Super-Kamiokande

Image of the Sun taken at Night

The whiz kids are constructing a mythological universe, more bizarre than anything Tolkien ever dreamed of. This is an image of neutrinos directly emitted from the core of the Sun, obtained by the Super-Kamiokande neutrino detector. Well, that's what the whiz kids say. I suspect it's a glitch in the matrix.

A model of KamiokaNDE

Super-Kamiokande is located 3,300 feet underground in the Mozumi Mine in Hida's Kamioka area [Japan]. It consists of a cylindrical stainless steel tank 136 feet tall and 129 feet in diameter holding 55,360 tons of ultrapure water. The tank volume is divided by a stainless steel superstructure into an inner detector (ID) region and outer detector (OD). Lining the inner detector are 11,146 photomultiplier tubes (PMT), each 20 inches in diameter, that face the ID and (1,885) 8 inch PMTs that face the OD. A Tyvek and blacksheet barrier attached to the superstructure optically separates the ID and OD. - Simplified from Wikipedia

Photo Multiplier Tubes

Two guys in a boat fishing inside the detector

If you are an old person (i.e. your birth year starts with 19), you may remember hearing about this minor catastrophe:

On 12 November 2001, about 6,600 of the photomultiplier tubes imploded in a chain reaction, as the shock wave from the concussion of each imploding tube cracked its neighbours. The detector was partially restored from April to October 2002 by redistributing the photomultiplier tubes which did not implode, and by adding protective acrylic shells that are hoped will prevent another chain reaction from recurring (Super-Kamiokande-II). - Wikipedia

Looking for pictures of the catastrophe, I found this excellent video:

An Engineering Fairy Tale: Cascade Failure at the Super Kamiokande
Alexander the ok

This Physics Girl video got me started.

National Ignition Facility

National Ignition Facility (NIF) at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California

Wikipedia:

The National Ignition Facility (NIF) is a laser-based inertial confinement fusion (ICF) research facility, located at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in Livermore, California, United States. NIF's mission is to achieve fusion ignition with high energy gain. It achieved the first instance of scientific breakeven controlled fusion in an experiment on December 5, 2022, with an energy gain factor of 1.5. It supports nuclear weapon maintenance and design by studying the behavior of matter under the conditions found within nuclear explosions.

More Compact Muon Solenoid Particle Detector

Compact Muon Solenoid Particle Detector

Previous CMS post.

Virgo Detector

Virgo Gravitational Wave Detector

The Virgo interferometer is a large-scale scientific instrument near Pisa, Italy, for detecting gravitational waves. The detector is a Michelson interferometer, which can detect the minuscule length variations in its two 3 km (1.9 mi) arms induced by the passage of gravitational waves. The required precision is achieved using many systems to isolate it from the outside world, including keeping its mirrors and instrumentation in an ultra-high vacuum and suspending them using complex systems of pendula.

Between its periodic observations, the detector is upgraded to increase its sensitivity. The observation runs are performed in collaboration with other similar detectors, including the two Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatories (LIGO) in the United States and the Japanese Kamioka Gravitational Wave Detector (KAGRA), because cooperation between several detectors is crucial for detecting gravitational waves and pinpointing their origin.

Virgo was conceived and built when gravitational waves were only a prediction of general relativity. The project, named after the Virgo galaxy cluster, was approved in 1992 and construction was completed in 2003. After several years without detection, Virgo was shut down in 2011 for the "Advanced Virgo" upgrades. In 2015, the first observation of gravitational waves was made by the two LIGO detectors, while Virgo was still being upgraded. Virgo resumed observations in early August 2017, making its first detection on 14 August (together with the LIGO detectors); this was quickly followed by the detection of the GW170817 gravitational wave, the only one also observed with classical methods (optical, gamma-ray, X-ray and radio telescopes) as of 2024.

Aerial view of Virgo
15 miles southeast of Pisa, Italy

P. S. Previous LIGO post.

ATLAS Detector

ATLAS Detector at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN

ATLAS is the largest general-purpose particle detector experiment at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), a particle accelerator at CERN (the European Organization for Nuclear Research) in Switzerland. . . . ATLAS was one of the two LHC experiments involved in the discovery of the Higgs boson in July 2012.

Compact Muon Solenoid Particle Detector

Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS) particle detector, one of the general-purpose detectors at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN.

From CERN:

The Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS) is a general-purpose detector at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). It has a broad physics programme ranging from studying the Standard Model (including the Higgs boson) to searching for extra dimensions and particles that could make up dark matter. Although it has the same scientific goals as the ATLAS experiment, it uses different technical solutions and a different magnet-system design.

The CMS detector is built around a huge solenoid magnet. This takes the form of a cylindrical coil of superconducting cable that generates a field of 4 tesla, about 100,000 times the magnetic field of the Earth. The field is confined by a steel “yoke” that forms the bulk of the detector’s 14,000-tonne weight.

An unusual feature of the CMS detector is that instead of being built in-situ like the other giant detectors of the LHC experiments, it was constructed in 15 sections at ground level before being lowered into an underground cavern near Cessy in France and reassembled. The complete detector is 21 metres long, 15 metres wide and 15 metres high.

The CMS experiment is one of the largest international scientific collaborations in history, involving about 5500 particle physicists, engineers, technicians, students and support staff from 241 institutes in 54 countries (May 2022). For the latest information, see here.

More Tokamak

ITER tokamak under construction in Cadarache, France

Previous posts:

• Tokamak
• WEST & EAST

Tokamak

3D rendering of the ITER tokamak at Saint-Paul-lez-Durance, France

TCD has a story about this. I suspect this is the same one as shown in my post from three days ago.

Black & white jigsaw puzzles are ten times tougher than ones with color.

