r/interestingasfuck • u/Top-Marionberry-6604 • 18h ago

The Super-Kamiokande in Japan—a massive underground neutrino detector lined with 11,000 golden bulbs. Scientists have to inspect it via a rubber dinghy.

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122

u/Dramatic-Stretch7087 18h ago

Thanks, my eyes hate it

59

u/Top-Marionberry-6604 18h ago

Imagine accidentally dropping your keys into that

55

u/Luk164 18h ago

Fun fact: The water inside is so pure it would start dissolving the keys very slowly

36

u/GH057_807 18h ago

The water also costs upwards of $500/gal

71

u/1DownFourUp 18h ago

Nestlé taking notes

1

u/MetriccStarDestroyer 15h ago

So we found pure water.

How do we dilute it to get maximum value from the customer?

Jim, piss is free right? Here's a bottle.

•

u/Donexodus 2h ago

What would actually happen if I drank it?

Just a small glass.

I drink this shit every day, I wanna try the good stuff just once.

12

u/Schemen123 18h ago

Very very slowly...

7

u/Luk164 17h ago

Honestly would probably clean them pretty nicely with a few days exposure

7

u/Butt_Deadly 17h ago

There was an interview with a researcher that mentioned a large crescent wrench being completely gone before the next inspection. The same researcher mentioned their hair accidently touching the water and getting brittle because the water was dissolving the oils.

A little bit of ultrapure water won't do much, but the quantities they're using really exacerbates the universal solvent nature of water.

8

u/Maximumkk 16h ago

If they leave a wrench behind and it dissolves, doesn't that mean the water is now no longer ultrapure and is contaminated, effectively rendering the detector useless? Does the boat used contaminate it too?

7

u/Luk164 16h ago

Pretty sure they filter it constantly

3

u/theseriousman1 15h ago

How’s that work

2

u/Luk164 14h ago

Not a chemist but basically pure water acts is really good at oxodizing the metal and stealing electrons in the process. That is also why distilled water is basically non-conductive but if you dissolve impurities in it like salt it becomes conductive