Each cerenkov radiation exposure photo took 40 minutes.

April 23, 2008 1:24 PM

Previously on the blue, Photographer Taryn Simon's award winning book collects photographs taken from her latest exhibition of realities of which most of us are completely oblivious.

More photos can be found here , but there are repeats so I left them off the front page.

posted by Large Marge (22 comments total)

Awesome photographs. A retarded inbred tiger. Playboy in braille. Who knew indeed?
posted by GuyZero at 1:36 PM on April 23, 2008

Thanks for sharing Marge, this is an excellent find. It really is a wild ride of items at the edge of mudane awareness. Great line, "realities of which most of us are completely oblivious".
posted by davemee at 1:42 PM on April 23, 2008

That's a very cool collection of images.
posted by chunking express at 1:56 PM on April 23, 2008

Even the photos of inanimate objects were imbued with life. That's talent.
posted by Alison at 1:58 PM on April 23, 2008

I still can't believe that all that data goes through those little cables.
posted by cowbellemoo at 1:58 PM on April 23, 2008

The photo of the reactor cores is amazing - I never thought I'd get to see Cherenkov radiation. With any luck I never will, at least in person.
posted by lekvar at 2:02 PM on April 23, 2008

I would have preferred to see a photo of the braille Playboy centerfold.
posted by The Card Cheat at 2:12 PM on April 23, 2008

I would never have imagined there was such a thing as a body farm.
posted by Termite at 2:13 PM on April 23, 2008

Holy crap, that just makes me want to be able to see Cherenkov radiation up close and personal even more -- it's so amazingly eery and beautiful. The rest of these are awesome too. I completely agree with Alison about the artist imbuing inanimate objects with life.

NUCLEAR ENGINEER
That's not a reactor core, it's just a pool of water. The water's there both to help keep the containers cool and block the radiation -- something like 10 ft of water (can't remember off the top of my head and it's not my specialty) can actually block radiation to levels that are completely safe to humans.
/NUCLEAR ENGINEER

posted by malthas at 2:19 PM on April 23, 2008 [1 favorite]

NUCLEAR ENGINEER
Pfft. Yeah right. You expect me to believe you when you've misspelled "nukular?"
posted by lekvar at 2:36 PM on April 23, 2008 [1 favorite]

Re: the cores: "I found this one section that resembled the U.S. That was a great find."

Looks like that Viagra shipment arrived in Florida okay.
posted by fleetmouse at 2:48 PM on April 23, 2008

did anyone else get an assassin's creed ad in the picture frame at one point? I got it when the CIA Fine Art caption was up, and I was... confused, to the say the least.
posted by rooftop secrets at 3:19 PM on April 23, 2008

Facinatingly creepy. I felt bad for the tiger though. Poor thing.
posted by Marie Mon Dieu at 3:30 PM on April 23, 2008

I got it too, rooftop. Huh.

I was going to say that the Body Farm could totally use its own FPP, but it turns out it sort of already had one: Previously.
posted by naoko at 3:52 PM on April 23, 2008

"The blue glow is created by the Cherenkov Effect. which describes the electromagnetic radiation emitted when a charged particle, giving off energy, moves faster than light through a transparent medium."

Let's try this, instead:
"The blue glow is created by the Cherenkov Effect, which describes the electromagnetic radiation emitted when a charged particle gives off energy by moving through a medium faster than the speed of light in that medium."

I still don't like the 'describes' in there, but I think it's a bit clearer now. You cannot travel faster than c but you can travel faster than c/n.
posted by Eideteker at 5:09 PM on April 23, 2008

malthas- 16 feet of water. At least that's what's the minimum for a TRIGA reactor. Not sure about other open-pool reactors.

The Cherenkov radiation one is fantastic. I want that on my wall.
posted by Hactar at 6:06 PM on April 23, 2008

I actually laughed when I saw the cables. Great photos.
posted by Faint of Butt at 7:15 PM on April 23, 2008

Does that mean cherenkov radiation is incredibly faint in reactors? If I can't see it with my own eyes I will likely be very disappointed sometime in the future.
posted by you're a kitty! at 8:05 PM on April 23, 2008

To me, the inbred white tiger was the most amazing photo. How many of those exist for every one of the "entertaining" tigers? How terribly sad.

I liked the photo of the cherenkov radiation, as well, and the room where all the confiscated food goes. Take that, you customs fools! You may have gotten that cankerous lime, but you didn't get my Irish bacon! Mwa ha ha haaaaaaaa!
posted by vorfeed at 8:34 PM on April 23, 2008

Playboy in braille. I had no idea. I guess some people really do just read it for the articles.
posted by Pater Aletheias at 9:50 PM on April 23, 2008

Does that mean cherenkov radiation is incredibly faint in reactors? If I can't see it with my own eyes I will likely be very disappointed sometime in the future.

Nope. You can see it with the naked eye.
posted by alby at 9:11 AM on April 24, 2008

I saw this exhibition in London last year and it made my head explode with happiness.
posted by hot soup girl at 1:35 PM on April 24, 2008 [1 favorite]