A particle accelerator is something that scientists use to study the behavior of particles and conduct physics experiments. These machines use an electromagnetic field to make tiny particles move at practically the speed of light: a whopping 186,000 miles per second! So, yeah, a guy stuck his head in one of those… and actually survived!

The incident happened in Russia on July 13, 1978. Anatoli Bugorski was a researcher at the Institute for High Energy Physics and worked with the U-70 Synchrotron, the biggest Soviet atom smasher of the time. On that unfortunate day, the scientist was trying to figure out why a piece of the equipment wasn’t working as it should. As he was leaning over the machine, the safety mechanism failed at the worst possible moment. It turned out that the scientist’s head was right in the path of a powerful proton beam moving at the speed of light. You ready to hear all about it? Then watch the video!

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