The other National Geo documentary was on Mega-structures: the construction of the very complex and painfully precision-crucial camera structures that record, I think, 40 million photos per second of atom smashing events at CERN. When Pete stated that the most significant thing about the project was the rigorous attention to detail and collaboration of countless departments to ensure precision in order that scientists could be reasonably certain of their findings, or some such wording, he was making it sound easy.
The show opened and focused on the installation of the two slightly different humongous cameras, depicting a dramatic race for first finished between the Atlas and CMS camera installation teams. (The reason two different cameras are being used is to ensure that results are accurate, even though different recording methods are employed.) The magnet alone for the Atlas camera was something like 240 TONS solid, which ended up having to be accommodated by a slight roof raising. As they were lowering it into place, on cables, the staff was suitably wide-eyed, realizing if it dropped, it was game over. As we learned, Atlas was first to record, and the rest is history. If you get a chance, the National Geo channel re-runs these shows, I think on a monthly basis. Amazing. Natalia _______________________________________________ Futurework mailing list [email protected] https://lists.uwaterloo.ca/mailman/listinfo/futurework
