Word: electronics
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HALF-BURIED in a mount of earth behind the Biological Labs lies the newest and most spectacular addition to the University's scientific facilities, the Cambridge Electron Accelerator. Built in conjunction with M.I.T., the accelerator is the largest and most powerful in the world, and is expected to probe deeply into the many unsolved problems of high energy physics...
...Cambridge accelerator is five times more powerful than any other, able to whip electrons to speeds very near the speed of light. It was built by the Atomic Energy Commission after four years of planning at a cost of 12 million dollars, and operating expenses may exceed four million dollars yearly. When in operation, the accelerator magnets consume 1034 kilowatts--the power required by 100 average American homes. Electrons travel 14,000 miles around the accelerator's ring of magnets in eight milliseconds, and emerge with an energy of six billion electron volts...
Technicians speak of an electron "beam," but it is incorrect to think off the machine as producing a continuous flow of high-energy electrons. In reality, the electrons spurt into the ring from the linear accelerator in bunches of 100 million at the rate of 60 bunches per second. At 16 places in the ring, there are radio-frequency powered acceleration cavities. Each time the electron bunch passes through a cavity, its energy increases. The electron pulses thus receive discrete "kicks" of energy as they orbit, until they have finally reached the energy level desired for any particular experiment...
...electron, with its opposing electrical field, does not react nearly so strongly with protons. It can pass near, or even through a proton and be scattered away without violently disturbing the proton itself. For this reason, the electron is a useful probe for examining the internal structure of the proton...
First on the experimental agenda at the Cambridge accelerator is an attempt to ascertain the internal structure of the proton. The experiment may take four years, and will require 1.5 million dollars of equipment. It is for this kind of work that the electron accelerator was expressly designed...