Sunday, February 07, 2010

Plasma Physics

Prospective student tours all have a stop in Chamberlin Hall to look at the Madison Symmetric Torus, used by the plasma physics group here for a number of different experiments studying the properties of plasma. It is sometimes painful to hear the tour guides descriptions of what is going on, but one scientist overheard what is probably the worst: "That is a giant centrifuge for separating the plasma." Possibly this tour guide was studying for medical technician and got confused; but you'd hope they'd look at their scripts once in a while.

2 comments:

Teresita said...

In girl scout camp on Spirit Lake, the summer before Mt. St. Helens blew, we studied the properties of plasma. It was called a bonfire.

james said...

Did you "centrifuge it?" Take a glowing stick and make yourself a human pinwheel? (Give Smokey the Bear a heart attack...)