How To: Assemble a large hadron collider

One of my favorite parts about going on tours of laboratories are the signs and jokes that scientists post on office doors and lab walls. This gem comes from the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.

The obvious question: How do you transport an infinite number of protons home from IKEA? Does that fit on the little cardboard roof rack?

Maggie Koerth-Baker is the science editor at BoingBoing.net. She writes a monthly column for The New York Times Magazine and is the author of Before the Lights Go Out, a book about electricity, infrastructure, and the future of energy. You can find Maggie on Twitter and Facebook.

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MORE: lab tour • lol • physics • posters • Science

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shanghaied

Those aren’t electrons Maggie, electrons are negatively charged. The LHC shoots positively charged protons (and nuclei).
- http://maggiekb.com/ Maggie Koerth-Baker
  
  Ack! Yes. Sorry. Typing too quickly and thinking about other stuff. Will fix.
monitorhead

Futurama reference? the Prof makes a super collider out of Swedish furniture factory parts.. delivered by a Swedish furniture factory robot, that slowly falls apart leaving the building. lol
Guest

on the head of a pîn.
Bonobo

Where is this at LBNL? I would like to check it out.
http://mattdm.org/ Matthew Miller

Looks like original is from http://8.media.collegehumor.cvcdn.com/90/69/d772520dd7706bb5ed8211e77b187c6f.jpg
- http://mattdm.org/ Matthew Miller
  
  Part of a series, although I think the LHC is the clear winner: http://www.collegehumor.com/article/6340023/if-ikea-made-instructions-for-everything
Mark Dow

Protons are cheaper online, just charge them to a credit card.
alfanovember

I bought one of those, but it only came with 8,999,995 of the little alignment dowels.
http://twitter.com/sirkowski Sirkowski

Looks easier than my futon.
http://twitter.com/lucyrickyalex Chris Schumacher

Don’t forget the FLÅARB!

http://teamcoco.com/video/ikea-television
Jeremy Pickett

i guffawed in RL :D
Roy Trumbull

An type of art seldom exhibited in museums consists of those clever things found posted in cubicles at tech companies. I took a tour of such a company with a group one evening and the cubicles I happened to walk by were the highlight.
iondiode

Enjoy your affordable swedish crap! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QEwzbHJNkwg
Antinous / Moderator

1) You cut two holes in a box.
2)…..What? Hadron? Is that a word? Never mind then.
http://twitter.com/dexitroboper dexitroboper

How do you transport an infinite number of protons home from IKEA?

Magnets. Huge f***ing magnets.
- Guest
  
  IKEA, how does it work?
10xor01

Those Swedes sure know how to put in almost everything you need!
http://www.facebook.com/people/Mac-Nachlas/1143263023 Mac Nachlas

What does one do with the leftover parts? I followed the directions scrupulously but still had a handful of protons when I finished……