Tour of the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center

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."

Comments

Longest building in the world?

[ScentCone]

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.

Re:Longest building in the world?

[Loudog]

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

Question

[MyLongNickName]

"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.

Re:Question

[Anonymous Coward]

No. It just means fewest mac users.

and so close to san francisco

[Dolly_Llama]

SLAC is both the longest and straightest building in the world

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

Nothing Shouts Serious, Professional Scientist

[Seumas]

Nothing shouts serious, professional scientist like the name Bebo.

Re:Nothing Shouts Serious, Professional Scientist

[Seumas]

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.

AmTech Day

[leighklotz]

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.

Straight means completely straight

[Bananenrepublik]

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.

NeXT and Amiga at SLAC

[derinax]

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.

Worst video?

[Windrip]

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...