Table-top Hadron Collider beckons

The human mind is surely something that’s impressive – here we are with a group of scientists who have come together, cobbling a powerful atom smasher in the same vein as that of the Large Hadron Collider (which you can see above), although this particular model is full well capable of fitting onto your average table top.

Known as the suitcase plasma cannon collider, this laser plasma accelerator will be comfortable residing on your kitchen table or anywhere else around the home. The smart suits over at the US Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) have concocted powerful electron beams using far smaller accelerators that what was previously available.

The tiny accelerators can also see action as “sources of intensely bright beams of light”, where these will be used to investigate new materials, biological structures and green chemistry. Of course, who are we to say that those scientists cannot take the opportunity to let their hair down after a particularly long hard day of number crunching by using it as a form of table-top disco lighting?

Edwin Kee
Categories: General
Tags: laser