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Tour of the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on from the straight-and-narrow dept.

Thomas Hawk writes "Last month Robert Scoble and I were able to do a video/photo shoot of the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center (SLAC) with SLAC Emeritus Bebo White. SLAC is both the longest and straightest building in the world and is the home of three Nobel Prizes in physics. There is also a video tour available; part one and part two."

73 of 98 comments (clear)

  1. Hardcore geek humor by pestie · · Score: 2, Funny

    "SLACware" jokes in 3... 2... 1...

    1. Re:Hardcore geek humor by croddy · · Score: 1

      Sure, but have you heard the song?

  2. Longest building in the world? by ScentCone · · Score: 5, Funny

    Maybe it is. But I think that the time I had to pull several thousand feet of CAT5 through an old retail building that was constructed entirely of:

    1) Rat feces

    2) Razor-wire-lined plaster/lathe ceilings

    3) Meter-thick sedimentary deposits of cigarette smoke

    4) Did I mention rat feces?

    ... well, that sure seemed like the longest building in the world. We actually had places where we used a crossbow and fishing line.

    --
    Don't disappoint your bird dog. Go to the range.
    1. Re:Longest building in the world? by MyLongNickName · · Score: 2, Informative

      A wall is not a building.

      --
      See my journal for slashdot ID's by year. Mine created in 2005. http://slashdot.org/journal/289875/slashdot-ids-by-year
    2. Re:Longest building in the world? by Intron · · Score: 1

      RC cars can be good, too.

      --
      Intron: the portion of DNA which expresses nothing useful.
    3. Re:Longest building in the world? by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

      It's all about radio-controlled tanks. It's a lot easier to get them unstuck without pulling them back towards you. You can typically pick up a decent model at radio shack. I like the crossbow idea, though.

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    4. Re:Longest building in the world? by metlin · · Score: 1

      Wallist!

      Humph.

    5. Re:Longest building in the world? by MyLongNickName · · Score: 1

      Wouldn't that make me a "structurist"?

      --
      See my journal for slashdot ID's by year. Mine created in 2005. http://slashdot.org/journal/289875/slashdot-ids-by-year
    6. Re:Longest building in the world? by dwater · · Score: 1

      How about CERN's SPS? Wikipedia says it's 2km in diameter, which would make it 2PI km long ~= 6km. That's close to twice as long as SLAC.

      OK, so it can't claim to be the straightest, but if SLAC is going to claim the straightest title, then it should also qualify it's longest claim as 'longest straight building'.

      Also, I'd like to take this opportunity to say that I think the claim that the great wall of china is not a building to be complete bollocks.

      --
      Max.
    7. Re:Longest building in the world? by dwater · · Score: 1

      > Also, I'd like to take this opportunity to say that I think the claim that the great wall of china is not a building to be complete bollocks.

      I might add, there are many places along the great wall that indeed were intended for permanent human occupancy - probably soldiers, of course, but they're still human.

      I still think the wikipedia definition is bollocks though.

      --
      Max.
    8. Re:Longest building in the world? by Loudog · · Score: 3, Interesting

      I worked at SLAC for more than 6 years, night shift in the accelerator maintenance. It's not the rat droppings, it's the black widows you need to watch for. I once killed more than 20 of them -- and that was in one sector (100m), on one task (ranging). And that's only the ones that were in my way.

      I still miss the place, but like my current job better.

      -- Loudog
      -- Listening to the song of the klystrons

  3. Question by MyLongNickName · · Score: 4, Interesting

    "Straightest building". Does this mean that the building is constructed to take into account the curvature of the earth? Granted this would only be less than half a meter (if I did the math right), but would seem to be important in this sensitive of a project.

    --
    See my journal for slashdot ID's by year. Mine created in 2005. http://slashdot.org/journal/289875/slashdot-ids-by-year
    1. Re:Question by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

      No. It just means fewest mac users.

    2. Re:Question by Emnar · · Score: 2, Informative

      Yes, the building itself does curve with the surface. I have been in it, and if you kneel down on one end you can see the earth's curve looking toward the other end (when there isn't something in the aisle on either side of the cyclotrons).

