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comment by iammyownrushmore
iammyownrushmore  ·  3937 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Neotechnological Luddism

A physicist friend of mine did some work at CERN a couple of years ago over the summer and he was totally sobered by how much aged equipment and duct tape was used.

I think the elegance comes fromwhy your experiment should work, not how you have to do the damn thing. In biology it can get reeeeal messy.





humanodon  ·  3937 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Perhaps the real technological achievement of the 21st century will be the creation of a better duct tape.

Seriously though, I'm surprised to see CERN and duct tape in the same sentence.

iammyownrushmore  ·  3937 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Granted, CERN is an umbrella for a lot of different projects, and it wasn't like they were holding the giant detector in place along with some used gum and shoelaces. His was something on the analysis end, but still it was weird to see.

Also, tangentially, some researchers make graphene just by slapping some plain 'ol tape on graphite, so maybe some new incarnations wouldn't be a bad idea.

humanodon  ·  3937 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Haha, I'd hope not!

I don't know too much about graphene, but from what I gather, it's pretty cool stuff. What will be first? Mars or new duct tape?