It is my intention to build an instrument which will track the physical activity of sub-atomic particles and use that information to create a sculptural environment of light and sound using the data in real-time.

Over the next few weeks, I am going to update the Geiger – Mueller tube method of detecting alpha particles and ionizing radiation using contemporary materials and technology.  This new sensor will be incorporated into a large scale sculpture as well as wearable electronic jewelry.

In order to accomplish these goals I am rebuilding several experimental pieces of apparatus used to discover the presence of radiation during the late 1800s – early 1900s.

These are the objects referenced in the “dream review” exercise for thesis class.

There are a number of aspects of this project which I find compelling.  The first is that many key discoveries regarding the basic physics of why and how the subatomic world
works were produced within a relatively short period of time and that relatively primitive tools were used to do so.

I believe that presenting a re-examination of these early materials, techniques, and theories will create creative opportunities for like-minded individuals to explore room temperature sub-atomic interactions (or room temperature nuclear reactions) including the possibility of the generation of electricity by methods other than solar cells and thermocouples⁷.

Literature surrounding table-top nuclear pheomenae fusion suggests that investigation into the phenomenon first began with Dr. Tandberg (Sweden, 1927) whose electrochemical cell construction was used by Fleischmann and Pons sixty-two years later.

In 1887 Heinrich Hertz observed that sparks were emitted from a piece of metal struck by ultraviolet light. In 1927 Albert Einstein came up with an explanation of what became known as the photoelectric effect. A hundred and twenty-seven years after Hertz’s discovery, Bell Laboratories built  the direct ancestors of today’s solar cells to power spacecraft.

The facts are that low energy nuclear reactions have been investigated on and off for nearly one hundred years and that we utilize many of them today.  It is time that…. it is past time that this technology is brought to serve humanity before we destroy all that we hold beautiful.

A separate issue is that contemporary society has been saddled with increasingly restrictive government oversight/censorship of scientific observation.    Management of the LANDSAT imaging satellite was recently turned over to the Department of the Interior.⁸  The transfer of control of satellite data which has been so instrumental in gathering climate change data from NASA to an agency with other agendas, is chilling.   There are other examples in Canada and the United States of a similar scale, including the harassment of scientists.

During the BP oil spill, President Obama’s administration made media coverage of the event illegal – and punishable by a $40,000 fine.  Recent events in Japan have conspired to create a new secrecy law restricting media from covering industrial disasters: specifically  Fukushima’s reactors.  It is interesting to me that President Obama has not only supported this new law, but has also expanded existing anti-terrorism legislation to extend to fracking operations, water treatment plants, and other targets affecting “national security.”

Given this atmosphere of mistrust, I believe the average citizen should have access to accurate, affordable radiation detection instrumentation and that the data should be easily viewable on line.  It is my intention to create a wearable and to open source the technology for others to be able to create their own devices.  Through the advisement and support of ITP’s resident scientist, Eric Rosenthal I will be able to do just that.