    3. Re:Question by oliverthered · · Score: 1

      I think it would only have to take account of the gravity of the earth

      --
      thank God the internet isn't a human right.
    4. Re:Question by marked23 · · Score: 2, Insightful

      I'm no physicist, but I think in order to "be straight" it must follow the curve of earth's gravitational field. Not sure if I understand that correctly, but if physicists say that an orbit is a straight line through space/time (in a sense), then it follows that a straight line inside a planetary gravitational field would have a curve to it.

    5. Re:Question by The+Great+Pretender · · Score: 1

      Am I the only one who found this funny?

      --
      A positive attitude may not solve all your problems, but it will annoy enough people to make it worth the effort.
    6. Re:Question by mustafap · · Score: 1


      >Am I the only one who found this funny?

      No, you are the only one who dared say :o)

      --
      Open Source Drum Kit, LPLC deve board - mjhdesigns.com
    7. Re:Question by ortholattice · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Not sure if I understand that correctly, but if physicists say that an orbit is a straight line through space/time (in a sense), then it follows that a straight line inside a planetary gravitational field would have a curve to it.

      The curve you are talking about is the path that a light beam would follow, not the curvature of the earth. Otherwise, the earth would look flat to someone on the surface, and of course it doesn't, since ships, etc. disappear over the horizon.

      That said, I don't understand why the building would follow the curvature of the earth, if what the other poster above who visited there is correct. Could it just be for practical building construction reasons, so that you can wash the floors without the water running downhill to the center? The high-speed particles in the accelerator are going to be affected negligibly by gravity and certainly will not follow the curvature of the earth. Perhaps the accelerator itself is offset at each end compared to the middle?

    8. Re:Question by PYves · · Score: 1

      Imagine if they didn't take it into account, it'd be the most high-tech see-saw ever.

    9. Re:Question by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

      Yes. The actual accelerator (like all currently built) is truly straight so the distance between the floor of the klystron gallery (the long building on the surface) and beam pipe beneath varies. As someone else mentioned the variation is negligible (from an engineering perspective).

      In contrast, the International Linear Collider, which will be tens of kilometres long, will curve to follow the surface of the earth, since it is long enough that it would create engineering problems to try and go in a straight line - you wouldn't be able to just follow a layer of tunnel-able rock, for example.

    10. Re:Question by athena_wiles · · Score: 2, Informative

      I think SLAC actually does NOT follow the curvature of the earth. I remember touring it as a fifth grader and being rather amazed when they told us that you can get on rollerblades at one end & have gravity pull you (albeit very slowly) toward the middle.

      Also, as one of the previous posters noted, if you have electrons going at relativistic speeds and you force them to curve to match the curvature of the earth, you're essentially going to be creating a sort of a syncrotron radiation source (SLAC does have one of these, but it's not in the main accelerator), and that energy loss isn't advantageous for the sorts of high-energy physics experiments they try to conduct in this accelerator.

    11. Re:Question by langeveld · · Score: 1

      Yes, the accelerator really is straight in that sense. My back of the envelope calculation says it's about 20 cm deeper in the center than at the start and end. I'm not really sure if the floor of the building is that straight, though, and it doesn't really have to be - it would be really hard to make that happen in a single pour of concrete (according to my info they did in fact pour the entire 2 miles in a single pour, hundreds of cement trucks were lined up). The accelerator is mounted on a "strongback" which is a pipe some 50 cm in diameter. This strongback was aligned, by laser, to be straight. During the Loma Prieta earthquake the alignment was thrown off by a couple of inches, and there was an extensive realignment procedure in the months following.

  4. and so close to san francisco by Dolly_Llama · · Score: 5, Funny

    SLAC is both the longest and straightest building in the world

    I'm a gay particle physicist, you insensitive clod!

    --

    Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known. -- Carl Sagan

    1. Re:and so close to san francisco by Chacham · · Score: 1

      I'm a gay particle physicist

      What's a gay particle?

      --
      Have you read my journal today?
    2. Re:and so close to san francisco by Kozar_The_Malignant · · Score: 1

      I'm a gay particle physicist

      What's a gay particle? The charm quark or the strange quark?
      --
      Some mornings it's hardly worth chewing through the restraints to get out of bed.
    3. Re:and so close to san francisco by moosesocks · · Score: 1

      For the uninitiated:
      The Charm Quark and Strange Quark actually do exist.

      --
      -- If you try to fail and succeed, which have you done? - Uli's moose
    4. Re:and so close to san francisco by jtroy92 · · Score: 1

      try top and bottom. hot...

