Firing radioactive stuff at high speed under city streets

[@TomScottGo]

Going to use this to plug my other stuff: there's a new Technical Difficulties season over at kzbin.info and Lateral continues at lateralcast.com and kzbin.info !

[@tacohead8543]

Tom accidentally shows that he's a time traveler once again. 3 damn days ago.

[@lahavmorris9919]

Epic vid

[@uttams.6033]

Another great video, also UBC is an amazing university!

[@harleywoods9619]

3 days ago?

[@freddierhodes8201]

@@harleywoods9619 uploads them privately in advance, then releases them later

[@ondank]

Yang : Fluently explains the complex elements behind getting the isotope and sending them to the hospital Also Yang : What happens when it gets there? Beats me, fricking magic those chemists.

[@ThisGM]

If it's more than two particles, three in special circumstances, it's just too complicated for physicists.

[@reganator5000]

an expert is all too aware of exactly how much they do not know.

[@ondank]

@@reganator5000 very true but it was just so funny to hear technically explain everything and then go "and at this stage chemistry magic happens"

[@lewismassie]

When it comes to high-level scientists, their knowledge is often a mile deep but only an inch wide.

[@Irondragon1945]

Only someone with fundamental understanding of a subject really knows how deep the rabbit hole goes or something

[@Eyes0penNoFear]

I used to work at a bank, and this reminds me of the drive-thru tubes used to send money and whatnot back and forth. One weekend while at work I was really hungry. The lobby was closed on weekends, and we were encouraged to stay inside for the entire shift so we didn't have to unlock exterior doors. But I was hungry. So I called Jimmy John's and asked them if they thought a sandwich would fit through one of our tubes. They obviously had never been asked that question before, but were willing to try. It worked perfectly, and the driver got a nice tip!

[@pattheplanter]

Money has a half-life, though longer than 20 minutes in most countries.

[@bella380]

Great story! Thank you for sharing.

[@catherinegarmon3027]

Tip from you, or a hundo from the drawer?

[@Eyes0penNoFear]

@@catherinegarmon3027 haha! As long as my drawer balanced at the end of the day, it doesn't matter 😉

[@gefloigle]

Whoa, hold the vacuum tube for a second, professor. You found a Jimmy John’s that had a delivery radius greater than 35 feet?!

[@reddevilfan100]

I work in the same department as a lot of PET imaging and we have a group that makes lots of radio-pharmaceuticals which then need to go to an imaging facility. Luckily for us that imaging facility is right across the street so I'll often see grad students wheeling a dolly with a lead-shielded ammo box to move them rather than a high speed pneumatic tube!

[@hammerth1421]

I study chemistry in Hamburg and the technical chemistry and pharmaceutical departments are on the other side of the street from the main chemistry faculty, so you often get people in labcoats carrying samples in quartz tubes over a zebra crossing.

[@SerPodrick]

That's a lot of work to take a image of a dog

[@maddog2314]

Ahh I was wondering. I learned about PET imaging in orgo 2 and the prof told us it had to be synthesized and transported quickly. Of course not every hospital is gonna do it the same! It is cool that they have their own cyclotrons though.

[@TheBanana93]

@@hammerth1421 I love it.

[@luddington6800]

I know right? Just move the dog in a shielded ammo box on a dolly to the imaging facility and take the picture there

[@declantuffy9385]

It's called the rabbit line as an internal pipe diameter gauge (like the thing sent down the tubes here) is called a rabbit in the oilfield/pipeline industry, part of a long line of animal-themed nicknames: - Rabbit: internal pipe diameter gauge - Pig: plug pumped along to scrape inside of pipe and clean it - Fish: something dropped inside the pipe you need to go and "fish" out - Pup: a shorter than normal joint of pipe - Mouse hole: A hole in the floor for standing up a section of pipe before joining it to the rest - Bull plug: A blank/blind-ended plug that seals off the pipe

[@Obscurai]

And all the Rathole drilling companies.

[@sarahprunierlaw9147]

neat!

[@vigilantcosmicpenguin8721]

Cool. I didn't expect there'd be a real answer to that question.

[@jimdennis2451]

We had an old pneumatic tube system on my Navy ship. We called it the "bunny tube".

