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Fastest Waves Ever Photographed
starfoot writes, "Pictures of the fastest waves ever photographed, traveling at 99.997% of the speed of light, were presented today at the APS Division of Plasma Physics meeting in Philadelphia. The waves were formed in the wake of an intense laser pulse passing through a plasma of electrons and ionized atoms. The waves create enormous electric fields (over 100 billion electron volts/meter), which can be used to rapidly accelerate charged particles to high energies in the span of a few meters. The pictures will help scientists better understand wakefield interactions — an important factor in their quest to replace machines that accelerate particles over the course of miles with compact, tabletop versions. High energy particle accelerators are vital for cutting edge physics and many types of medical therapy, and miniaturizing them would be a boon for both basic physics research and medicine."
I bet it was just photoshopped. Gimme ten minutes, and I can give you a wave doing 99.999% of the speed of light.
Apology to Ubuntu forum.
You lose.
do they run Linux?
sorry.
Beware of the Leopard.
Thats hot.
"I use a Mac because I'm just better than you are."
can I lick womans feet?
It's been forever since I had particle physics, so I've forgotten the distinction between electron volts and plain old volts. Instinct is telling me that electron volts are units of energy. I do know that electric fields are measured in volts per meter (V/m). So, did the OP get the wrong units, or was there something else besides an electric field?
They run from all operating systems.
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Managment won't care until they get to 99.999%.
What's with this same lame copypasta getting posted on a bunch of stories?
do the wave...
Dead serious, I know there's a difference here between my family photo album and the pretty graph thing FTFA, could someone explain to me why photographing LIGHT doesn't count here?
The heavens do not fall for such a trifle.
They only used a 100 speed film and the picture came out real blurry.
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If you made instant coffee in the microwave, would you go back in time?
let me guess, you refresh slashdot at relativistic speeds.
There's currently no way to take a snapshot of a single photon in motion and produce an image out of it. An ordinary photograph captures the effect of many millions of them impacting a chemical, so that's not really the same
Hubble telescope pictures consist of photographing waves travelling at 100% of the speed of light in vacuum by definition!
For the pedants technically your own photographs generally don't count because the refractive index of air (1.0008) actually means that light waves in air will only travel at 99.92% of the speed of light in vacuum.
Where's my surfboard? I gotta go try them out ... whoo boy, what a ride it'll be!
Wow man......surf's up, man. Fast waves? I'm in! Time to hit the beach!
The reason this is so awesome is that scientists can apply this to nanotechnology -- actually, the prefix "nano" is not small enough. After all, everything moves in waves, but these waves are only noticeable on a small enough scale. On this scale, electric energy is so much more important than gravity. The fact that this energy is electric and not physical means that, instead of bumping atoms around continuous for a month, something might happen sooner. The fact that it's been proven done might help with something, like (for example) supplying a power source. The question is, "How easy is it to synthesize this phenomenon, and is it worth it?"
What excites me most is the fact that Are we still afraid of put explosives into our chemistry kits for fear that kids might get hurt? Just like how, around Sputnik time, the US gov't tried to make all of the children in its public education system little scientists of future, it is (seriously) important to get kids interested in science, math, and academic pursuit at a young age. Can a little kid read the KJ version of the Bible at 4 years old, as was done in days of yore?
It would be a good thing that, with this increased technology, scientists would try to give nuclear chemistry to the public and make atomic physics more tangible. There was an ambitious project some time ago that wanted to create a huge electromagnetic field somewhere in Texas. It was shut down because the US gov't saw no use of it. If this technology can do something as simple as power a light bulb, the public will notice. No one cares if Element 118 is created in a matter of seconds instead of across the span of a week, but if people can actually see something, this is better for science in general. (So long as John Galt doesn't get angry.)
.. don't you think this involves spending a huge amount of money on matters that bear not too much relevance to our daily lives? Academic progress is one thing, but actually helping improve our lives is another. I don't see the added benefit of studying such interactions and building particle accelerators which cost a bomb, or miniaturizing them, which would cost even bigger a bomb.
Usability Engineer, Master in Human Computer Interaction
Thats almost as fast as MS new security breaches!
