The Man Who Was Hit By A Particle Accelerator And Lived
What happened to him? And is this the future of laser weaponry?
Particle accelerators have fascinated people for decades. The Large Halogen Collider (LHC) is a particle accelerator that is designed to smash particles together at relativistic speeds. The LHC has captured peoples’ imaginations to the point that there is speculation about it creating tiny black holes or micro-universes that can destroy life on Earth.
One of the reasons that particle accelerators are so fascinating is that they are mysterious to the average person. Many people imagine something out of Stranger Things when trying to wrap their brains around mass particle acceleration. How do particles reach the speed of light? What happens when they do? Do particles have enough mass to harm something when they reach these incredible speeds?
Or, what happens if you were to stand inside a particle accelerator when it turns on?
Unfortunately, one Soviet scientist learned the answer to that last question the hard way. Anatoli Bugorski was attempting to repair a faulty mechanism on the U-70 proton synchrotron in a small town south of Moscow in the USSR when the machine failsafe broke down and blasted him with particles.
