Things Scientists do that make you crap your pants

DaBreno

So Like this one time in Physics class, our teacher who was every bit a scientist nerd, told us about the first Atomic bomb test. He went through all the usual details about why they did it : Mutally assured bollix, trump the nazis, show the commies etc. But he dropped a bit of a bombshell at the end : The scientists involved had a Very Real Fear that the test detonation would ignite the nitrogen around us and set the Atmosphere on Fire.

Did it stop the test Detonation? No. It didnt.

I didnt belive it til the invention of the intarweb til i could look up paranoid sh1t but it turns out it aint Paranoid, Physicists on the Manhatten project thought it could happen!

Anything the white-coats are doing keeping ye awake?

monkeyfudge

This bad boy is pretty scary.

ITER will run hotter than the sun and it's very close to home.

It's the third most expensive science project after the Manhattan Project and the International Space Station.

the_syco

monkeyfudge wrote:

This bad boy is pretty scary.

ITER will run hotter than the sun and it's very close to home.

It's the third most expensive science project after the Manhattan Project and the International Space Station.

It is kind of cool that so many different countries have joined together, though.

sceptre

DaBreno wrote:

But he dropped a bit of a bombshell at the end : The scientists involved had a Very Real Fear that the test detonation would ignite the nitrogen around us and set the Atmosphere on Fire.

Your teacher wasn't nerdy enough. Hans Bethe worked with Ed Teller and Emil Konopinski to prove that this was impossible before they carried out the initial test. The original idea that it might happen had been Teller's so it's pretty emphatic that they didn't have a "Very Real Fear" of any kind that this even could happen. The idea took legs when Robert Oppenheimer wouldn't shut the hell up about it.

Kel Varnsen

The invention of aloe latex.

oRlyYaRly

I'm ****ting myself over what those Gillette scientists get up to! :eek:

ziggy

This post has been deleted.

Capt'n Midnight

Gray goo

GMO's that exist only for profit. There isn't a food shortage.

The use of antiboitics without perscriptions, or some way of forcing people to finish a course as otherwise you just breed anti-biotic resistant germs.

Star wars and such stuff. If they ever perfect a perfect shield the yanks will behave more like jerks.

Polywater was another of those big scare things

DaBreno

sceptre wrote:

Your teacher wasn't nerdy enough. Hans Bethe worked with Ed Teller and Emil Konopinski to prove that this was impossible before they carried out the initial test. The original idea that it might happen had been Teller's so it's pretty emphatic that they didn't have a "Very Real Fear" of any kind that this even could happen. The idea took legs when Robert Oppenheimer wouldn't shut the hell up about it.

Hehe. Scientists work on experiments. Whos atmosphere did he test an atomic bomb on before he could pass it safe for ours?

Ironic bonus : NYTimes.com through a Google of Emil Konopinski show that "he made testing of the first hydrogen bomb possible by showing that it would not destroy the world". Lol.

The_Minister

Capt'n Midnight wrote:

GMO's that exist only for profit. There isn't a food shortage.

GMO's have other uses. Vitamin A has been added to rice. If this is introduced in asia, it could stop millions of people from going blind.

DaBreno

ziggy67 wrote:

Those Laboritoire Garnier people scare me.
Crazy f***ers!

My God Man. Have you seen their ads?
Hubba!

Mossy Monk

oRlyYaRly wrote:

I'm ****ting myself over what those Gillette scientists get up to! :eek:

a damn fine shave i had with one only 20 minutes ago

JC 2K3

Inventing laxatives.

SimpleSam06

Lace my oatmeal with laxatives.

Edit: Doh! Beat me by a pip, you cur!

ziggy

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Crucifix

Creating black holes in labs is a bit worrying. But sure fuck it.

funky penguin

JC 2K3 wrote:

Inventing laxatives.

QuitE DrY good sir! Well done.

/me hands measuring tape.

Kwekubo

If I recall A Short History of Nearly Everything correctly: going by current technologies for telescopy etc, if an extinction level meteor was heading for earth, chances are we wouldn't know about it until it starts glowing as it reaches the atmosphere, which would be about three seconds before it hits us :eek: Can we not pay a couple more astronomers to keep sketch round the clock?

