The Man Shot By a Particle Beam

[David Morris]

>From Weird Universe

http://weirduniverse.net/

The Man Shot By a Particle Beam

Given the recent startup of the Large Hadron Collider, it seems timely
to remember the tale of Anatoli Bugorski.

On July 13, 1978 Bugorski leaned down to check a part in a U-70
synchrotron particle accelerator. He saw a brilliant flash of light.
He had just become the first man to be shot through the head by a
particle beam. Miraculously, he survived, although the left side of
his face was paralyzed. The beam was highly radioactive, but also very
focused, and therefore the radiation didn't disperse into his body.
More details at Forgetomori.

What would happen if someone were hit by the LHC's particle beam? I
doubt they'd fare as well as Bugorski. To put its power in
perspective, Scientific American calculated that it could defrost a
pizza in 30 nanoseconds (billionths of a second), assuming the beam
energy could be spread across the entire surface of the pizza.