Particle accelerators are machines that propel charged speck at incredible speeds , generally to jar with other particles . It ’s highly advisable that the speck the gamey - fastness particles collide with should not be part of your read/write head , as one valet instruct the operose way .
On July 13 , 1978 , particle physicist Anatoli Bugorski was work his problem at the U-70 synchrotron , the large particle accelerator in the Soviet Union . The 36 - yr - honest-to-god was inspecting a piece of equipment that had malfunctioned when the accident find . unbeknown to him , several safety mechanisms had also miscarry , mean that when he tip over to get a honest facial expression at his undertaking , a proton radio beam shot through the back of his promontory atclose to the amphetamine of ignitor .
Or at least , close to the speed of visible radiation than you ’d like a proton irradiation to be traveling at when it spud sporty through your face .
At first , he felt no pain . He bed what had happened , as he had seen a light “ brighter than a thousand Suns , " as well as the sobriety of the situation . At this point , hedidn’t tell a psyche , and merely finish his day ’s work before heading home and waited for the inevitable to materialise .
absorb 5 grays ( 500 radian ) of radiation wouldusually lead to destruction . Though he did n’t yet know it , he had been hit with between 2,000 - 3,000 grays ( 200,000 - 300,000 rads).In the nighttime , his face began to swell beyond realization , prompt him to chatter the doctors the come morning . From there , he was taken to a clinic in Moscow , though largely so thathis death could be observedrather than for any expectation that his life could be saved .
The next few day saw his skin peel off around the introduction and exit wound , showing a clean path burned right through his skin , skull , and brain .
Remarkably , he did not drop dead . The brain tissue extend to combust aside over the result years , and his boldness became paralyzed on the left side , where his earreach was also lose . Weirder still , as he maturate the right side of his head word exhibit signs of aging , while the left side did not .
Over the next few decades , he experienced gaining control butremained functional , continue his work as a physicist , and completed a PhD. As far as people who have put their head into a particle accelerator go ( and to be fair , that ’s a demographic of one ) he was moderately prosperous . The narrow-minded focus of the beam , though it caused massive impairment , likely kept the legal injury limited to an area of brain that he could inhabit without .
For the decade after his accident , he was unable to tell anyone about it , given the notorious concealment of the Soviet Union . He survived well beyond the destruction of the USSR , however . In fact , the military man who put his head in a corpuscle gun and lived to tell the tale remains alive to this day .
