John Sisler

Brought to you from DVice

Here at Dvice we love giant science installations like the Large Hadron Collider, but who knew they had something nearly as awesome in Canada? This amazing looking sphere is actually an observatory of sorts, although one that’s more than a mile beneath the earth’s surface.

Unlike regular telescopes which use optics to get a visual fix on their subject, the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory is designed to measure neutrinos reaching earth due to fusion reactions within the sun. The depth is necessary to reduce the background noise cause by cosmic rays detectable nearer the surface.

The Neutrinos pass through 1,000 tons of heavy water on loan from Atomic Energy of Canada Limited, which then causes flashes of light called Cerenkov radiation. The radiation is picked up by the 9,522 ultra sensitive photomultiplier tubes positioned around the 60 foot sphere.

While the original experiment is now completed, a follow up experiment will replace the heavy water with something called liquid scintillator to provide even deeper understanding into the behavior of neutrinos.

That’s all great, but I just think it looks stunning.

All photos by Roy Kaltschmidt for the Lawrence Berkeley National Lab

Sudbury Neutrino Observatory, via Make Blog

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Brought to you from DVice

There’s a common misconception that deaf people can’t appreciate music. Sure, they can’t hear it in the same way as those of us with normal hearing, but with a typically enhanced sense of touch, they feel the music in a way most hearing people can’t.

To feel the music, you’ll need something that can vibrate more than just your eardrums, and that’s where the Music For Deaf People collar comes in. Instead of regular speaker drivers, the collar has several small membranes that transfer vibrations into the wearer’s neck, shoulders and collarbone. A built in radio and an MP3 player connection provide the tunes, while controls near the ends of the collar let you adjust the volume, and change the track or station.

Okay, so they should probably work on the name. Perhaps something more like that similar device from the ’80s called the Bone Fone would work.

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