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Canadian Researchers Create Supernova In-lab

Posted by chrisd on from the again-canada-shows-us-the-way dept.

Erebus42 writes "Canada has done something neat. Apparently researchers at the University of British Columbia have created supernova in their ISAC (Isotope Seperator and Accelerator), transmuting sodium 21 into magnesium 22. Spiffy."

3 of 308 comments (clear)

  1. Could you please just shut up? by nanojath · · Score: 5, Insightful
    They didn't make a "portable supernova." They created situations where radioactive isotopes were generated at accelerations comparable to those in a supernova, allowing them to make real observations of situation analogous to those occuring in a supernova. We call this science.


    It will never cease to amaze me that there is this army of trolls just lying in wait to come up with the stupidest, most knee-jerk, ignorant and uninformed comment on damn near anything withing moments of its appearance. There's almost a sort of genius to it...


    Unfortunately it's a really stupid, useless sort of genius.

    --

    It Is the Nature of Information to Transgress Artificial Boundaries

  2. Not to give away my age too much... by aquisgrana · · Score: 2, Insightful
    ...But I can remember people saying things like this about the laser. It was called "a solution looking for an application."

    The better we understand how the universe works, the closer we get to that hyperdrive.

    Also this shows that the same physics applies here as applies many light years away. That might seem like an obvious assumption to make, but it is good to confirm these things.

  3. Why is a proton beam like a nova? by rdmiller3 · · Score: 4, Insightful
    To transmute Na(11,21) into Mg(12,22), you just add a proton, ...which I imagine is bound to happen if you blast a solid sample of Sodium-21 with a high-enough energy proton beam for long enough. Well, duh!

    I guess I'm not catching the real significance of this "achievement". What was the theory? What was this experiment attempting to prove or disprove? Were they just showing off how fast they could accellerate protons??

    Proclaiming that their proton beam somehow creates a miniature nova seems like a ploy to attract attention (and funding, of course).