When can I go for a ride in the particle accelerator?
Website Just Down For Me? Find out
That laser was burning at a full 30 terawatts. Fit THAT on a desktop. Please.
Jiggly watts to warp speed - anyone know the conversion?
I thought it was a good idea
Every photograph is, by definition, a photograph of light waves ("photo"="light"), which, by definition, go at 100% the speed of light.
Want a high quality FOSS RTS game? Try Warzone 2100!
o/
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/ \
This is me waving so fast my arm looks stationary
Do not try to read the dupe, thats impossible. Instead, only try to realize the truth
What truth?
There is no dupe
The phase velocity of a wave is meaningless. It's the group velocity that counts.
many types of medical therapy
Hey, so I understand the applications in Physics of desktop particle accelerators, but what kinds of medical therapy use particle accelerators? Wikipedia suggests creating rare "proton-heavy" isotopes, but I'm having trouble finding more about what kinds of "killer apps" (pun intended) would be enabled if there were cheap desktop particle accelerators. Someone in med school?
I'm a bit of a laymen, the huge stadium sized accelerator uses some kind of giant magnetic field to propel a particle and split atoms at the other end right?
:)
Why do we do this again? Just to detect the junk that's emitted from the destroyed atom? Why do hospitals need a tabletop accelerator?
Thanks for filling me in
Surely we could hook up half a dozen of theses accelerator things to the bottom of a round ... er ... 'UFO like' structure and really get some movement going.
My dad pratically fell on top of a tiger shark when we were out fishing once, and the waves were, well, nevermind.
I never get a chance to work that story into anything...
Positron Emmision Tomography. AKA a PET scan. It's like an MRI on steroids. Helps them find all sorts of broken/excess bits in that big bag o' meat called a patient. The things are really useful, really really big, and really really really expensive. Make them smaller and, well, they'll be smaller, probably still really really expensive. This is the health care industry we're talking about.
1.21 JIGAWATTS!?!?
Now, to create the world's fastest surfboard :-)
In my next incarnation, I hope to come back as a code monkey.
I measured these but I can't make up my mind if they're a particle or a wave.
These posts express my own personal views, not those of my employer
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Hospitals use accelerators to make various isotopes, that are then injected and imaged.
"A language that doesn't affect the way you think about programming, is not worth knowing" - Alan Perlis
...enormous electric fields (over 100 billion electron volts/meter)...
I think normal matter like the iron my Toyota is made from has the same field strenght near the nucleus. Anything less, and the car would fall apart. Not sure what is so enourmous about it.
don't cut it off www.mgmbill.org
+-----------+
| _ 5MPH__ |
| No Wake_|
+----+-----+
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~~~~~~~~~~~~
The harbor master isn't going to like this one.
--
BMO
A few thousand of these running in parallel may offer methods for creating meaningful amounts of antimatter.
You kids and your new-fangled sub-light speed waves.
Get offa my lawn!
It must have been something you assimilated. . . .
I have be capturing light waves at 100% for years with my digi cam.
``Pictures of the fastest waves ever photographed, traveling at 99.997% of the speed of light ...''
Rafting is recommended to experienced rafters only.
Please correct me if I got my facts wrong.
proton accelerators can be used to treat cancer
The light in photographs is (usually) the average power falling on an element, be it a CCD chip or a piece of silver halide salt in emulsion which interacts with the incident radiation over the timescale of many wavelengths. What these researchers are doing is "photographing" the individual wavefronts of a matter wave, rather than just the intensity information. Spatially resolving the so-called phase information of such a wave is no mean feat and is an area of current research in optics. Wakefields are a very cool plasma phenomenon in themselves, propagating with velocity near vacuum light speed in a medium. As user Gracenotes pointed out, the applications of wakefields can, due their very high electric fields, have potential for particle acceleration experiments. Especially so in hospitals where creating short-lived isotopes for procedures like positron emission tomography are desirable in ever smaller and ever more efficient machines. And don't get me started on a 30 TW laser. Frickin huge.....
Pfft. I've got tons of pictures of light waves traveling at 100% the speed of light.