[@krakenpots5693]

Ah, that's not the explanation I know... mine is more akin the the cleaning device being known as a rabbit...

[@Valhallosaur]

Surely the "Rabbit Line" moniker comes from being something relatively small and quick moving through a tunnel underground?

[@adrianbik3366]

And maybe also the fact that it's related to medical tests

[@JustMe-dc6ks]

And or a corruption of rapid.

[@Vydra-]

Or how the rabbit “hops” from one place to another quickly

[@MrPlusses]

Or a researcher named it to honour her favorite toy?

[@Nastyswimmer]

and "Rat Run" probably wouldn't be so appealing

[@PQRDG]

As a Canadian, I am very glad Tom Scott has taught me a lot of things I didn’t know about my country over the past few weeks

[@cloverhighfive]

And as a Canadian, I also know the distances he traveled between the places he went to... 0_o this trip can't be labeled as "ah, while I'm the area"... 😂

[@aselwyn1]

@@cloverhighfive i know right there was a lot of flying involved for this

[@krashd]

@@aselwyn1 I don't think Tom would fly unless there was water as an obstacle.

[@aselwyn1]

@@krashd i highly doubt he drove or took any train from the maritimes to British Columbia.

[@chris_cookies]

one of my favorite video titles to date

[@leepik6027]

Yea

[@noahford9605]

I go to school at UBC and I'd never heard of this before. Thank you Tom for educating millions around the world. You are a treasure.

[@aris9392]

Yea it’s actually really cool to see that he came all the way to van

[@ryan_alexander]

@@aris9392 fr tho I love learning things about van that I never knew before

[@Andrew-gu8uw]

same! i just started at ubc a few days ago and I just remembered randomly that tom had come here for a video... it's so weird knowing he's come to van hahaha

[@yolkies]

@@Andrew-gu8uw bro i live right down the road from TRIUMF i can literally see my apartment on Berton from the overhead portion of the video, freaked me out a bit when i saw it haha

[@MakeItWithCalvin]

I have had a digestion test with I believe radioactive sulfur in an egg once. That was fun when your food comes with a radioactive sticker on it. That being said the ability to track stuff via radioactive tracers is incredible.

[@ed_j_webb]

I misread that as "...the ability to track staff..." and wondered what kind of Orwellian company you were running.

[@officialtripleb2013]

Where do you live? Don't they use barium?

[@SeanBZA]

@@officialtripleb2013 If they are investigating the transport through the digestive tract into the liver you need radioactive amino acids, that will be transported there through the blood. Thus the making of short lived sulphur, that is incorporated into amino acids, and then blended into an egg white as transport and dilutant method. Barium just improves X ray contrast in the CT scanner and regular X ray, for MRI they might give you other contrast agents intravenously, though you are guaranteed to have a sour taste for days afterwards.

[@AJ_UK_LIVE]

Also fun when you have to use the special toilet afterwards that has that same sticker on the door and no one else is allowed to use it.

[@MakeItWithCalvin]

@@SeanBZA oh gosh do not remind me of the time I had to drink barium... Nope not going there!

[@frostykyogre]

As an engineering student at UBC I was able to tour TRIUMF with a student group. Unfortunately it seems the public tours have been halted since 2020 but it was superb when I went. We were able to go into a Faraday caged room with the high voltage systems for the beam and were able to see the various experiment targets the main beam gets directed to (obviously everything was shut off but even then you can't see the cyclotron itself as it is covered by metres of concrete blocks). Great experience and I encouage anyone interested to go if they start up the tours again.

[@forivall]

Cool! When I was a hockey-playing child, I remember always seeing that TRIUMF sign whenever we drove to the UBC rinks for a game or practice, but I only later learned what they did and always wished I could check it out, but I figured it was a very secretive kind of facility. I guess I maybe could check it out sometime! (I went to SFU 😅)

[@ratguy101]

I had a chance to tour TRIUMF when I was a high school student. Sadly, I decided to give my friend a piggyback ride while there and ended up breaking my arm.

[@donwald3436]

Aww, I feel like I got ripped off when I took the tour. We watched a cloud chamber make trails. I don't remember much else.

