RE: How onions have inspired particle physicists to design their detectors

A brief history of scientific disasters waiting to happen:
fire, pointy sticks, round throw-able stones, wheels, metal, cooked meat ... ... steam machine, cars, Titanic (ups..), airplanes... electricity, antibiotics, space rockets...
GMO, CERN

I don't know, maybe we should go back to not that pointy sticks. That would prevent many disasters, including the Titanic. Check-mate Science!

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2 votes

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lemouth (72) 7 years ago

Let's all go back to the trees :D

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1 vote

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freyablekman (55) 7 years ago (edited)

nice trolling there @alexs1320, You forgot 911... I'm disappointed

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1 vote

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lemouth (72) 7 years ago

Because there is no onion in there :)

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yarwood123 (28) 7 years ago

Not that I understand it all but that anti-matter stuff just seems to be a dangerous thing to be messing with

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1 vote

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lemouth (72) 7 years ago

Well, Earth is bombarded with antimatter (through cosmic rays) since the dawn of time. PET scan uses antimatter. And so on.... This is not that dangerous, as you can see :)

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1 vote

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alexs1320 (71) 7 years ago

I'm producing antimatter while typing this:

Some copy-paste from Wiki:

Positrons are produced naturally in β+ decays of naturally occurring radioactive isotopes (for example, potassium-40) and in interactions of gamma quanta (emitted by radioactive nuclei) with matter. Antineutrinos are another kind of antiparticle created by natural radioactivity (β− decay).

and

40K occurs in natural potassium (and thus in some commercial salt substitutes) in sufficient quantity that large bags of those substitutes can be used as a radioactive source for classroom demonstrations. In healthy animals and people, 40K represents the largest source of radioactivity, greater even than 14C. In a human body of 70 kg mass, about 4,400 nuclei of 40K decay per second

And from this source:

it turns out that bananas pop out a positron every 75 minutes or so

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2 votes

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lemouth (72) 7 years ago

it turns out that bananas pop out a positron every 75 minutes or so

WTF! :D

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alexs1320 (71) 7 years ago

Bananas contain potassium, about 400-450 mg per banana.
Some 5 mg of which is potassium 40.

There are 3 types of decay, boring Beta(-), positive electron capture and... Beta(+)

Radioactivity of banana is about 15 Bq (31 Bq per 1 g of K), or 1/15 s x 0.001 for Beta(+) x 0.01 to kill % ~ 115 minutes or so, 1/75 min myth seems ok...

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1 vote

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