What would happen if you stuck your hand in the beam of the Large Hadron Collider?

[thewayne]

In short: no one is really sure what would happen. The general consensus is that it probably wouldn't be good.

But here's a post from the Bad Astronomy blog and video that explores the subject! Well, at least the first four minutes explores sticking your hand in the beam, the remainder is on some interesting stuff if you're a science geek.

http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2010/09/21/dont-cross-the-lhc-stream/

http://science.slashdot.org/story/10/09/25/2150228/Dont-Cross-the-LHC-Stream-Maybe

Comments

[silveradept]

I hope whomever asked that question is encouraged to study sciences more, because that kind of question is an excellent one for any sort of scientist. "What happens if I do X?" More often than not, the answer is "it explodes", but even then, that can be itneresting.

[thewayne.livejournal.com]

If you ask Jamie Hyneman, the answer is always "it explodes". ;-)

Science is sadly neglected when it's so fundamental to so many things. My wife didn't have to pay for her graduate degree tuition, just books and housing costs, because there aren't enough astrophysicists.

[silveradept]

True. Often with a "Don't try this at home."

Science is very neglected. I think partially because it's seen as lab coats with Ben Stein drawls doing research on very boring things, even though scientists have invented most of the technologies we now use without a second thought.