I found dark matter ,,, IN MY PANTS!

Um, in India they find gold in dark matter.

something something something....you're mom's black hole....

WHERE IN TARNATION IS THAT DAGNABBIT HIGGS BOSON?!

Homestake?

*looks at article*

Yep Homestake

Mining black matter? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08RF_A5Lh2s

Funded mostly by the State of SD and by one very rich subprime credit card dude T Denny Sanford.

http://sanfordlab.org/

There's some federal money there but between those two sources they've poured a couple hundred million dollars into that hole in the ground hoping the feds and other countries would take interest.  Highly unusual for a little state to put hard money into something like that.  It first had to have water pumped out which took several years due to several cubic miles of water being in there.

I think it's great.  Much better than just becoming another Superfund site and it's given the town a new identity.  Plus the mine pit is really impressive.

brandent: It first had to have water pumped out which took several years due to several cubic miles of water being in there.

Yeah, Just keeping the mine dewatered and ventilated is an expensive job.

Also, from reading up on the mine, it appears that NSF has selected the mine as the Deep Underground Science and Engineering Labratory

HeadLever: brandent: It first had to have water pumped out which took several years due to several cubic miles of water being in there.

Yeah, Just keeping the mine dewatered and ventilated is an expensive job.

Also, from reading up on the mine, it appears that NSF has selected the mine as the Deep Underground Science and Engineering Labratory[upload.wikimedia.org image 850x534]

I wonder, do they find bugs or bacteria down there? How deep do you still find life into the ground, as opposed to the ocean? I wonder how creepy it must be down there if you are claustrophic??

based on what i've seen, i know this guy won't find nothing...

toraque: Mojang really needs to stop these strange updates and focus on the core of the game.

Came for this.

Thar be dark gold in them thar hills!

Doesn't really matter to me.

Quantum Apostrophe: I wonder, do they find bugs or bacteria down there?

I don't think so.  Most of the water down there is bedrock entrained where the mobility is limited to milimeters per year or even less.  Anything living down there would have to have a baseline dependent upon a chemical metabolism from the inorganic minerals  avaliable in such a setting.

Though, in this case, significant geothermal energy may be avaliable.

Typically, you don't find bacteria in groundwater unless it is under the influence of surface water.

how much dark matter u want
american dollar = dark matter

Quantum Apostrophe: HeadLever: brandent: It first had to have water pumped out which took several years due to several cubic miles of water being in there.

Yeah, Just keeping the mine dewatered and ventilated is an expensive job.

Also, from reading up on the mine, it appears that NSF has selected the mine as the Deep Underground Science and Engineering Labratory[upload.wikimedia.org image 850x534]

I wonder, do they find bugs or bacteria down there? How deep do you still find life into the ground, as opposed to the ocean? I wonder how creepy it must be down there if you are claustrophic??

I went into the mine and attended a research presentation on it.  Yes they are looking for extremophiles (sp?).  Down deep it is a very very hot environment and is special in many many ways.  It goes so deep you'd think they'd find a Balrog or two.  There are more than just neutrinos to study there.  Besides the cooties that live there, there is also the unique way you can do seismic studies.  It offers unparalleled ability to study the earth's mantle and core or earthquakes.  You can get 3-D seismic readings by placing sensors at various depths.  The problem with the NSF selection is funding.  the State of SD along T Denny Sanford personally have had to keep the thing afloat by sinking tens of millions into it while the NSF and other agencies somehow get the funding.  There is no other hole in the ground like it.

relaxitsjustme: TFA didn't explain shait

They stuck a large tank liquid xenon in a very deep hole hoping to have some detectable effect on it (that isn't caused by known stuff). Xenon reacts to being hit with stuff in very specific ways, basically, so you can watch it and know what hit it. Being so deep means the Earth itself shields the tank from a lot of what could otherwise cause too much noise in the measurements.

Doctor Sheldon Cooper finally sees pathway to the elusive Nobel Prize that he covets.

Penny rolls her eyes once again and tells him to just switch off the lights.

brandent: There is no other hole in the ground like it.

Wait till they bury subby's mom.

Tanukis_Parachute: based on what i've seen, i know this guy won't find nothing...

[static.ddmcdn.com image 300x300]

He will still get picked up by some mining crew and will try to talk a good game while continuing his streak of ineptitude.  Guy strikes me as a burned out hippie, who failed at even making a good stereotypical hippie.

\ Now to go find some fricking dark matter since finding fricking gold wasn't happening.
\\ Fricking.

Meh, gold isn't that useful.  Iron is much better for tools.

relaxitsjustme: TFA didn't explain shait

Neither does the LUX site. Hey they're using a 350 kg liquid xenon time-projection chamber. Doesn't everyone know what that is?

"The stars are matter, We're matter, But it doesn't matter."

- Captain Beefheart

HeadLever: Also, from reading up on the mine, it appears that NSF has selected the mine as the Deep Underground Science and Engineering Labratory

I just hope they finish installing all the emergency substations before doing any experiments there. Don't want a repeat of what happened back in the 70's..


=Smidge=

So, if they find any dark matter, the Sioux own it

HeadLever: Homestake?

*looks at article*

Yep Homestake

Ah yes, Lead, SD.  Deadwood's broke cousin.

I graduated from Lead High School back when the mine was still in operation (prior to the traffic light being installed in Deadwood).  One of the courses required for graduation was "Life Education" in which we learned essential skills like how to fill out an application for a job in the mine, how to fill out forms for financial assistance and WIC, and the names/locations of various relief organizations in town.

And then one day, we learned how to fill out tax returns- including an entire section on how to report your earnings from your stock investments.  I was like "WTF?"  We're poor-ass white trash who can't afford to feed our families because our shiat jobs in the mine didn't pay enough to live on, but we can still afford to play the stock market?

*insert M.U.L.E reference here*


/not obscure. Not on Fark.

darth_badger: I found dark matter ,,, IN MY PANTS!

Then shouldn't it be a lot bigger?

Been following this for a few years....mostly because an old college buddy is involved in it.  Many many jokes about WIMPs have been made at his expense.

You need at least a diamond pickaxe to mine for dark matter.

MarkEC: Hey they're using a 350 kg liquid xenon time-projection chamber. Doesn't everyone know what that is?

The details are here (LGT PDF)... pages 12 & on...

They idea, I think, is to detect the WIMP recoil on a Xe nuclues, which should produce primary scintillation light and energy deposition in the Xe. The energy deposition produces ionization clusters, which are drifted at constant speed to the ends of the TPC by an electric field. These clusters are measured in time buckets so one can then know where in the interior the ionization occurred. This is how "TPCs" work in general, the STAR experiment at RHIC also has one, which uses a specific gas, not a liquid.
The scintillation light is detected by photomultiplier tubes, which are fast. I assume that this light is used as the trigger to begin the readout of the TPC (which is slow). cheers