  5. Nothing Shouts Serious, Professional Scientist by Seumas · · Score: 3, Funny

    Nothing shouts serious, professional scientist like the name Bebo.

    1. Re:Nothing Shouts Serious, Professional Scientist by Seumas · · Score: 3, Funny

      No, those physicists sound completely legitimate. On the other hand, Bebo sounds like a little furry pokemon thing or some sort of cute anime character. Well, except Zoltan. That guy sounds like he's either a Transformer or he's trying to generate massive earth-based black-holes so he can hold the planet ransom for one million dollars.

      Also, your average scientifically-interested slashdotter apparently things that a refrigerator modified to catapult you a can of beer is awe-inspiring and amazing. I don't put much stock in the interests of the average slashdot reader. I'm only back here because Slashdot still picks up better stories than Digg and is less spammy and redundant about it. Good old slashdot. Like a nice drunk ex-girlfriend that will always answer a booty-call.

    2. Re:Nothing Shouts Serious, Professional Scientist by Red+Flayer · · Score: 1
      I must've gotten up on the wrong side of the bed this morning. But making fun of a physicist's name? Surely there is some more original humor to be found in the article?

      FYI, Zoltan is a non-extraordinary Hungarian name. Zoltar was a GI Joe baddie, IIRC.

      I'm only back here because Slashdot still picks up better stories than Digg and is less spammy and redundant about it. Good old slashdot.

      I'll agree with you there.

      Somehow I feel like I've fallen out of step with the slashdot zeitgeist, though. Has there been a massive transformation in the slashdot crowd, or am I just getting old and cranky?
      --
      "Trolls they were, but filled with the evil will of their master: a fell race..." -- J.R.R. Tolkien on Olog-hai
    3. Re:Nothing Shouts Serious, Professional Scientist by ndurbin · · Score: 1

      hey don't dis Bebo. I have met him and he is quite jovial, but probably when it comes to his work, like a linear accelerator, he is serious and professional.

  6. Proton beam by mattr · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I visited RIKEN's accelerator in Wako City, Saitama Prefecture, Japan last year and was told they were one of only three facilities in the world manufacturing proton beams for medical purposes. The other two were in Germany and at Stanford, but I was told that Stanford had closed its facility so now there are only two.

    Perhaps antimatter is better than proton beam, I don't know. Sounded like it is extremely expensive to run.. anybody know? I saw how RIKEN uses CAD to design thick IIRC bronze beam masks. It is underground and the whole building is built like a ship apparently, separate from the surrounding earth, which presumably helps it stably ride out earthquakes. They opened in Dec. 2006 the most powerful radioisotope accelerator, accelerating aluminum to 70% c.

    I am not a physicist nor do I work there but am curious about these aspects concerning the place mentioned in the article.

    1. Re:Proton beam by niklask · · Score: 2, Informative

      I visited RIKEN's accelerator in Wako City, Saitama Prefecture, Japan last year and was told they were one of only three facilities in the world manufacturing proton beams for medical purposes. The other two were in Germany and at Stanford, but I was told that Stanford had closed its facility so now there are only two.

      You are confused. SLAC != Stanford. SLAC is operated by Stanford under an agreement with the DoE. The accelerator at SLAC does not provide proton beams. It has been a electron-positron machine ever since operations started. It is currently supplying the BaBar experiment with electrons and positrons and it is also undergoing modifications to accomodate the LCLS, the Linacc Coherent Light Source.

      Perhaps antimatter is better than proton beam, I don't know.

      Better for what purpose? Remember, it is damn hard to store antiprotons, not to mention antimatter.

    2. Re:Proton beam by sconeu · · Score: 1

      t is currently supplying the BaBar experiment with electrons and positrons and it is also undergoing modifications to accomodate the LCLS

      So now we have talking French elephants doing particle physics?

      --
      General Relativity: Space-time tells matter where to go; Matter tells space-time what shape to be.
    3. Re:Proton beam by niklask · · Score: 1

      So now we have talking French elephants doing particle physics?

      Yes, pink ones too.
    4. Re:Proton beam by treeves · · Score: 1

      There was a proton facility at Loma Linda Medical Center when I was there a few years ago. Not sure what you meant by manufacturing proton beams. Maybe those places you mentioned made the equipment used at LLMC.

