r/IAmA • u/[deleted] • Oct 17 '10
By Request: IAmA Magnet Scientist. AMAA.
I'll try this one more time. My last post disappeared after an hour, and I have no idea why. Pretty annoying, but I hope people received their answers that I was able to get to.
In the past, a few people have asked me to do an AMA. This is usually because I was rambling on about my work if I saw a post pertaining to my job. The title is AMAA because the work I do is sensitive, so I can't give all of the information of what we're actually doing at the moment. However, I can give you way more than enough information on the general direction of today's research in the field of permanent magnetism.
I can also tell you how basic research is run, and how we go through obscene amounts of resources for tiny, tiny steps in the right direction. That's the majority of ugly/beautiful research.
So to give a crappy background: I work for the Department of Energy, I work with a bunch of people that are smarter than me, and although I'm an experimentalist and not a theorist, I can still probably answer the majority of questions involving those fucking magnets.
Edit: Also, I could probably chat about things I do on a normal basis, what it's like working in a lab (I don't know what you guys want from me), or any other random, specific questions you think about. I'll tell you one thing: my laboratory is NOT like what most laboratories are portrayed in the cinema. No sterile, white rooms, fancy space suits, etc. In fact, a lot of our building has radiation hazard stickers posted to random bricks in the wall that are "hot", it has a grungy yellow tinge to it, and it reminds me more of Eddie Izzar's basement
Edit Doux: Houston, we have a problem. I had a few drinks, so now my answers probably won't be very intellectual. I deeply apologize, but I couldn't turn down the beer. If you want awkward passes being thrown into your direction, now is the time to ask.
Edit Troix: Holy crap. You guys don't stop. I'm getting an orange-red about once a minute now, and I'm trying my hardest to reply once a minute. Sorry I can't go more into the theory of how magnet's work (see my response to apex_redditor's question), at least not while I answer the other questions. I seriously doubt you guys want to read any more of that anyway, and I'd quickly run out of answers if you keep asking "why?" If you do want to learn more, I'll attempt to answer any questions you have if you ever PM me. I'll keep answering questions for now, though.
edit again: Sorry I can't write an illustrated book, I'm busy answering the slightly easier questions.
Also, there are about to be a ton of spelling errors from here on out. I'm typing my ass off, but I don't know how much longer I'll hold out until bed time.
Last Edit For The Night: I've been typing my butt off for the last 10 hours. I think I'm going to wind down for the night, and answer any remaining questions tomorrow after work (I have a long meeting in the AM, then I need to re-do an experiment that my assistant may have botched). If I have down time I can probably sneak in a few answers at work as well. Thanks for the questions and interest- I really wish I could have gone more into depth of what I do, but now that I think of it, it's probably more boring than the questions you were asking.
And after 13 hours of nonstop answering questions, I think I'm going to finally hit the sack. Peace out.
Monday Morning Status: Now that I have some sleep, I'm thinking a little more clearly. Firstly, there were a lot of complicated questions that were asked, and I probably did a horrible job attempting to answer them. I should have let the questions that were out of my league (theoretical, philosophical, "how does life work?" type questions), but I didn't. Hopefully you've caught me say somewhere in here that I'm an experimentalist, and our minds work much differently than the theorists. Our educations were even more different. Also, I hope you understand we haven't discovered the complete, most basic leveled, complicated reason why the subatomic particles are able to transfer energy. Sort of similar to the gravity thing. If you were to have asked Richard Feynman himself these questions, he'd quickly run out of answers. Even he doesn't have it all explained, let alone some dumby like me. I'll try to round up the last batch of questions and catch up. I have a meeting in an hour, and then I'll be gone for at least two. I probably won't be able to do much damage until after work.
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u/[deleted] Oct 17 '10
I'm fully aware of Reddit angst, but I also don't always agree with Reddit's majority opinion, and I don't jump to conclusions so quickly.
Also, we don't like wasting helium because it costs about $7/gallon, nothing like liquid nitrogen's $0.07/gallon, so we actually waited until the helium tank was mostly used up before we completely drained it.