The Inquisition is a little late to the Anatoli Bugorski party, especially in the light of recent evnts at CERN, which initiated a veritable Bugorski revival. Anyway, you’ve already read this much so we might as well tell you about him.
Simply put, Anatoli Bugorski is a Russian scientist who had an accident and is extremely lucky to remain referable to in the present tense.
In 1978 he was working towards a PhD as an assistant at the Institute for High Energy Physics in Protvino, 100km south of Moscow. He was working with a major piece of kit – the largest Soviet particle accelerator, the U-70 synchrotron. A dream job for a young physicist.
On July 13 the system started to malfunction. Bugorski found the problem and was leaning down to fix it when he got blasted through the head by a proton beam.
Once again, for emphasis: GOT BLASTED THROUGH THE HEAD BY A PROTON BEAM.
Proton beams were, for a while, used to treat cancer but these were quite a bit wekaer. This beam’s strength measured 2k gray on entry and 3k on exit (see below). Bugorski reported a flash brighter than “a thousand suns”. Presumably, this is the term Russian scientists use to describe “very bright”.
Anyway, as far as Bugorski was concerned, the party was over and the hangover was coming. As you might expect his face swelled up and the skin began to peel, tracing the beam’s path through his skull. As seen in the image above the exit is clearly visible.
Moscow’s well-known philanthropic streak went into overdrive and he was carted to hospital so doctors could observe his death. After all, a proton beam, travelling just below the speed of light, had just gone right through Bugorski’s head, including his brain, so why not watch closely?
Anyway, Anatoli decided not to play ball and got better instead, even completing his PhD. His mental capacity was retained but he did suffer other consequences – periodic seizures, loss of hearing in his left ear, facial nerve paralysis and reduced threshold before experiencing mental fatigue.
Bugorski went on to hold positions of scientific authority, visiting radiation specialist twice-yearly for monitoring. He was a popular figure in promoting the obvious safety of Soviet atomic power. Not that he ever said much about his experience at the time – he was too scared of the repressive regime.
Bugorski now lives in relative poverty with his wife and son in Protvino.
The gray is the unit measurement of absorbed radiation dose of ionizing radiation and is used to measure X-rays, for instance. Whole body exposure of 5 gray is usually to be fatal. Bear in mind Bugorski’s single blast was between 2 and 3 THOUSAND gray.
What the hell is that? The Inquisition will let Wikipedia take the heat on this one; “A synchrotron is a particular type of cyclic particle accelerator in which the magnetic field (to turn the particles so they circulate) and the electric field (to accelerate the particles) are carefully synchronized with the travelling particle beam.”
Which, to a scientific troglodyte like the Inquisition, begs the question – what is a particle accelerator? Once again, Wikipedia; “A particle accelerator is a device that uses electric fields to propel charged particles to high speeds and to contain them in well-defined beams. An ordinary CRT television set is a simple form of accelerator.”
The difference is that synchrotrons are massive – just look at the pictures below. Now imagine one of those blasting through your head.
Generic synchrotron plan
French synchrotron - Soleil
The complex interior of an Australian synchrotron
Bibliography
The Future Ruins of the Nuclear Age – Wired Magazine
Kottke covered this with great brevity, as is his wont. Quite unlike the Inquisition’s extended verbiage.
More of the same from SonicBomb
Leaving no stone unturned in its search for references, the Inquisition presents to you yet more of the exact same
This article was posted by Ronan McDonnell on
Friday, April 16th, 2010 at
21:06.
It is archived in Science and tagged accident, Bugorski, internet hero, particle accelerator, proton, russia, Science.
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Hey! Seen this? The scientists at CERN asked what would happen if you put your hand in the large Hadron Collider -http://www.wimp.com/hadroncollider/