[@MikesTropicalTech]

@@ratguy101 Did you pick up any superhero abilities a la Spiderman? :^)

[@Indium111]

I know I was super excited to see Tom at my workplace. Secretly hoping to find myself in the background of this video, but guess I didn't make the cut! Looking forward to the next video and hope you guys got to enjoy a bit of Vancouver while you were here.

[@sarahprunierlaw9147]

did you see him filming?

[@Indium111]

@@sarahprunierlaw9147 yes...both inside and outside. Just Tom and one cameraman. I kept thinking, "dang, that guy looks so familiar!".

[@vigilantcosmicpenguin8721]

If you see Tom at your workplace, that's an official sign that you have one of the coolest workplaces in the world.

[@strawdog336]

@@Indium111 when was it? Obviously before the snow, but after the finished the running track resurfacing. My kid would have loved to see Tom Scott in real life, too bad we missed that opportunity.

[@Indium111]

@@strawdog336 He was at my work site on the 24th of Nov. I was wondering how long it would be before the video was on KZbin

[@schafer6811]

I worked for a company that shares a lot of "cyclotron genealogy" with the TRIUMF cyclotron, and produced some of the equipment used with that cyclotron (though that was mostly before my time). The company later went on to design and build much smaller, self-shielded cyclotrons that could be installed on site in a hospital, literally next door to the room containing the scanner, where the isotopes generated by the cyclotron were used. Because they were so close to the point of use, these smaller cyclotrons could produce isotopes that wouldn't withstand even a quick trip through a pneumatic line. The shortest-lived isotope we used was O-15, with a half-life of only two minutes. Not a lot of leeway there.

[@KevintheRhea]

That's very cool. What's your job?

[@schafer6811]

@@KevintheRhea (Past tense; it was quite a while ago) I designed control systems and other electronics, as well as did some physics modeling. The most challenging thing I ever designed was a 600 W current source for a load that had a very high differential negative resistance. The load behaved fairly linearly at low current, up to about 100 mA at 1500 V, then the resistance dropped precipitously until it was pulling 3 A at 200 V. Getting stable current control under those conditions (without wasting a few kW) was very, very difficult. One day, I was testing a version of the circuit and one of the power transistors exploded and shot a blob of molten metal that bounced off my shirt and landed on my shoe, melting a hole into the synthetic fabric. I kept the shoe as a souvenir for a while.

[@empoleonmaster6709]

@@schafer6811 The fact that you kept the shoe as a souvenir is such an awesome response to it.

[@jaymzx0]

Years ago when my father would visit University of Washington Medical Center for some radiation therapy, I noticed they had a room with a gigantic rotary door that had to be six feet thick. Turns out, they have their own 50MeV cyclotron and they use it to generate neutrons for special neck cancer therapy (Fast Neutron Therapy), and are the only hospital in the world to have such a thing. I wanted to see it but they didn't give tours, I guess.

[@andermite3996]

As a UBC student and a long-time viewer, this was an awesome crossover I did not expect!!

[@JamesCalbraith]

Most hospitals I've been to have their own cyclotrones and accelerators. It's always fun to stumble on a heavy metal door plastered with 'radioactive' and 'access forbidden' sign somewhere in the bowels of a medical facility :)

[@quillmaurer6563]

I was thinking this - probably in most cases it's in the same building, making this system unnecessary. This example is probably unusual in that both are research facilities, and were probably built at different times. Perhaps when both were built they weren't related to one another, before radiological research was being done at the hospital, but using existing nuclear research facilities on the far side of campus and building this Rabbit Line was more practical than adding such equipment to the hospital.

[@Techpriest1010]

Those are tiny compared to the one at UBC, it used to be the largest in the world, and there's a spin off company called Advanced Cyclotron Systems that make small ones for hospitals and research.

[@cybergeek11235]

That overlay was *really* slick - well done!

[@alexperman7748]

Another interesting fact regarding stuff under city streets at UBC: I believe most if not all the buildings on campus utilize a central heating source that produces superheated steam and transports it underground (there is a main feed and return line under Main Mall) to avoid electrical heating methods. It is a closed loop system and all the steam is recycled.

[@MarkRose1337]

District steam heating is very common in a lot of cities and campuses.

[@BromTeque]

As someone who’s hard of hearing and a non-native speaker. Thank you for subtitles!

