etc: it's a great way to get people interested in engineering and big cool public projects. It's often worth asking, the reactions can vary a lot. For example taking a ferry, I like to poke around and see how everything works: - In Long Island Sound, even without going through any doors I got someone asking why I'm interested and essentially telling me there's no way in hell I could e.g. see the engine. He seemed to be 5 seconds away from calling the police. - In Stockholm the engine mechanic noticed me looking around, invited me to climb down the ladder into the engine room, and showed me how everything worked. It was one of the highlights of that trip.

nkrisc 3y ago
> In Long Island Sound, even without going through any doors I got someone asking why I'm interested and essentially telling me there's no way in hell I could e.g. see the engine. He seemed to be 5 seconds away from calling the police. Might have had better luck pre-9/11. > I'm a bit sad that it's not more widespread for a lot of critical infrastructure e.g. ferries, power plants, factories, etc The rationale is clear (you may debate the necessity or effectiveness): the concern is that terrorists would scout critical infrastructure before an attack.
- dguest 3y ago
  This is the internet: I wouldn't dare debate the necessity or effectiveness of counter-terrorism measures here. But yes: The guy in Long Island said something about DHS or something and both these things happened after 2001.
newZWhoDis 3y ago
This is one of the hidden costs of a low-trust society.
aqfamnzc 3y ago
My county started offering tours of our new water treatment plant. I HIGHLY recommend doing that in your area if you get the opportunity!

TobTobXX 3y ago

So does CERN. Since 2023 they have a new visitor center, which I have yet to visit.

mikk14 3y ago
I have visited it in the Easter week, with my 4 year old. It's nice, but I experienced a major disappointment when visiting the immersive experience about the quantum world: they explain quantum entanglement in the wrong way! The voice-over _clearly_ says: "when two particles are entangled _they can influence each other_ no matter the distance", which is super wrong. If you have two spin entangled particles and you change the spin of one, the spin of the other does not change, there is no influence, only correlation. Maybe they intended something about the wave function collapse, but they didn't say it. If even explanations coming from CERN get this wrong, I despair for the status of science communication in general...
- radicalbyte 3y ago
  > If you have two spin entangled particles and you change > the spin of one, the spin of the other does not change It really irks me we don't use a simple analogy for entanglement: put two balls of different colors in two boxes. Randomize the boxes. Take one of the boxes to the other side of the room then open it. You now know the colour of the ball in the other box. Only you can't implement faster-than-light communication with that so we instead mislead people..
  - synecdoche 3y ago
    What? That's simple deduction. Is it really that trivial? Am I missing something?
    - cdelsolar 3y ago
      No, that’s not quite right. You’re taking two wavefunctions that have not collapsed yet.
    - 3y ago