We're spending enormous amounts of money for larger and larger accelerators, new observatories such as the gamma ray observatory, etc.

I'm a wholehearted supporter of this kind of research, but since energetic radiation is everywhere, can't we hand out interested parties a metal plate with a sensor and a way to upload the data? (and how is there not a physics category?)
-- theircompetitor, Mar 05 2004

Permaglow http://www.halfbakery.com/idea/Permaglow
Trigger Idea [theircompetitor, Oct 04 2004]

Surf for gravity waves http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6998163/
[theircompetitor, Feb 21 2005]

Roland Maze http://www.u.lodz.p...wibig/maze/ang0.htm
Distributed cosmic ray observatory. See "Other Similar Projects" section too. [wiml, Sep 14 2006]

No danger to Earth from tiny black holes http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14923900/
[theircompetitor, Sep 20 2006]

This doesn't make a lick of sense to me, even after reading the "Permaglow" link below.
-- jutta, Sep 12 2006


I think [tc] is after a way to make "big physics" modular and distributed, along the lines of a distributed array radiotelescope.

Not necessarily a bad or impossible thing, just highly unlikely that the appropriate sensors and timing structure could be connected over the internet.

Sort of a nano-baked solution in search of a problem.
-- csea, Sep 13 2006


Ah. This works for observatories, then, but not for accelerators - I guess the first sentence threw me off. Thanks for the explanation!
-- jutta, Sep 13 2006


Clearly this is not a distributed accelerator, but distributed detectors. As linked article points out, energetic collisions occur all them time.
-- theircompetitor, Sep 20 2006



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