Shocking art for terrestrial physics
AUG 25, 2009
DOI: 10.1063/PT.5.023626
washingtonpost.com : When Jim Sanborn shows you his latest art, the jaw drops.Over a three-year period Sanborn has created a fully operational electrostatic particle accelerator.Throw the switch and 1 million volts of juice start flying down the tube. X rays zip off in every direction. Deafening zaps fill the air, and bolts of lightning spark around the metal sphere. Hunkered down in his lead-lined control booth, Sanborn can turn on his Geiger counters, turn up the power—and split the atom.More impressive yet: Terrestrial Physics, as the new installation is called, is possibly the most substantial work of art to come out of Washington since the 1950s.
© 2009 American Institute of Physics
