This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Todd Feathers, Gizmodo:The Large Hadron Collider is 27 kilometers in circumference.
The collider youve proposed building in the Gulf of Mexico is about 2,000 kilometers in circumference.
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Why is bigger better?
It means you have to go to more exotic superconductors than our good old friend niobium-titanium.
Or, you have to get out the tunnelers and tunnel a much larger circumference tunnel.
It would open a range for discovery.
Gizmodo:What is a particle accelerator and how does it work?
McIntyre:In the case of a hadron collider, you start with a bottle of hydrogen gas.
The gas is ionized by putting it into a cell that contains electrodes and an intense radio frequency field.
The proton is the nucleus of the hydrogen atom.
So its a jim-dandy thing to start with if you want to probe the inner structure of nuclear matter.
You then take the stripped protons and accelerate them in an electric field.
Gizmodo:Building an underwater ring of magnets the size of the Gulf of Mexico seems pretty challenging.
How would it be done?
On the top would be utterly unthinkable because of all of the marine commerce of human society.
Its basically just like an onboard motor, mounted on a stem at several locations along the ship.
And the motor can be turned 360 degrees.
you’re able to rotate it in any direction you want to deliver thrust.
Well, my only answer to that is, yes, I understand that.
Indeed, Ive participated in building a few.
Gizmodo:How much would the collider in the sea likely cost?
In other words, youve not really gone nuts.
But it doesnt cross that.
Gizmodo:How confident are you that theres something else that could only be discovered with a bigger collider?
I would say Im strongly hopeful, but I am not confident.
McIntyre:Thats a piece of epistemology.
You cant say why its important until you know what it is.
And when he was asked by people from the press What importance do you see in that?
Those were his words, right?
News from the future, delivered to your present.
Its One Particle Accelerator, Michael.
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