• ButteryMonkey@piefed.socialEnglish
      11·
      2 days ago

      One of my favorite things about tech stuff is lights.

      What I mean is, those lights, and most lights, only serve a human purpose, but some lights are for a non-human reason (like for plants or testing conditions), and its fun (to me) to disentangle which is which.

      In this case they almost certainly cause active problems for the ultra-sensitive neutrino detectors, and they have to scrap the data from whenever they are turned on. In some cases they inhibit growth of the target organism (good or bad). In others, like lights in brewery brite tanks, they don’t matter or are for cleaning purposes.

      I enjoy asking about the lights, whenever I get a chance. Its always a question that gets a “huh, never thought about that, actually”, but I just find the human need element fascinating, because it dramatically impacts the whole machine. I wonder what we’d know if visible light wasn’t our primary sense.

  • Thorry@feddit.orgEnglish
    30·
    2 days ago

    I especially liked the part where they designed the sensors inside domes, so they could handle the pressure without any issue. But then when one imploded it caused a cascade failure that destroyed a huge part of the thing. It left the whole thing crippled for years as they struggled on with just a small part of the sensors (which they redistributed and beefed up a bit). Luckily a few years later it got a full upgrade and rebuild, so it was back to 100% again.

    • JohnnyEnzyme@piefed.socialEnglish
      11·
      2 days ago

      Okay.
      Almost every one of my unattached atomic particles (or waves?) is way above my pay-grade, here, but if you’re interested in explaining, I’ll try to do my dumbass version of listening?

      (I mean, so many causes and issues mentioned there, just incredible)