Seen above is a photo by Kate McApline of a decommissioned copper radiofrequency cavity from CERN's Large Electron Positron collider. The objet is now a decorative feature in CERN's garden. New Scientist has a feature on where big science goes to die. From New Scientist:
News of a project's death travels, and soon scientists around the planet are competing for the chance to acquire some serious hardware. A hospital may need particle beams for cancer treatment, say. There are also commercial uses for power supplies. Out of odd parts, whimsical scientists can construct works of art. And particle accelerators, with their beam-bending magnets, are mother lodes of iron and copper. The car you drive may contain steel that in another life formed the core of a cyclotron. With commodity prices soaring and serious amounts of valuable metals in big physics projects, some machines and experiments may be worth more now than when they were built (see chart). Could selling them to others lead to even bigger machines and more profound discoveries?
Science supermachines in the scrapyard (gallery), Where do science supermachines go when they die? (feature article)
