5 ms·
People can’t even tell how much cheap oil is in olive oil, let alone “extra virgin olive oil” vs. el cheapo olive oil. Take it from this old laser spectrocopis
by aj7 2y ago
People can’t even tell how much cheap oil is in olive oil, let alone “extra virgin olive oil” vs. el cheapo olive oil. Take it from this old laser spectrocopist. When there’s 75 mirror mounts on a 4 foot by 8 foot table, with a Chinese graduate student handcuffed to the table to adjust them, it’s at least a decade away. When you can buy a frequency comb laser on Aliexpress, now we’re talking.
- j45 2y agoAvailable on Aliexpress really is a solid indicator.
- kylehotchkiss 2y agoWhy did you handcuff a grad student to the table?
- generalizations 2y agoPresumably they require constant high-precision adjustment and a lot of domain knowledge. I'd read it that the only way to do it now is with a high-maintenance setup and a lot of technicians.
- khazhoux 2y agoYea, buy why handcuffs? Is it to limit range of motion when taking precision measurements?
- nartho 2y agoI believe this was a figure of speech to illustrate that the student has to stay right by the table, not that the student is actually being handcuffed
- AlecSchueler 2y agoWhy does the student need to be Chinese? And is that Chinese as in from China or Chinese as in having Chinese heritage?
- lazide 2y agoIt’s to help avoid the expensive lawsuits - they usually come pre-conditioned to not make a fuss.
- analog31 2y agoIt's like how Odysseus demanded to be tied to the mast of his ship, so he wouldn't be tempted by the Sirens. The grad student doesn't want to be tempted by the software industry offering to quintuple his salary. (Disclosure: Former physics grad student, who tended a similar optics bench).
- contingencies 2y agoTo stop them leaving academia for the private sector.
- Eduard 2y agosearching for "frequency comb laser" on Aliexpress doesn't yield fitting results currently for me. https://de.aliexpress.com/w/wholesale-frequency-comb-laser.html https://de.aliexpress.com/w/wholesale-frequency-comb-laser.h...
- gregschlom 2y agoyes, that's the point.
- naasking 2y agohttps://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43292362 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43292362