[@StevenLeung101]

I went to visit TRIUMF as a kid. Tom is correct that students don't know about the tube hahaha. I certainly didn't when I attended UBC years later. Thank you Tom for sharing this!

[@Erik_The_Viking]

Similar to pressure systems used by banks, just a lot longer and carries radioactive material. Really cool and also very practical considering the short half-life of the material and safer.

[@rossstewart9475]

Those systems are themselves a relic of a bygone era: Pneumatic transport tubes used to be incredibly common, passing stock prices between markets and telegraph stations, enabling sales of perishable commodities, helping sort mail and in some cases running near city-wide postal networks. There were even a few rare examples that carried *people*. They were mostly abandoned around the time of the second world war, when automobiles became relatively cheap and convenient: Such systems are not cheap to run!

[@rikwisselink-bijker]

Systems like that are still fairly common in hospitals, although you're only supposed to use them for specific things. Hospitals can be big places, so getting stuff somewhere quickly is sometimes best achieved with a vacuum tube system.

[@High.on.Life_DnB]

@@rossstewart9475 I know banks still use these kind of systems, why and for what I don't know, but I know when I was working at renovating a bank a few years ago I saw the tube system in the ceiling.

[@stephen1r2]

@@High.on.Life_DnB For the money of course, do you want carts of cash running down the halls? Some of it might disappear mysteriously

[@CyreneDuVent]

I love the practical applications of pneumatic tubes. This magical 1950s way of the future, being used every day without us even noticing. The hospital in my home town had pneumatic tubes that went from the bloodwork room to the labs - they'd draw your blood, pop in it and it was gone.

[@DarkSkay]

Fifty thousand years ago somebody shot at a rabbit with a blowgun. Today there's the rabbit line and the particle accelerator.

[@draghettis6524]

Compressed air-propelled systems like this one, even if it is on a small scale, are very interesting. This technology used to be more widely used, if I'm not mistaken certain big cities used to have an air-propelled postal distribution network, a century ago.

[@galenkehler]

And Futurama has it 1000 years in the future :)

[@jimurrata6785]

There was a Hyperloop style pneumatic subway demonstrator in Manhattan during the 1870's Perhaps Tom has already done an episode (or should!)

[@666Tomato666]

The Tesco near me has a pneumatic system for sending daily reports from cash registers.

[@dwsparks1]

Roosevelt Island in NYC has a pneumatic trash system!

[@StormhavenGaming]

London had a couple of goes at getting a pneumatic railway up and running. There was one that ran from Euston Station in the 1860s or 70s, but only for a few years. It was too difficult to maintain, for one thing. Keeping an airtight seal was nearly impossible for anything more than a short period.

[@abigchair]

I think it's absolutely great when you get to have the scientists, researchers, experts explain things directly. Great work Tom! Love it.

[@rachelle10]

It's really incredible to see this collaboration between different departments of the university

[@janisila8240]

and different universities! TRIUMF is jointly operated by several universities across Canada, Dr. Yang for example is actually from Simon Fraser University, not UBC.

[@RFC-3514]

I see you're familiar with the typical inner workings of academia. :D

[@rachelle10]

@@janisila8240 Wow that's cool!

[@corbeaudejugement]

@@janisila8240 it's always nice to see different unis working together. it's so rare

[@kyle0280]

My teacher used to work at Triumf, he has great stories about the massive lifting crane there and how repairs get done.

[@AnastasiaCooper]

I just *love* the topics - especially for the last few weeks, for no reason I can give, I'm just really fascinated. Maybe because they are so varried! Keep it up Tom!

[@christopheraplin]

How do you do this Tom? How do you continue to put out unique and fascinating things every week and after so long? I'm going to miss these when you're done but you have never dropped in quality and that's truly special. Another great quality is that you always work with people who can explain things so well so quickly. Thank you to Dr. Sossi and Dr. Yang.

[@SoniasWay]

I’m always amazed by how brilliant his videos are

[@thomasrad5202]

I did a co-op here in the summer of 2017 and my supervisor was none other than Ken Buckley (the one who made the rabbit line!) Lovely video, Tom. I just sent this to a former co-worker and they told me they forwarded it to Ken. Thanks for everything you do!

