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Caption CERN Contest Week 21
06/25/2015 at 05:15 • 86 commentsWeek 21: 6/24/2015 - 9pm PDT 7/2/2015
These two CERN scientists are looking through some kind of optical apparatus. There is a plano-convex lens mounted on an adjustable arm. The scientists appear to be looking through a window while adjusting some controls.
Is this some kind of physics experiment? Could it be research into psychomotor acuity? Maybe the dark haired scientist is just getting her yearly CERN eye exam? You tell us!
This week's prize is a Teensy 3.1 from The Hackaday Store.
Add your humorous caption as a comment to this project log. Make sure you're commenting on this contest log, not on the contest itself.
As always, if you actually have information about the image or the people in it, let CERN know on the original image discussion page.
Good Luck!
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Caption CERN Contest Week 20 Winner
06/25/2015 at 04:30 • 2 commentsAs week 20 comes to a close, we can say that this scientist may have been a bit sleepy from all his hard work, but all our caption writers certainly were not! Thank's to everyone who stayed up late and entered.
Whiteboards and their associated dry erase markers have become a staple in every office, school, and home. It's getting hard to remember that everyone used blackboards not so long ago. High energy physics,and flammable dust probably are not a good mix. Let's hope our sleeping scientist cleaned the erasers outdoors after he woke up.
The Funnies:
- "A weekend at CERNies"- Rob
- "After bitten by the Schrödinger's cat, Doc Brown acquired the most useful power of a cat - being able to sleep anywhere, any time." - K.C. Lee
- "CERN's infamous "wind tunnel" experiments" - ras B
This week's winner is MechaTweak with the following quote:
MechaTweak describes himself as a "Mild mannered design engineer by day. Father of four crazy kids by night". With all those kids running around, he's going to enjoy having a Stickvise from The Hackaday Store. You can bet he'll be using the stickvise to solder up some boards forShower water saver, his entry in the 2015 Hackaday Prize.
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Caption CERN Contest Week 20
06/18/2015 at 03:44 • 54 commentsWeek 20: 6/17/2015 - 9pm PDT 6/24/2015
Anyone who's worked on a major project, be it professional, personal, or for a contest like The Hackaday Prize, knows about marathon sessions. Those times when you put in your all and just push the project ahead until you drop. This scientist has definitely given his all and then some! He's catching a few winks right under the blackboard where he presumably has been working. This image has no caption, though it's attached to an album entitled Linac control room. None of the pictures seem to show much of a control room though. It seems that back in 1966, CERN's photographer was a bit more interested in sleeping scientists than the science itself!
So what do you think is happening in this image? Can you make anything interesting out from the diagrams on the blackboard? Give it a shot!
This week's prize is a Stickvice from The Hackaday Store.
Add your humorous caption as a comment to this project log. Make sure you're commenting on this contest log, not on the contest itself.
As always, if you actually have information about the image or the people in it, let CERN know on the original image discussion page.
Good Luck!
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Caption CERN Contest Week 19 Winner
06/18/2015 at 03:12 • 2 commentsWeek 19 is now in the record books, though we're sure we'll be getting "safety update" emails from HR about the incident for the next several weeks. Thanks to everyone who threw caution to the wind and submitted a caption! This definitely is some sort of medical or emergency room at CERN. We're still not quite clear as to why they need a full sized skeleton though. We have to wonder how many lab pranks that poor former-human has been part of.
The Funnies:
- "The second test subject survived a bit better than the first, and if you're wondering, the first test subject is standing in the corner"- jakewisher125
- "It soon became apparent that it had been a mistake to entrust site security to sharks with lasers." - Robb Smith
- "What do you mean blink once if it hurts? Are you serious?" - Rollyn01
This week's winner is Will Frankian with the following quote:
Congrats Will! Enjoy your LightBlue Bean from The Hackaday Store! -
Caption CERN Contest Week 19
06/11/2015 at 04:41 • 69 commentsWeek 19: 6/10/2015 - 9pm PDT 6/17/2015
Just about every workplace has to worry about safety. Many companies have a safety team that is trained to handle emergencies and help patients until proper medical technicians arrive. In a typical office environment this training is pretty easy, but what if you're working on the bleeding edge of science? CERN's safety team trains for everything, including badly burned hands and partially removed eyeballs. Don't worry, these are just simulated injuries, which is probably why this CERN scientist is so calm, even smiling for the photo! CERN's medical room also appears to be well stocked - with a full skeleton, and no less than four different types of fire extinguishers.
So, even though we already have a pretty good idea of what is going on in this photo (and the accompanying album), we're sure you'll come up with some great captions. Have at it!
This week's prize is a Lightblue Bean from The Hackaday Store.
Add your humorous caption as a comment to this project log. Make sure you're commenting on this contest log, not on the contest itself.
As always, if you actually have information about the image or the people in it, let CERN know on the original image discussion page.
Good Luck!
