Suzie Sheehy

"The next thing we want to do with those particles is to give them some energy. Thats the basics of how an accelerator works. Ive got a machine here called a which does that..."

"Building up charge, actually building up , is the key to giving particles energy in a particle accelerator. ...Now some of the first particle accelerators were actually genuinely using this mechanism of having a belt and some rollers, and building up lots of voltage. They were called Van de Graaff accelerators. They still exist. Ive worked on one... If theyre the same charge, which get repelled, and theres force there, theyre pushed away and they gain some energy... [I]n the case of an accelerator well get our particles... going faster and faster and faster toward the speed of light."

"So my number two thing you probably shouldnt do with a particle accelerator. You probably shouldnt put your head in the beam... On this one I want to have... a vote... What might kill you first? ...Would your head freeze because of the ? Its at minus 271 degrees [Celsius] in some accelerators... take the Large Hadron Collider for example. There the magnets are pretty cold, or would the heat from the beam make your head explode, or would your head explode from the , or would you die from the dose? ...I want a show of hands for which one you think would get you first."

"What about the ? ...People have done studies in outer space of astronauts and how long they could survive in the vacuum... That information say that you can survive in outer space with your spacesuit open for about ten seconds before youre ripped apart by the vacuum. So I dont think thats going to get you first."

"It depends on which accelerator were talking about, but lets consider the . ...Its minus 271 degrees. ...This is a picture of one of the 15m long s, one of the [beam] bending magnets in the machine... but its extremely difficult to get your head in there. So... you wouldnt stick your head in the dipole. Youd stick it in somewhere easier... that wasnt cooled down to minus 271."

"Four different types of particles: electrons, s, s and gold atoms. ...Can anyone suggest which one you cant put in a particle accelerator? ...A . Yep! Do you know why? Because it isnt charged. Thank you very much. ...[I]t doesnt have an ."