[@zerofourfiveone]

UWaterloo? UVic? :)

[@ALMX5DP]

Reminds me of the lines Costco used to use to send checks and such back from their cashier stands. Wonder if there’s ever been any issues with this and how they attempt to resolve them.

[@nathansavage8692]

People in the US still regularly use cheques? A register would have rejected them 20 years ago here

[@ALMX5DP]

@@nathansavage8692 “used to use”

[@southaussiegarbo2054]

They now used to send cash around 😂

[@mikeybhoutex]

@@nathansavage8692 It's not as frequent, but there's this 'old school' set of people called 'old people' who will NOT have their right to using a check be taken from them. Source: IT support at a car dealership working on the cashier stuff for service and you would be damned to hell for not taking that check. Worse than arguing politics here, not even kidding. It's dying a slow, agonizing death. :p

[@Megabean]

@@nathansavage8692 I still get paid by them. idk why

[@dilapidatedcorvid3027]

I watched this video this morning on the bus right as I passed by TRIUMF on my way to work at the hospital. Six years here and there's always new hidden things to learn, thanks for helping uncovering a gem under my feet

[@ChrisMuncy]

Tom, always love the videos, but this one has to be towards the tops. Fascinating that they have this relationship to essentially get isotopes on-demand where they are needed.

[@djsomeguy]

Loving this trip through Canada...this country has so much awesome stuff going on!

[@rxpt0rs]

Glad to see that TRIUMF and Vancouver is getting some love from Tom! Hope he covers more exciting locations in the city!

[@NaClO]

Thank you so much for touching on this topic!!! i heard about this years ago since living in vancouver and have always wanted someone to shed light on this

[@ideatorx]

When Tom Scott appears literally 5 min from your house in your neighborhood!? What an honor, also didn't know I've been driving over antimatter all these years!!

[@pacificostudios]

That's amazing. I remember when pneumatic tubes were seen much more often. My bank's drive in used a much larger and slower pneumatic tube. At the State of Minnesota, they had a pneumatic tube system to shoot mail around the state capitol area. The "leak air out at destination" is a really simple solution to an important engineering issue.

[@DenisRyan]

Hope you had a nice time here in Vancouver! I have a friend that works in Triumph. When the accelerator is running, he can stand paperclips end to end on top of each other, creating a tiny, free standing ladder!

[@MarkRose1337]

If you visit an aluminium smelter, you can stand a couple dozen end to end. The magnetic fields are intense.

[@kareemhassib]

Hey, that’s my university! I live on campus aswell so this was extra fascinating. Hope you enjoyed your time in Vancouver!

[@elizabetht308]

yooo fellow ubc tom enjoyer 🤝

[@DaDuck444]

Hey Tom, I'm a Cyclotron Engineer for the Cleveland Clinic and I loved this video! I work on a much less powerful Cyclotron (11 MeV) used to make traces for a number of hospitals in NE Ohio. So cool to see what I do on such a large scale and to recognize a lot of the same equipment in my own lab. For anyone more curious in how Cyclotrons work we inject hydrogen into the cyclotron's ion source which adds an electron to the hydrogen particles giving them a negative charge. The electron beam then circles around a tank under very high vacuum where it is controlled by magnets and RF. Eventually the electron beam hits an extractor made out of carbon that strips off the electrons, changing the polarity of the beam from negative to positive (proton beam). The change in polarity allows the magnet to fire the beam into a target of pressured 018 water which after being bombarded turns into the radioisotope F18 used by the chemists and pharmacists to make a number of different traces.

[@fsodn]

This is awesome! As an undergraduate in the summer of 1994, I was hired as a research assistant. Near the end of that summer, we helped run an experiment at TRIUMF, back when it was a physics research accelerator. I spent many hours in that giant room with the yellow blocks as we were buttoning up the experiment, and then another week in the counting room on the upper floor as the experiment ran. It's so cool that it's been re-purposed as a medical research accelerator. I love it! Thanks for the blast from the past, Tom!

[@conorcomiconor5965]

It's still used for lots of physics research as well, it just also services the medical research too.

[@gary27182]

Ah, maybe you could answer the question I had watching the video... if it's producing a proton beam, why does it start out with hydrogen anions? I get that the cyclotron needs charged particles, but not why H- is used for part of the process and then stripped (how?) of electrons.