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Caption CERN Contest Week 18 Winner
06/11/2015 at 03:51 • 1 commentWeek 18 has faded into history, but not before you wrote some great captions! A hearty thanks to all the entrants. Astute reader jlbrian7 has done it again! He's uncovered the truth behind this image. The woman in this photo is manually analyzing photographs of charged particles taken in a bubble chamber. He linked to an article from Fermilab, and to a 1971 film about Gargamelle, CERN's largest bubble chamber at the time. The film is well worth a watch. It's aimed at the layman, explaining the design, construction, and operation of bubble chambers. The photo scanning section starts at 14:40. The film has plenty of "1970's-isms", such as referring to the women analyzing the photographs as "scanning girls". The filmmaker even bookend the section with an actual scanned girl - a possibly NSFW (by today's standards) ASCII art printout of a nude pinup model, as printed by a Control Data Corporation supercomputer.
The Funnies:
- "Tabatha, the dungeon master, plots tonight's dungeon and dragons game inside the exploded atom."- LloydTCannonIII
- "CERN, the only place you can watch Netflix on the same table that you eat lunch and plot global domination. Muwahahaha!" - Joshua
- "They take Kerbal Space Program very serious at CERN. Here you can see the first interactive real time orbital view display." - haxtormoogle
This week's winner is Jarrett with the following quote:
We're giving away two prizes this week - one to jlbrian7 for his research on this and other CERN images, and one to Jarrett for his winning caption! Congrats to both of you. Enjoy your Logic Pirates From The Hackaday Store!
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Caption CERN Contest Week 18
06/04/2015 at 05:04 • 62 commentsWeek 18: 6/3/2015 - 9pm PDT 6/10/2015
CERN is no stranger to innovative display systems. It should be no surprise, considering CERN staff are trying to work with massive amounts of data collected by thousands of scientists. Here we see one of those systems, a projection table of some sort.
Today video projectors are relatively cheap and easy to make, thanks to advances in LCD and MEMS technology. Back when this image was shot in 1979 though, video projectors were expensive and rare commodities. What was this scientist doing?
You tell us!
Once again, we're giving away a Logic Pirate from The Hackaday Store.
Add your humorous caption as a comment to this project log. Make sure you're commenting on this contest log, not on the contest itself.
As always, if you actually have information about the image or the people in it, let CERN know on the original image discussion page.
Good Luck!
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Caption CERN Contest Week 17 Winner
06/04/2015 at 04:12 • 0 commentsWeek 17 may now be a polished sheet metal memory, but the captions live on! Thanks to everyone who entered. We may never know exactly what these scientists and their ladder holding friend were up to. We do know a bit more about some of the equipment in that photo though! Astute reader Pierlu dropped a photo comment in the Blog showing some interesting lawn ornaments over at CERN. The device to the right looks quite a bit like the the device on the right side of our original image. We don't have a close-up to be sure, but chances are this part of a Cockcroft–Walton generator.
The Funnies:
- "...and six cute little kittens, too. I wonder how she got in here?Hey, hold that ladder steady, Schrödinger!" - sbi.gaijin
- "Good news: the shrink ray worked. Bad news: we have to escape the janitor's vacuum cleaner" - Cody
- "Archeology Professor Ammit Duat from the University of Cairo, assisting CERN engineer Jack Orsiris in changing the locks on the door to the Egyptian underworld" - carbonfiber
This week's winner is alj5432 with the following quote:
We're sure alj5432 will enjoy probing digital circuits with his new Logic Pirate From The Hackaday Store! Congratulations alj5432 !
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Caption CERN Contest Week 17
05/28/2015 at 04:44 • 112 commentsWeek 17: 5/27/2015 - 9pm PDT 6/3/2015
Coils, gleaming metal, giant domes, now this is a proper mad scientist image! The CERN scientists in this image seem to be working on a large metal device of some sort. It definitely looks like an electrode which would be at home either at CERN or the well equipped home lab of one Dr. Frankenstein's. We don't have a caption, but we do have a rough date of August, 1961. What is happening in this image? Are these scientists setting up an experiment, or plotting world domination?
You tell us!
This week we're giving away a Logic Pirate from The Hackaday Store.
Add your humorous caption as a comment to this project log. Make sure you're commenting on this contest log, not on the contest itself.
As always, if you actually have information about the image or the people in it, let CERN know on the original image discussion page.
Good Luck!
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Caption CERN Contest Week 16 Winner
05/28/2015 at 04:10 • 0 commentsWeek 16 just flew by, but not without sparking some cosmic comic genius in the minds of everyone who wrote a comment. Thanks to everyone who entered! If you followed the blog post, you already know that this image isn't an early POV display, or some sort of strange data display technique. It's actually a spark chamber. Spark chambers use high voltage and noble gases to create a visible trail of cosmic rays. Since this image is dated 1979, well after spark chambers were used for hard science, we're guessing it was part of a demonstration at CERN's labs.
The Funnies:
- "Here we see Doug playing a Massively Multilayer Pong game against his peers in the next building over." - John Kiniston
- "It said "Would you like to play a game?" and I said yes. Are those missile launch tracks?"- jonsmirl
- "Before Arduino you needed a whole room full of equipment to blink LEDs!" - mjrippe
After two weeks as a runner up, this week's winner is The Green Gentleman with the following quote:
We're sure The Green Gentleman will be very courteous to his fellow hackers in sharing his new Bus Pirate From The Hackaday Store! Congratulations The Green Gentleman !