822
Physics (mander.xyz)
submitted 7 months ago by fossilesque@mander.xyz to c/science_memes@mander.xyz
89 comments fedilink hide all child comments
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[-] Churbleyimyam@lemm.ee 8 points 7 months ago

What's the middle bottom one?

[-] Iron_Lynx@lemmy.world 21 points 7 months ago

That orb in the middle of the apparatus is The Demon Core, a piece of plutonium produced during the Manhattan Project, for a third nuke which was never needed. So it was used for criticality experiments, which is where those hemispheres come in.

Anyway, in those experiments it was key in a few accidents, which caused the deaths by radiation of several researchers. After the later bout of experiments, the core was scrapped.

A little more reading in case you're interested

[-] Patches@sh.itjust.works 9 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

Idk how you can include all this but not the Kyle Hill documentary

https://youtu.be/aFlromB6SnU

[-] Iron_Lynx@lemmy.world 6 points 7 months ago

Good point, thanks for pointing to it.

(Also, pro tip: take off that ?si=... stuff from your link, that's tracking tags)

this post was submitted on 15 Mar 2024
822 points (98.5% liked)

Science Memes

10905 readers
1757 users here now

Welcome to c/science_memes @ Mander.xyz!

A place for majestic STEMLORD peacocking, as well as memes about the realities of working in a lab.

Rules

  1. Don't throw mud. Behave like an intellectual and remember the human.
  2. Keep it rooted (on topic).
  3. No spam.
  4. Infographics welcome, get schooled.

This is a science community. We use the Dawkins definition of meme.

Research Committee

Other Mander Communities

Science and Research

Biology and Life Sciences

Physical Sciences

Humanities and Social Sciences

Practical and Applied Sciences

Memes

Miscellaneous

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
Sal@mander.xyz
fossilesque@mander.xyz
SciBot@mander.xyz