[@purpur9327]

@@gary27182 The two electrons are stripped off the H- via carbon foils - the much heavier protons pass through. They are used to extract multiple proton beams at once (instead of just one), with the additional benefit of being able to set the energy of each beam by (radially) moving the foils.

[@Zeropointill]

Loving all these Canadian themed videos. Hope you're enjoying your tour of the place.

[@VosperCDN]

Learning a lot about my own country from Tom's videos. These have been great for showcasing all sorts of stuff across the country.

[@gregwood3380]

Tom, just to let you know, I love all your videos. They are brief, concise, and informative. Thanks for the time you spend making them.

[@jmcbresilfr]

I remember hearing about the rabbit line when I visited TRIUMF a few months ago, great subject choice! I am loving your Canadian trip videos.

[@yesterdaydream]

So strange that most of the staff/students wouldn't know about this FASCINATING stuff beneath them! If I saw a lil metal thing on the ground that said Rabbit Line I'd immediately look it up...but I also just tried a few keywords and besides Tom Scott-related sites, I saw VERY few relevant results. Love y'all's commitment to obscurities.

[@strawdog336]

I've been employed nearby for 10 years and have never seen those plates on the ground. I will start looking for them though.

[@yesterdaydream]

@@strawdog336 Good luck on your search!

[@DaisyZhangAI]

I worked at TRIUMF for a year and was told about this rabbit line, it was such a bizarre thing to mention that I didn't know if it was actually real -- now it makes sense. Thanks for the video, Tom!

[@Farquad76.547]

Were you fired

[@DaisyZhangAI]

@@Farquad76.547 no i was a student co-op intern for a year

[@thomaskidd7487]

Thanks for getting this in Tom: the Rabbit Line is a really cool solution to a tricky problem. Hopefully it helps inspire others! I hope you had an amazing time in Vancouver too!

[@taliesinriver]

So glad you're covering this! I live near Vancouver and TRIUMF is one of the coolest places I've ever been.

[@tylero8595]

Heeeeeeyyyyy!!!! You're in my city!!!! I worked at Triumf when they built the expansion about 12 years ago. We were never in the accelerator building. But we were trained on what to do in the event of a radioactive leak or emergency. Im a plumber/gasfitter. So it was a cool job at the time.

[@guardian_OfEden]

You are absolutely correct, I had no idea any of this existed-I knew that there was a 'TRIUMF' at the south end of campus, but no clue what it was for, and _definitely_ didn't expect us to have our own particle accelerator! :O Hope you enjoyed your trip to UBC!

[@nonenowherebye]

It actually was/is one of the largest/most powerful non-superconducting cyclotrons in the world. Their logo is actually the shape of the magnets, which are shaped that way to simplify the acceleration of the particles as they get towards the outer ring.

[@faranahmad]

Learnt about this in school as well! Very fascinating!

[@MontySaurusRex_]

This is one of the coolest pieces of engineering ive seen. They had an issue, the engineer just went to work. Spectacular.

[@jaybodzin107]

I used to work as an operator at a nuclear research reactor (at Reed College; I think Tom has already made a video about it) that had a similar device, for removing experimental samples with short half-lives at high speed - though its path was much shorter, only across a few rooms. I think it was called the 'rabbit' just because it moved very fast.

[@davidgriffiths-bc]

Been living here for decades and never knew about this! Thanks for the great video as always!

[@DogsWithPurpose]

Tom Scott gathering information for his villain arc:

[@unl0ck998]

Words can't express the compounded amazingness the whole process is. Inspirational.

[@jools1978]

Wow! It's fun to see a title, think "Was Tom at UBC? I bet this is UBC.", and see the building where I used to work. I never dealt with any of the radioisotopes, but I definitely knew the line came into the building thanks to the disruption from construction when they were rerouting it from the older part of the hospital.

[@rmaa_sd]

I've lived in Vancouver for over 30 years, and had no idea this existed. Thanks for explaining this!

[@TRIPPLEJAY00]

This is fascinating. Well done to everyone who works in medical research.

