358
submitted 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) by MataVatnik@lemmy.world to c/science_memes@mander.xyz
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[-] alcoholicorn@lemmy.ml 45 points 5 days ago
[-] MataVatnik@lemmy.world 4 points 4 days ago

If I remember correctly he was talking about physicist in the 30s, or one of those decades. Not sure when particle collider research started.

[-] Psythik@lemmy.world 7 points 4 days ago

Well regardless they were either trolling, or you're misremembering. Like the other person said, there's only one known incident of this, and the beam fried part of his brain. Not something you would want to do just to check if the accelerator is working. You'd be completely brain-dead after the 2nd or 3rd time.

[-] MataVatnik@lemmy.world 7 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago)

Found something, they don't mention these physicist sticking their head in the beam but this probably points to the origin of the story.

I'm not misremembering what my professor said, I even remembered the years (1930s) correctly. To quote him more accurately he said "a lot of early particle physicist damaged their vision because they would stick their head on a particle accelerator to check if they had a beam going" and then he proceeded to mimick the motion of dunking his head down bobbing his head back and forth pretending to intercept a beam with his temples.

this post was submitted on 10 Nov 2024
358 points (98.9% liked)

Science Memes

11021 readers
3360 users here now

Welcome to c/science_memes @ Mander.xyz!

A place for majestic STEMLORD peacocking, as well as memes about the realities of working in a lab.



Rules

  1. Don't throw mud. Behave like an intellectual and remember the human.
  2. Keep it rooted (on topic).
  3. No spam.
  4. Infographics welcome, get schooled.

This is a science community. We use the Dawkins definition of meme.



Research Committee

Other Mander Communities

Science and Research

Biology and Life Sciences

Physical Sciences

Humanities and Social Sciences

Practical and Applied Sciences

Memes

Miscellaneous

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS