IceCube Neutrino Telescope

AMANDA writes: "Ice Cube is a neutrino telescope located at the south pole. It has just received the congressional support for $15 million dollars from the NSF. It will be the largest scientific instrument in the world. It promises a view into the most energetic phenomena in the universe." The idea is to use a cubic kilometer of Antarctic ice as a detector. Impressive.

Comments

Re:Useless fact [offtopic?]

[tonyc.com]

Do the math before you scoff. The average human weight is 542.7 N (122 pounds), isn't it? That implies an average mass of 55.3 kg. Assuming an average density around 1 g/cm (since some folks float in water and some sink), that'd give an average human volume of around 55.3 liters, or 0.0553 m.

Now, divide a cubic kilometer of ice by the current population of the world, and you get about 0.161 m per person. So only about one third of that cubic kilometer would be occupied by human mass.

Of course, I'm sure no one would assume that they'd fit comfortably, and I'm also pretty sure that the original poster was not suggesting this as a standard for public housing, so let's all make like neutrino astronomers and chill out.

Re:Useless fact [offtopic?]

[Anonymous Coward]

average American

But...

[snilloc]

... will it come with a parental advisory sticker?

Ice Cube is one bad*ss mutha... - shut yo mouth.

Rappers Contributions to Physics Recognized!

[Nova Express]

It's good to see that Ice Cube's decision to turn himself into a neutrino detector is finally bringing recognition to the vital role rappers have played in cutting edge astrophysics over the last few years. But where are the equally important mentions of:

Ice T's decision to turn himself into phased sub-boson colission chamber?

Snoop Doggy Dog's work as a superstring detector?

The Beastie Boys' turning themselves into a distributed gamma ray burster radio observatory?

The Notorious BIG's role as a high energy muon accelerator that ultimately resulted in his untimely death?

And needless to say, what Slashdot reader could be ignorant of the tremendous theoretical work that MC Hawking has done?

It's high time these rapper/physicist's contributions to society were recognized!