I though I might share this article as it’s quite interesting. What really got me though was this quote about a beam loss “Within 16 ns, one beam burned through about 1.5 m (about 5 feet) of solid steel.” That means that the beam cut through the steel at a speed of 1.5m/0.000 000 016s = 93750km/second (over 58000 miles/second). I reckon that make one heck of a sci-fi weapon it we could make it a bit smaller.
Or larger…
Our weapon will cut through that thing like butter. Maybe it’s time to start bowing down to our Fermilab overlords.
Because particle physicists don’t have enough of a god complex?
Fermilab is way cool - IMO anyone in the Chicago area should be familiar with it. I’ve got several friends who work there, and have had the opportunity to go behind the scenes on many occasions. Once a year or so they have an open house where they take the public to generally off-limits spaces.
Also, they have a really neat arts/speaker series in a really nice auditorium. We’ve seen speakers there including Murray Gell-Mann, Brian Green, James Randi, Stephen Jay Gould and many others. And artists including Doc Watson, Sam Bush, and Del McCoury. Very reasonably priced, an intimate theater, and afterwards they serve punch and cookies!
Not to mention the prairie, buffalo …
Yeppers, Fermilab is one cool place. Hope they get the proposed linear collider.