WEST & EAST

Interior of the French Tokamak in Cadaraches

The CEA (Commissariat à l'énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives) Cadarache research center in southern France operates the WEST (Tungsten Environment in Steady-state Tokamak), a, tokamak that set a new world record on February 12, 2025, by sustaining a 50 million-degree Celsius plasma for 1,337 seconds (over 22 minutes). - Google 

The chemical symbol for Tungsten is W, which is how they cobble together the acronym.

The entire complex is blurred out on Google Maps. Huh.

EAST vacuum vessel

The Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak (EAST), also known as HT-7U (Hefei Tokamak 7 Upgrade), is an experimental superconducting tokamak magnetic fusion energy reactor in Hefei, China. Operated by the Hefei Institutes of Physical Science conducting its experiments for the Chinese Academy of Sciences, EAST began its operations in 2006. EAST is part of the international ITER program after China joined the initiative in 2003 and acts as a testbed for ITER technologies. On January 20, 2025, it sustained plasma for 1066 seconds.

EAST was the first tokamak to utilize superconducting coils to establish both the toroidal and poloidal magnetic fields[citation needed]. - Wikipedia

Space Guitar

Magnetically hovering guitar strings (sounds unreal)
Mattias Krantz

This is kind of nuts. Near as I can tell it has no benefits or advantages other than being kind of nuts. On the other hand, it is a good demonstration of just how powerful those magnets are. It was also very entertaining.

Brain Frequencies

Scientists Discovery New Frequencies in the Brain
Dr Ben Miles

Older post talking about brain weirdness: Quantum Figments

Balance Beads

GoPro Inside a Car Tire (With Balance Beads)
Warped Perception

I enjoyed the heck out of this video. Comment from @GlutenEruption explains how they work:

They work because the tire is rotating around its *center of mass*. If the tire has a heavy spot, the center of mass is going to be offset towards it, Meaning even though the heavy spot itself wants to be flung outward from a static reference frame, from the rotating reference frame of the tire, the heavy spot is actually staying closer to the center and the light spot is being flung outwards the farthest. The beads, which are free to move and not a connected to the tire at all only move via centripetal force of the tire trying to pull them back to the center, and they'll collect in the high spot which is the light spot.

 

Tennis Racket Theorem

Tennis Racket Theorem
Unveiled Myths

Wikipedia article.

Blowing Up a Truck Tire Just For Fun

Exploding GIANT Truck Tire with 4500 psi Compressor
Beyond the press

It's nice to see wives in videos with their husbands.

Attosecond Lasers (2023 Nobel Prize in Physics) - Sixty Symbols

Look out Captain Kirk, we're coming for you. Lasers got the Nobel prize 60 years ago, now they are everywhere. Who knows where this new technology will lead.

Pic of the Day

One of the guest villas at Hearst Castle

From Wikipedia:

Hearst Castle, known formally as La Cuesta Encantada (Spanish for "The Enchanted Hill"), is a historic estate in San Simeon, located on the Central Coast of California. Conceived by William Randolph Hearst, the publishing tycoon, and his architect Julia Morgan, the castle was built between 1919 and 1947. Today, Hearst Castle is a museum open to the public as a California State Park and registered as a National Historic Landmark and California Historical Landmark.

George Hearst, William Randolph Hearst's father, had purchased the original 40,000-acre estate in 1865 and Camp Hill, the site for the future Hearst Castle, was used for family camping vacations during Hearst's youth.

While William made a fortune, he also started with a fortune that came from his father. Where did George make his money? The Homestake Mine:

The Homestake Mine was a deep underground gold mine (8,000 feet) located in Lead, South Dakota. Until it closed in 2002 it was the largest and deepest gold mine in North America. The mine produced more than forty million troy ounces of gold during its lifetime. . . .

The Homestake Mine is famous in scientific circles because of the work of a deep underground laboratory that was established there in the mid-1960s. This was the site where the solar neutrino problem was first discovered, in what is known as the Homestake Experiment.

The Big Misconception About Electricity

I've known about all the parts and pieces, but I never understood it properly. This video does a good job of explaining it.

Gravitational Recoil

Hubble Detects a Rogue Supermassive Black Hole
NASA Goddard

A Large Regular links to Physics-Astronomy's Blog where they are talking about a runaway black hole. How did it become a runaway? Gravitational recoil. What? That sounds like hand waving mumbo-jumbo. So I poked around and came up with this video. It is all hand waving mumbo-jumbo, but we paid for it and this is the story the egg heads came up with. But you know, if you believe in black holes, well then sure, we can believe in gravitational recoil. The universe is just out of control, man.

Homemade, sort of, Electron Beam

Shooting an electron beam through air
Applied Science

You too can make your own electron beam using your molecular vacuum pump. You have one of those, right? I had one around here somewhere, didn't I? Hard to tell, there's so much stuff in this house it's darn near impossible to keep track of what I have. I was sure I had an oil drain pan here somewhere but after an extensive search we found nothing.

Needed the oil drain pan because I wanted to change the oil in the SUV. Usually I take the car to the shop for this, but depriving my wife of her car for even a few hours causes more trouble than I want to deal with. Plus our regular shop charges $80 for an oil change. Quick change places charge $30, or at least they did last time I looked, but my experience at those places has put me off. The guy at one place launched into a spiel to sell me fan belts and wiper blades. What part of 'no' don't you understand, dude? Geez. Another place had the guys costumed like old timey mechanics at Disneyland. WTF is this? I don't get it, I don't like it, and I ain't never goin' back.

So I went to NAPA and bought oil and a filter and it cost me $50. So maybe we can get another year or ten out of this engine.

The Snowflake Mystery

The Snowflake Mystery
Veritasium

Snowflakes are amazing, even after we now have a theory about they get to be snowflakes.