      --
      ...the future crusty old bastards are already drinking the Kool-Aid.
    5. Re:Proton beam by mattr · · Score: 1

      I see, thanks. I was told this info by the Japanese at RIKEN, that Stanford had closed a similar facility. And that Japan could only afford it because it was on the political agenda. I remember a 300 million dollar number but don't know if that is yearly or what it cost to build.

      I meant better for anticancer. TFA states 4 times better IIRC.

      As for elephants, a RIKEN page in which it collaborates with another lab (I don't remember if it is Brookhaven or what) calls itself experiements with particles that weigh as much as bulls, with a logo of two bulls slamming into each other horn to horn.

    6. Re:Proton beam by niklask · · Score: 1

      I see, thanks. I was told this info by the Japanese at RIKEN, that Stanford had closed a similar facility. And that Japan could only afford it because it was on the political agenda. I remember a 300 million dollar number but don't know if that is yearly or what it cost to build.



      Stanford might have had a similar facility, but that facility is not SLAC.



      As for elephants, a RIKEN page in which it collaborates with another lab (I don't remember if it is Brookhaven or what) calls itself experiements with particles that weigh as much as bulls, with a logo of two bulls slamming into each other horn to horn.



      There are no such heavy particles. Remember, particles are smaller than atoms. There are some really heavy, particle-wise, particles but far from bulls. Must be some analogy of some sort. The BaBar experiment was first called the B-Bbar experiment because it is an experiment where they measure properties of the B-Bbar system. BaBar is just a nicer name.

  7. AmTech Day by leighklotz · · Score: 3, Insightful

    SLAC is kind enough to allow the Foothiils Amateur Radio Society to hold a monthly outdoor/indoor amateur radio symposium and operating event there, called AmTech Day. Now that no morse code test is required for any level of amateur license in the US, it's a great time to get into amateur radio and experiment with digital communications, microwave technology, satellites, or even Maker style operations such as bouncing radio waves off the ionosphere with equipment you can build yourself.

  8. straight? by mastershake_phd · · Score: 1

    Straight? Thats not what I heard.

    --
    Libertarian Leaning Political Discussion Forum.
  9. Re:I'm more interested in ... by Thomas+Hawk · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I can't remember Bebo's real name but he has been going by Bebo all his life. If memory serves correct, he got the name when he was a child. I think it was what his sister called him and it's the name that stuck with him his entire life. He really is a great guy and gave us a great view of SLAC. I'm looking forward to going back there to take photos and film part III with Robert and Shel.

  10. Straight means completely straight by Bananenrepublik · · Score: 3, Interesting

    That is the point about straightest building. They're accelerating electrons, so bremsstrahlung (= energy loss due to curves, grows very fast with decreasing particle mass, decreases slowly with the radius of curvature) is a real problem. In order to eliminate bremsstrahlung, the SLAC building doesn't follow the earth's curvature, but instead is straight in the same sense that a lightbeam is straigh.

    I once calculated the amount of energy the LEP (CERN's old huge accelerator, a 20km approx. circle) lost due to bremsstrahlung. IIRC it amounted to one 100W lightbulb every 10cm or 20MW of enrergy loss, simply due to the curvature.

    Currently a new huge linear accelerator is being discussed inside the scientific community. They want to use supraconducting magnets, which in terms requires large reservoirs of cooling liquids. Since liquids are subject to gravitation it may be that they will build it following the earth's curvature in order to keep the cooling circuits simpler. These issues haven't been decided yet.

    1. Re:Straight means completely straight by Bananenrepublik · · Score: 1

      I should have made this clear: the bremsstrahlung losses of the LEP were due to the 20km circle of the accelerator, not the earth radius.

    2. Re:Straight means completely straight by students · · Score: 1

      Watts are a unit of power, not energy. Which did you calculate?

      --
      Simon's Rock College
    3. Re:Straight means completely straight by swarsron · · Score: 1

      >bremsstrahlung (= energy loss due to curves, grows very fast with decreasing particle mass,

      You probably meant that it grows with increasing particle mass

    4. Re:Straight means completely straight by dwater · · Score: 1

      > but instead is straight in the same sense that a lightbeam is straight

      I thought light was bent by gravity too...

