Can you destroy a proton?

You can produce new particles or radiation by colliding protons (or neutrons…), but, in the sense that they explode and disappear, it is impossible.

Do protons live forever?

But given that the number of protons we have in us at any given time, that means just 1 in 30 quadrillion protons decays each second. Just from examining our own bodies, this translates into a minimum lifetime for the proton of about 1 billion years.

What happens when an electron collides with a proton?

The electron starts as a regular atomic electron, with its wavefunction spreading through the atom and overlapping with the nucleus. In time, the electron reacts with the proton via its overlapping portion, collapses to a point in the nucleus, and disappears as it becomes part of the new neutron.

What happened to the Large Hadron Collider (LHC)?

It came as no surprise when two people filed a lawsuit to stop the LHC from operating, lest it produce a black hole powerful enough to destroy the world. But physicists argued that the idea was absurd and the lawsuit was rejected. Then, in 2012, the LHC detected the long-sought Higgs boson, a particle needed to explain how particles acquire mass.

What would happen if you stood in front of an accelerator?

Physicist: If you took all of the matter that’s being flung around inside an active accelerator, and collected it into a pellet, it would be so small and light you’d never notice it. The danger is the energy. If you stood in front of the beam you would end up with a very sharp, very thin line of ultra-irradiated dead tissue going through your body.

What would happen if you stood in front of a beam?

If you stood in front of the beam you would end up with a very sharp, very thin line of ultra-irradiated dead tissue going through your body. It might possibly drill a hole through you. You may also be the first person in history to get pion (“pie on”) radiation poisoning (which does the same thing as regular radiation poisoning, but with pions!).

Who stuck his head in a particle accelerator in 1978?

And on July 13, 1978, a Soviet scientist named Anatoli Bugorski stuck his head in a particle accelerator. On that fateful day, Bugorski was checking malfunctioning equipment on the U-70…