What might I want to do with a tabletop particle accelerator?
finally ghostbuster technology for the masses
If you type "10^11 eV / meter in lb" into a google box, you get (10^11) (eV / meter) = 3.60183597 × 10^-9 pound force
Haven't you people ever watched Ghostbusters?
-x- Sorry my bad English. I'll have him tarred and feathered. -x-
This technology will, when refined, allow us can use laser energy to accelerate particles greatly? How about something with a bigger mass, like say, a spaceship? Heinlein was right - the only way we will get into space efficiently is where there is a profit motive. Otherwise, scientists just gaze at their own navels.
OK, I look ed at the article, but I didn't see any photographs.
Just some cartoon.
Also, what's up with slashdot? I typed the word at the bottom with the lines
running through it but it kept not accepting it. I typed it correctly.
Advances in medicine huh? Let's see... Desktop particle accelerator + "medicinal" marijuana = Hello grad school.
High energy particle accelerators are vital for cutting edge physics and many types of medical therapy, and miniaturizing them would be a boon for both basic physics research and medicine.
What? No mention of use as weapons?
But back towards the topic, the *really* cool (and certainly more evil sounding) physics won't begin to emerge until the development of exawatt lasers. At this point it may be possible to literally BOIL the vacuum with light. I don't know if this would enable you to break a hole into a hell dimension, but it certainly sounds plausible, doesn't it? Someone should alert Michael Crichton!
http://www.aps.org/meet/DPP06/baps/loader.cfm?url= /commonspot/security/getfile.cfm&PageID=78234
I don't know if this would enable you to break a hole into a hell dimension, but it certainly sounds plausible,
Uh oh.... I smell a DOOM sequel...
Oh god, that woman is John Romero!
Electron volt is a ùass unit. An electric field is measured in volt/meter. That "electron" word has to be a typo from someone with a very limited understanding of physics.
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> wakefield interactions
When I was 25, I had a wonderful Wakefield, MA, interaction with a 32 year old blonde, big-lipped divorcee. She was even named "Debbie".
(-1: Post disagrees with my already-settled worldview) is not a valid mod option.
I had an AVM "operated" on by one of these partical accelerators two years ago. It was so deep in my brain that there was no way traditional surgical procedures could be used, and it would have eventually killed me. But by strapping me into the particle accelerator the surgeons were able to seal the AVM and stop blood leaking into my brain.
The only downside is it takes a lot longer to get drunk now since blood doesn't leak directly into my brain anymore...
Anyway, just a personal view of how these technologies can help.
Ahhh, yes, the power of a photon torpedo delivered at near light speed to the unsuspecting target. . .
I wonder what the strength of a wakefield's interaction with say, the skin of a missile, would be.
Ok, where are the photos?
Who would win this election: Andrew Weiner vs Andrew Weiner's weiner.
Could we set these devices to stun? That'd be a "killer app", no? Vince
I want me one of those tabletop accelerators for my shop, oh and a tabletop nuclear fusion reactor would be nice too.
LASERGUNPEWPEWPEW
Ok, ok, but in all seriousness: if this will allow for particle accelerator research in a compact and affordable package, what would a particle accelerator, built on the scale of CERN but with this technology, be able to do?
Great, I'll fetch my board.
ECSC, here I come!
Defining Statistics and Social Research
The waves create enormous electric fields (over 100 billion electron volts/meter).
Could these (i assume) elertrons/electric charges be harnessed in some way?
over 100 billion electron volts/meter
How many volts per hour is that? I know that household electricity goes at 110 volts an hour, which is fast enough to kill you.
I see some nice graphics, but nothing even vaguely resembling a photo. Am I missing something?
Actually this is annoyingly common. A photo, be it grainy or blurred or whatever, is so much more impressive and real than any simulated, photoshopped "this is what it looks like" fake. eg. the grainy, blurred moon landing images are vastly more impressive than any of the the numerous "this is what we imagine our satellite looked like passing planet x" images nasa has put out over the years.
Out of curiosity, does anyone know how particle accelators are used in medine? It sounds interesting.
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