      --
      Max.
  11. Re:So... by Thomas+Hawk · · Score: 2, Informative

    Bebo did mention this and actually showed us an apparatus that they use to realign the the accelerator. It's this big tube that sits beneath the actual accelerator tube and can be moved with Jacks. There is a target that a beam is shot through to make sure it is straight. Here is a photo of an intersection of the tube. http://beta.zooomr.com/photos/thomashawk/735653 They didn't have to realign it during the Loma Prieta earthquake though although they did lose power to the accelerator during that earthquake.

  12. Re:one photo is considered a tour? by Thomas+Hawk · · Score: 1

    It's just one photo on my blog. If you click through on the video links above you can get a tour from Robert and Bebo. All of my photos of our shoot can be seen here: http://beta.zooomr.com/smartsets/thomashawk/10374

  13. Re:I'm more interested in ... by Philomathie · · Score: 1

    Oddly enough, it IS an internet startup, but it's still going strong today! It's the second most popular social networking site in the UK and ranks above the likes of IMDB, Microsoft, MSN and EBay.

  14. Worlds straightest OBJECT? by stonefry · · Score: 1

    From Wikipedia ....and is claimed to be "the world's straightest object." Are they serious? somebody get me a 3 mile long piece of thread so I can be in Guinness.

    1. Re:Worlds straightest OBJECT? by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

      If it's three miles long, it will definitely sag. Thread does not have the tensile strength to draw that much of it straight. You might instead consider... Chuck Norris.

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    2. Re:Worlds straightest OBJECT? by stonefry · · Score: 1

      Who said I was going to stretch it horizontally?

    3. Re:Worlds straightest OBJECT? by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

      You're going to have a hard time finding a building three miles tall to protect you from the influence of wind... And probably not much more luck finding a three mile deep hole to drop it in.

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    4. Re:Worlds straightest OBJECT? by stonefry · · Score: 1

      Who said I was going to stretch it vertically?

    5. Re:Worlds straightest OBJECT? by tenco · · Score: 1

      somebody get me a 3 mile long piece of thread somebody get me a laser pointer.
  15. NeXT and Amiga at SLAC by derinax · · Score: 3, Interesting

    This takes me back to when I was a NeXT Campus Consultant at Stanford-- one of my duties was the maintenance and sales of NeXT hardware at SLAC. At the time, I was also an Amiga enthusiast, and was amazed to see how entrenched the Amiga was at SLAC. Mostly due to the encouragement of Willy Langeveld, some great scientific apps came out of SLAC for the Amiga: VLT, Hippograph (both Willy's), TeX (authored by Stanford alum Tom Rokicki); I'm sure there were others. I even saw an A500 out on the floor, in production.

    The biggest impression I had of SLAC in the late 80's was of gigantic, warehouse-sized rooms filled with massive, unused rusted machinery. Reminiscent of the Orrery in Oblivion, or Oghma's lair from Dark Crystal. Weird and amazing place; but perhaps my memory has augmented the tour a bit.

    1. Re:NeXT and Amiga at SLAC by dauwhe · · Score: 1

      Surely you don't mean to imply that Dr. Rokicki was the creator of TeX... I seem to recall some guy named "Knuth" or something...

    2. Re:NeXT and Amiga at SLAC by derinax · · Score: 1

      AmigaTeX, for its time, was arguably the finest implementation of TeX. But no, no implication meant, nor did I mean to imply that AmigaTeX's creation was tied to SLAC in any way-- its use was ubiquitous on the Amigas at SLAC, while Tom Rokicki attended to his doctorate and maintained the program while at Stanford.

    3. Re:NeXT and Amiga at SLAC by langeveld · · Score: 1

      Yes, we had about 100 Amigas at SLAC at one time. Most of them were Amiga 500's which were used as intelligent graphical terminals to access the linear accelerator control system. The rest were scientific workstations, mostly A2000's and later A3000's for scientists. Even the director of SLAC had an Amiga. An Amiga 3000T was used as a data acquisition system, connected to CAMAC hardware, for one of the experiments.

  16. Worst video? by Windrip · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Part II is 7:44 minutes of my life I'll never get back.

    I cannot believe these guys had an insider tour of SLAC and they post cheesy tourist shots of a FUCKING COOLING TOWER!!!!!!!!!!!!

    No wonder Engineering/Physics &c suffers in this country.

    Oh, and I also resent Bebo's comparison of chemistry to postage stamp collecting. But at least he has earned his "I'm a HEPP*" stripes.

    *High Energy Physics Prick

    of course HEP also means How Easily Phooled...