[@Dr.Geeves]

I knew about radioactive material being used for medication, as I live near one such facility that makes them (Petten, Netherlands). But I did not know about this use. These kind of videos are exactly why I watch your material, thanks Tom.

[@ArchLars]

Congrats on the Streamy award, Tom Scott. You deserved it and more.

[@squidgepus]

Thank you for teaching me something about my own local city that I never knew about. Hope you had fun in Vancouver.

[@lahavmorris9919]

Another briliant vid from tom

[@mikeg6474]

Great to see Tom Scott covering interesting things in my part of the world. Another fun fact with the TRIUMF site, the apple trees that mark the entrance are grafted from the tree at the National Physical Laboratory in London, England, which is a granddaughter of the tree that produced the iconic apple that Newton watched fall.

[@msamour]

Hi Tom, One of your annoying fans again. They call it the rabbit line because in dog races from a long time ago, the race dogs would chase a mechanical rabbit that is powered by a fast wire on a track. Search for race track mechanical rabbits.

[@keyb]

nuh uh

[@msamour]

@@keyb Ok, what is it then?

[@TylerMarkRichardson]

If thats true you've phased this badly

[@HMJ66]

Not even a long time ago, dog races with mechanical rabbits are still very much a thing. They're much less popular than they used to be, but they're still around.

[@balijosu]

​@@TylerMarkRichardson Made sense to me.

[@theRealRindberg]

This is one of the most interesting and diverse channels on KZbin! Thanks!

[@NeatNit]

My mom works at a hospital (Ichilov, in Tel Aviv) as a lab worker, they receive samples to test via a hospital-wide pneumatic tubes system, it's so cool. Just much faster and more efficient than having a delivery boy making back and forth trips all the time from the nurses to the lab, or worse, the nurses having to bring over samples by themselves, wasting their valuable time. I'm not sure if this is common practice at hospitals worldwide or if this one is unique!

[@leagueoflags]

Videos such as these make me marvel at the ingenuity of humans and what we are able to do when we are at our best.

[@martinebonita2658]

Me too.

[@smoothshot9562]

Just in time for my tea, big fan off your work mate

[@casperccino]

hope you enjoy your tea! :)

[@borisnonceson]

dinner or tea

[@SageSkaaning]

Awesome video! I hope you enjoyed your time here in BC!

[@siberx4]

I knew about this facility but had no idea there was an express pneumatic tube delivery system attached to it! Very cool, thanks for shining some light on this obscure bit of the campus.

[@rhettorical]

They use systems like this at pharmacies and banks to send stuff from inside to a drive-up location. The Wal-Mart pharmacy near me has a pickup station at the far end of the parking lot from the store itself to make it more convenient for people picking up their medication to avoid parking lot traffic. The capsules are much bigger though and I don't know how fast they travel.

[@jaelaknown]

I actually went to UBC and did a work placement at TRIUMF and actually had the opportunity to go inside the Cyclotron when it was not in use. Such an amazing and fascinating experience - especially as most folks in Vancouver have no idea it exists

[@williamvenneberg8609]

NEVER BEFORE would I have guessed that General Electric made MRIs! 4:28

[@joshb_1111]

Interesting as always - I'm always excited to watch a new Tom Scott video and learn something fascinating.

[@TchSktch]

No way you were in BC, that's awesome. Think I would act up if I saw Tom Scott filming across the street from me

[@darkknight8139]

That last remark is priceless about sending the rabbits back: "the oldschool!" It is hard to grasp how this research works and what amazing results could be achieved. This really is next level science.

[@jake9705]

4:57 -- 1) I'm assuming it's called "the rabbit line" because it is super fast, like a running rabbit? 2) the empty capsules being returned: how radioactive are they becoming with repeated re-use?

[@WhatsUpGazpacho]

This video was a tale of two halves - too (5 minutes) and fro (8 seconds) Excellent stuff

[@ajaynagpal5975]

Noooo! why was this video only 5 minutes? I could watch such great stuff orated by Tom for hours

[@mohammadnazrimdshah4565]

At around 4:00 , the tech recapped a needle-tipped syringe, probably containing radioisotopes. Not recommended due to the risk of pricking oneself with radioactive material.

[@soaringvulture]

What I found weird was the metal disc, with a line on it, inscribed "rabbit line". An innocent observer might think that it was some sort of barrier for rabbits. Very obedient rabbits.

