Large Hadron Collider: A Russian Scientist Accidently Put His Head Inside a Particle Accelerator and Didn’t develop Super Powers or Die
With all the news about the Large Hadron Collider I thought readers of this blog would be interested in what happened to a Russian Scientist named Anatoli Petrovich Bugorski in 1978.
As a 36 year old researcher at the Institute for High Energy Physics in Protvino, Bugorski used to work with the largest Soviet particle accelerator, the synchrotron U-70. On July 13, 1978, Bugorski was checking a malfunctioning piece of equipment when an accident occurred due to failed safety mechanisms. Bugorski was leaning over the piece of equipment when he stuck his head in the part through which the proton beam was running. Reportedly, he saw a flash “brighter than a thousand suns”, but did not feel any pain. The beam measured about 2000 gray when it entered Bugorski’s skull, and about 3000 gray when it exited after colliding with the inside of his head.
The left half of Bugorski’s face swelled up beyond recognition, and over the next several days started peeling off, showing the path that the proton beam (moving near the speed of light) had burned through parts of his face, his bone, and the brain tissue underneath. As it was believed that about 5 to 6 grays is enough to kill a person, Bugorski was taken to a clinic in Moscow where the doctors could observe his expected demise. However, Bugorski survived and even completed his Ph.D. There was virtually no damage to his intellectual capacity, but the fatigue of mental work increased markedly. Bugorski completely lost hearing in the left ear and only a constant, unpleasant internal noise remained. The left half of his face was paralyzed, due to the destruction of nerves.He is able to function perfectly well, save the fact that he has occasional petit mal seizures and very occasional grand mal seizures. Needless to say he didn’t develop Super Powers like in the comic books and didn’t die.
Bugorski continued to work in science, and held the post of Coordinator of physics experiments. Because of the Soviet Union’s policy of maintaining secrecy on Nuclear power-related issues, Bugorski did not speak about the accident for over a decade. He would go to the Moscow radiation clinic twice a year, for examination, and to commune with other nuclear-accident victims. For years, he remained a poster boy for Soviet and Russian radiation medicine. In 1996, he applied for disabled status, to receive his free epilepsy medication. Bugorski showed interest in making himself available for study to Western researchers, but couldn’t afford to leave Protvino and go west.
Please note this information came from Wikipedia under its free use text policy as I could not find any other sources for this information and I thought readers of this blog would be interested in it. If anyone at Wikipedia feels I’ve misinterpreted their policy, please let me know in correspondence in the comment section with an appropriate email and phone number that I can verify and the article will be deleted, as it is not my intention to violate Wikipedia’s policy if that is the case.
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