    1. Re:Worst video? by Loudog · · Score: 1

      Dude, the cooling system in that place is more amazing then almost anything else. You should see how many pipes there are in there.

      A two mile long LINAC, damping rings, beam switch yard, final focus, all klystrons, most magnet drivers, power supplies, etc... all water cooled. Friggen amazing.

      The only things there more amazing is the the positron vault and the Z detector.

      -- Loudog

    2. Re:Worst video? by tenco · · Score: 1

      Oh, and I also resent Bebo's comparison of chemistry to postage stamp collecting. Uhm... why?
    3. Re:Worst video? by Curl+E · · Score: 1

      Oh, and I also resent Bebo's comparison of chemistry to postage stamp collecting.

      Its a quote from New Zealand physicist Ernest Rutherford who said: "All science is either physics or stamp collecting"
      --
      Backups are for wimps. Real men post their data in comments and have slashdot mirror it
  17. The purpose is... by Mark+of+THE+CITY · · Score: 1

    ...cancer treatment. If I understand correctly, positrons have been used experimentally to treat cancer. There is another Slashdot article covering this.

    --
    The clearance system sounds logical. It is not. It is completely arbitrary. -- John Bolton
  18. ART shots, you insensitive clod by swschrad · · Score: 1

    the previous part has the meat in it. the photographer was dazzled by pretty colors of rot on a pipe flange here and there. we can be like that.

    having spent a moderate amount of time maintaining cooling towers, in yet another previous life, it's just another pan of airborne waterous spore breeders to me....

    --
    if this is supposed to be a new economy, how come they still want my old fashioned money?
  19. dissapointing by confused+one · · Score: 1
    Ok,

    I was expecting a tour of the accelerator. Not a tour of the visitor center and a film of someone taking pictures of eyewash stations and cooling towers.

    Sad really... The interviewers hardly seemed interested in SLAC.

  20. Not for Long... by Stormy+Dragon · · Score: 1

    >SLAC is both the longest and straightest building in the world and is the home of three Nobel Prizes in physics. Only until the next big SF quake... After which it will have to be renamed the SPLAC (Stanford Piecewise Linear ACcelerator).

  21. Re:So... by Loudog · · Score: 1

    Well, we did have some circuit breakers fall off a shelf, too :-)

    The accelerator shut down during the earthquake because the PPS (Personnel Protection System) sensors were jarred. I saw someone trip it once by backing a cart into an access door. When things get really quiet you know you've screwed up.... (are you out there Roger?)

    What Bebo didn't tell you about the alignment (or you didn't mention), is that they do it when the system is up to temp -- so the tunnel is very warm (like 110 to 120 F). Not a thing I ever had to do, thank prime. But walking the tunnels during down time was amazing and spooky and damn fun. Pity you didn't get to do that.

    -- Loudog
    -- Ex SLAC'r

  22. Public tours run weekly anyway by throx · · Score: 1

    You can go on a tour of SLAC pretty much every week and they are pretty interesting - especially if you know something of particle physics. Had the opportunity to take one when I was out in San Jose and thoroughly enjoyed it, and would heartily recommend it to anyone else in the area. Not surprisingly, my photos probably look very similar to the ones posted here.

    My Photo
    Tour Times

    --

    Fear: When you see B8 00 4C CD 21 and know what it means

  23. check my tour of the CERN accelerator by Charbax · · Score: 1

    I posted some videos in HD of the CERN ATLAS, which is the worlds largest physics experiment, located in Geneva, costs 8 billion dollars to build and is nearly complete: http://charbax.com/2007/02/09/a-tour-at-the-cern-l hc-atlas/ http://charbax.com/2007/02/19/cern-lhc-atlas-contr ol-room/ http://charbax.com/2007/02/19/cern-lhc-atlas-inter views/ http://charbax.com/2007/02/20/cern-lhc-atlas-grid/

  24. I did the SLAC Tour in 6th Grade (1970) by EricTheO · · Score: 1

    I had a very progressive 6th grade teacher that was very keen on Science Education. -Eric

    --
    -Eric
  25. Re:Question about straightness of the building by erichill · · Score: 1
    The accelerator itself follows an exactly straight line, it traces a chord. The surface building, which is actually over the accelerator and contains the power systems and microwave generators, follows the curvature of the Earth.

    When I visited the place I put my head on the floor and could see it curving out of view.

    --
    Credo sim. - I think I am.