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Table-top Particle Accelerator Created

Posted by samzenpus on from the what-could-go-wrong dept.

holy_calamity writes "French physicists have built a desktop particle accelerator. It uses a pair of laser beams to precisely control the acceleration of electrons within a plasma. It has the power of a device that usually takes up a whole room and could lead to new medical treatments. They don't mention the potential for experiments like 'what happens if I put my lunch in front of a 300 megaelectronvolt beam?'"

18 of 55 comments (clear)

  1. Eat Banana by neurostar · · Score: 2, Informative

    'what happens if I put my lunch in front of a 300 megaelectronvolt beam?'

    Nothing you can see, because that's ~ 4e-11 J.

    1. Re:Eat Banana by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Not quite, you forgot the flux. 300MeV is the energy per electron so you meant ~4e-11 J/electron. I did not RTFA, but I'm guessing the accelerator produced more than one electron. Also, don't forget, luminosity is also an important way to factor the problem --- electrons/area/sec. That being said, I'd be more concerned about the safety of the lasers they must be using to pump the system.

  2. Mmm.. by Rob+T+Firefly · · Score: 3, Funny

    Lunch is all well and good, but I'm still waiting for an investigation into the device's popcorn-popping capabilities.

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    Slashdot Burying Stories About Slashdot Media Owned
  3. Re:Been around for years by holy_calamity · · Score: 3, Insightful

    No it hasn't. That's why the French team's work has appeared in the top journal Nature this week. The editor has written a freely accessible summary with links to the research article. The first paragraph of that is freely available.

  4. Time to market? by jimstapleton · · Score: 4, Funny

    I can see it now...

    Boss: "What is that on your desk?"
    Me: "A particle accelerator."
    Boss: "OK, next question... Why?"
    Me: "Because I can."

    --
    34486853790
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  5. Important safety tip... by Etcetera · · Score: 2, Funny


    They don't mention the potential for experiments like 'what happens if I put my lunch in front of a 300 megaelectronvolt beam?'

    Whatever you do, don't cross the streams!

    --
    Hire a Linux system administrator, systems engineer,
  6. Christmas List? by bepolite · · Score: 2, Funny

    Please Santa can I have a Particle Accelerator? I've been good!

    --
    Always be polite.
  7. Re:Been around for years by hal2814 · · Score: 3, Funny

    Really. These guys used to strap them on like backpacks when they went to work everyday.

  8. Done before by j00r0m4nc3r · · Score: 3, Funny

    This has been done already, just with really really really big desktops.

  9. cooking at CERN by joejor · · Score: 2, Funny
    Perhaps they can follow up on high energy culinary research, as previously documented in
    Zryd A., Liechti T., Wagnière J.D. (1995). The laser cheese raclette, Annals of Improbable Research, 1, 3, 12-15.
  10. Re:Been around for years by inviolet · · Score: 3, Funny

    "You know, it just occurred to me, we've never had a completely successful test of this equipment."
    "I blame myself."
    "So do I."
    "Well, no sense worrying about it now. Switch me on."

    --
    FATMOUSE + YOU = FATMOUSE
  11. Chocolate bar by coyote-san · · Score: 2, Informative

    http://cultureofchemistry.blogspot.com/2005/11/rad ar-and-chocolate-bar.html

    And don't use the term 'egghead'. It's origin is Nazi brown-shirts referring to how the skulls of intellectuals shatter when they hit the ground. (Or something equally violent.) We have enough anti-intellectualism in this country already.

    --
    For every complex problem there is an answer that is clear, simple, and wrong. -- H L Mencken
  12. Re:Been around for years by slashkitty · · Score: 3, Interesting

    In fact, you probably have a table top particle accelerator in your house. http://science.howstuffworks.com/atom-smasher2.htm Yes, a CRT is also considered a particle accelerator!

    --
    -- these are only opinions and they might not be mine.
  13. Not quite by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    300 MeV may be 4e-11 J, but that's not the relevant figure. 300 MeV refers to the energy of a single electron in the beam. The beam itself, however, contains many, many electrons, not to mention the energy in the lasers and plasma producing the beam.

  14. Re:They're not stupid by darkonc · · Score: 2, Informative
    A 300MEV beam signifies the energy of individual particles. Such a beam might have an very low intensity, or could be strong enough to be used as a weapon (that's a function of both wattage and diameter). A particle beam can cause either chemical or atomic changes in your lunch (i.e. it could conceivably make it radioactive).

    A laser beam is only going to cook/burn your lunch.

    Isn't that about the same a front beam laser?
    --
    Sometimes boldness is in fashion. Sometimes only the brave will be bold.
  15. Sounds familiar by plopez · · Score: 3, Funny

    like every software project I took part in.

    --
    putting the 'B' in LGBTQ+
  16. Re:They're not stupid by Sangui5 · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Don't forget all of the other stuff you get from spalling, like high energy X-rays. Actually, at 300MeV, I'd wager on getting a fairly decent gamma ray beam. Without a purpose built collimator, I'd guess that there'd be a good amount of "spray" all over the place. So you'd probably get a hole in a radioactive sandwich, plus a good dose of radiation just for standing nearby. Yes, a healthy dose life-giving radiation.

    Remember, the Therac-25 system was quite lethal when it malfunctioned, and it "only" used a 25 MeV beam. 300MeV is a LOT of punch per particle, and if the intensity is high enough all sorts of nasty things will happen.

  17. Re:They're not stupid by Sangui5 · · Score: 2, Informative

    When it hits the sandwich.