Kwekubo

Kwekubo wrote:

If I recall A Short History of Nearly Everything correctly: going by current technologies for telescopy etc, if an extinction level meteor was heading for earth, chances are we wouldn't know about it until it starts glowing as it reaches the atmosphere, which would be about three seconds before it hits us :eek: Can we not pay a couple more astronomers to keep sketch round the clock?

Id rather not know to be honest. Theres not much we could do about it if there was one headed our way. Its not like we can pack up and change planets.

faceman

Crucifix wrote:

Creating black holes in labs is a bit worrying. But sure fuck it.

more worryingly...
About 12-18 months ago scientists in the states (sorry i cant find the old links) where working on recreating the conditions that caused the original big bang - in a labratory experiment.

However and thank God, they decided at the last minute (days before they were due to begin) to cancel the project as they didnt know whether the "new universe" they were about to create would continue to expand and engulf our universe! no joke.

Scary.

No amount of bruce willis flying spaceships into a meteor would stop that!! (altho it mite stop those annoying ads!!)

Capt'n Midnight

The_Minister wrote:

GMO's have other uses. Vitamin A has been added to rice. If this is introduced in asia, it could stop millions of people from going blind.

Just like adding iodine to salt could stop thyriod problems in parts of india. Except a lot of the merchants there only pretend to add the iodine, they charge more for their ordinary salt. There are other sources of Vitamin A , like a balanced diet. Which reminds me the reason cereals here are fortified with vitamins is because they have to be by law. I just can't see kellogs selling GMO rice krispies because they would get hammered by bad PR.

Marksie

The_Minister wrote:

GMO's have other uses. Vitamin A has been added to rice. If this is introduced in asia, it could stop millions of people from going blind.

Well GMO covers a wide range of stuff not only food. Recombinant vaccine is "genetically modified".

I did recall reading about a company who was experimenting on a contraceptive vacine for mice in australia. They were using the attenunated mouse polio virus as a vector and aimed to enhance the immune response by adding a receptor. Unfortunately this addition switched off one arm of the immune response and resulted in death 100% of the time, even in those mice previously immunised.

They stated that this would be a very cheap way of creating a deadly human strain so published how it could be done... great thinking!

faceman

None of this talk of GMO is making me crap my pants...

Feral Mutant

Two words, Brown Note. Fortunately it doesn't work.

netwhizkid

Lets hope scientists don't work out how to hit the brown note or we might all crap our pants.

Tar.Aldarion

I doubt such a note exists.

fulofh20

Laxatives, did they invent them as a practical joke? They sure work

Gaspode

Sneaking up behind me in the lab and dropping a stainless steel jug just as I'm about to mix two chemicals, or light a flame under something. Now that has made me crap my pants a few times!
Science humour is best served cold and in small doses.

the_syco

Feral Mutant wrote:

Two words, Brown Note. Fortunately it doesn't work.

If played on your radio, no. If played with the right frequency, using some very expensive speakers, proberly. I remember something about if you're too close to the massive speakers at concerts, its not good for your heart, or smoething, so noise can affect you.

aphex™

faceman wrote:

more worryingly...
About 12-18 months ago scientists in the states (sorry i cant find the old links) where working on recreating the conditions that caused the original big bang - in a labratory experiment.

However and thank God, they decided at the last minute (days before they were due to begin) to cancel the project as they didnt know whether the "new universe" they were about to create would continue to expand and engulf our universe! no joke.

Scary.

No amount of bruce willis flying spaceships into a meteor would stop that!! (altho it mite stop those annoying ads!!)

I watched a documentary on friday and it said it would create its own space and move away from our galaxy so we'd be grand.

fly_agaric

monkeyfudge wrote:

ITER will run hotter than the sun and it's very close to home.

Think I'd gladly take ITER as a neighbour over some of the chem stuff down by the banks of the Lovely Lee. Or the fireworks factories which are always exploding (it seems). Or a massive oil storage depot [one blew up in the UK around xmas last year (AFAICR)]