Acrylic fractal art made by bombarding slabs of plastic in a particle accelerator

Todd Johnson's Shockfossils are "multimillion volt Lichtenberg figures in acrylic." He masks acrylic slabs with lead and then rents time on a commercial particle accelerator and the result are beautiful, fern-like fractals.

Shockfossils on deviantART

I write books. My latest is a YA science fiction novel called Homeland (it's the sequel to Little Brother). More books: Rapture of the Nerds (a novel, with Charlie Stross); With a Little Help (short stories); and The Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow (novella and nonfic). I speak all over the place and I tweet and tumble, too.

MORE: art • fractals • happy mutants • Science

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http://twitter.com/amanicdroid Mari Lwyd

And we’ll start the conversation off with that ol’ chestnut:

But is it Art, art, or something else?
- miasm
  
  did someone say chestnuts?
  - http://twitter.com/amanicdroid Mari Lwyd
    
    Did someone mention horse chestnuts?
  - http://twitter.com/amanicdroid Mari Lwyd
    
    a wild image appears and stalks my previous comment..
Nathaniel

Very cool indeed. But the video left me with one question: what’s that big industrial electron beam used for when it’s not making art?
- tjohnson
  
  Good question! This facility produces crosslinked polymer products such as PEX tubing and some automotive and appliance parts.
http://pulse.yahoo.com/_OAUXAA362EXWLYVMPJOKLFB5JQ Incipient Madness

When I make my sci-fi epic film, damage to the ship’s armor is going to look like this.
DoctorD

For over ~four decades medical physicists have been goofing around making these discharge patterns in acrylic using high energy electron beams from clinical linear accelerators (treatment machines). I particularly like the 3D effects seen in thick blocks of acrylic. However, I’m not sure I’d want a 200 pound slab of irradiated acrylic hanging on my wall as “art” since the plastic is liable to suddenly fracture along these very fault lines. Doug, Ph.D.
- http://twitter.com/james4765 Jim Nelson
  
  Actually, the residual stresses go away pretty quickly – a friend of mine has one made in the early 90s that is quite stable. Provided you don’t go completely insane in how you charge it, there’s still plenty of solid material left.
  
  I’ve never heard of one just breaking under its own weight, but then again, there are very few Lichtenberg figures around that are that big – those sell for thousands of dollars…
  - blueelm
    
    I wonder if there is a way to make it more stable afterwards or keep the pieces in place.
    - EvilTerran
      
      Inject some kind of dyed resin into the gaps, maybe? Although I doubt you’d be able to get it into all the fine details.
  - tjohnson
    
    Right, Jim. The pieces are quite stable even if dropped on the floor hard enough to chip a corner off. Crossed polarizers show little internal stress.
    
    Now I _have_ tried to do this with glass just for fun. Although it can be charged and a faint figure will form, it’s not reliably stable. Some last a long time, some crumble after a day or so, and some just explode when merely touched with the discharge tool.
HahTse

How is this fractal?
- Alice Bentley
  
  From the DeviantArt page:
  As the charges leave the plastic, they gather into channels following fractal branching rules just like river deltas, plants, and capillaries. Controlling the energy and placement of the beam determines the final shape and character of the resulting figure.
  - HahTse
    
    …so it’s no more fractal than a tree.
    
    Oh well, it’s quite beautiful nonetheless.
    - travtastic
      
      As opposed to what?
      - HahTse
        
        A fractal. You know. Like a Koch snowflake or a Mandelbrot set.
        
        Or what did you mean?
    - GlenBlank
      
      …so it’s no more fractal than a tree.
      
      Perhaps more precisely, it’s no less fractal than a tree.
      - HahTse
        
        Of course.
  - nphighview
    
    For those of you who don’t already know Todd, he’s a physicist at Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, so if anyone would know where there’s commercial accelerator time to rent, he would!
kthugha

they are fractal the same way lightning bolts are fractal.
liquidstar

I don t know. The technique is… convoluted and interesting, but they have all the charm of a laminated business card. and those cookie cutter pieces, awful.
Peter James

Am I the only one that’s surprised that you can rent time on a particle accelerator?!?
- http://artdonovan.typepad.com Art
  
  No, you are not! :)
http://noctilucent-studios.blogspot.com/ Noctilucent Studios

THIS right here is why I love BB so much. Holy Cow, that is just plain awesome!!!

also, who knew that one could rent time on a “commercial particle accelerator”?!
- http://artdonovan.typepad.com Art
  
  Maybe he’s talking about that commercial particle accelerator that’s sandwiched in between Embroideries-R-Us and the Copper Roofing King in the old industrial park.
gadgetphile

The Lightning Foundry Kickstarter project (previously covered here) also had those as a reward- that’s the reason I signed up for the $300 level.