[@Cineenvenordquist]

Leaving piles of stuffed rabbits leaned up to the line and on upward is an exercise left to the reader and attendee of ComiCon BC x radiomedicine.

[@remus907]

Based on the fact that your videos are always in different countries im certain that the capsule at 3:22 is the same you sent earlier, and that you can teleport.

[@brickboy525251]

Tom you continue to impress me with the places and things you do! Can't wait to see what you have planned.

[@coolalexg14]

As someone who works at a Reactor that makes stuff like this, can confirm they are called Rabbits. The lead containers are called pigs, hence we call the Reactor "The Farm". It's called Rabbit because it is very quick and nimble, just saying. Pigs because they are heavy and thick, kinda like a pig.

[@Sltarfish]

my great grandfather was on the team who developed, designed, and built TRIUMF. so cool to see!

[@2401M3NDIC4N7BI45]

Loved the little jump when he pressed send

[@JamesLewis98]

I'd wager to guess that it's called a "rabbit" because in greyhound racing a decoy rabbit is accelerated along a rail down the track for the dogs to chase.

[@Cineenvenordquist]

All you need now is a lab of radionuclei scientists who like 100 km/h underground racing. It goes together. Just go to pyramid head labs and go left, pass Slenderman Ind. and you're there.

[@avovk1852]

or, what's more likely for my taste: people which act as deliverymen called rabbits rabbits sometimes

[@andrewzwaniga2016]

Super cool. I just started my PhD in medical physics and my research focuses on simulations of radioactive substances and their application in treatment of small tumours and metastases. My appreciation for the delicate science and engineering of radiopharmaceuticals has grown enormously since then, and this video is a great example of the ingenuity of Canadian research.

[@henryginn7490]

Learning how a PET scanner works was in my physics A level spec, there is a whole chapter on medical imaging. How it works is really interesting, one of the best parts of the A level

[@aminuh]

Haha, I'm picking my A level subjects rn and this has somewhat persuaded me to do it because I'm so conflicted with my subjects

[@jasonrubik]

I visited TRIUMF in 1999. It was spring break and I got a chance to visit a lot of the UBC campus and surrounding Vancouver area

[@cholten99]

Great video. Would be really interesting to know if they laid the tubes at the same time as digging up the road for something else or whether it was an expensive separate job. I'm also curious as to whether the particle lab does anything else and, if not, why it's so far away? If it was built later how come that's not the same for hospitals elsewhere doing the same thing?

[@Bacopa68]

Laying a pipe of that size can be done with very little disruption using a "gopher" or a "missile" if there's not much in the way.

[@HelloNotMe9999]

Fascinating as always. So much stuff that people never think about in infrastructure.

[@IVANxVx]

Imagine going in for a MRI and in the middle of it all the lab technicians and medics stand up and holler because the GE logo in the MRI machine hit the corner of the screen.

[@epicredhead13]

I'm glad I'm not the only one who noticed that.

[@jonathanshaw6784]

This was a TRIUMF I'm making a note here: huge success!

[@TheToneBender]

Surely it's called the rabbit line brcause it's small and fast, right? Like a rabbit? And maybe because it goes through a tunnel and rabbits have tunnels in their burrows?

[@adiac42]

0:46 Looks exactly like a Portal test chamber.

[@AllycatlovesAG]

I attend UBC and pass the Triumf centre and hospital daily and had no clue this tube system existed! I will definitely keep an eye out for the markings today!

[@kuunib7325]

This is very interesting. I once checked out the SLS Cyclotron that 2.4GeV (around 5 times bigger) than this one. It is used for an electron beam that produces Synchrotron radiation. Almost forgot to mention the SLS is at the Paul Schärer Institue in Switzerland where they invented radiation therapy for cancer and are currently developing a new kind of X-Ray machine for the diagnosis of breast cancer.

[@pauldavis2108]

The SLS does not have a 2.4GeV cyclotron. They have a 2.4GeV synchrotron. Their ring cyclotron is 590MeV and while pysically smaller is both higher energy and insensity that of TRIUMF's

[@PS3GamingScotland]

I love learning new things. Thanks Tom! :)