Orchid XP v8 schrieb:
>>> Isn't that like claiming an "entry-level particle accelerator" is not
>>> "special equipment"? :-P
>>
>> Mm, New from Fischer-Price: My First Particle accelerator: Comes with 
>> everything needed to build your very own proton accelerator in you own 
>> home. Comes complete with 15MW generators, bubble chamber, and a 
>> large-scale farm of analysis computers and data collection equipment. 
>> Be the first on your block to discover the enigmatic Higgs Boson.

I'd guess though that at a university with a strong natural science 
branch, they wouldn't call their own local particle accelerator "special 
equipment" - because there's actually not much magic in, say, a 
Van-de-Graaf- or even a Tandem accelerator, let alone a small Cyclotron, 
and a university might well be capable to "DIY" such a thing if they set 
their mind to it. (The basic technology has been around since the '30s 
of the last century.)

What they /will/ call "special equipment" are probably all the 
accessories: Sputter (ion) sources, particle detectors, data analysis 
electronics and stuff like that; and they'll be very proud of each of 
those thingumajigs they produced themselves. (At Cologne university, for 
instance, they develop their own signal processing hardware, including 
custom ASICs; they also tried to roll their own detector crystals, but 
failed...)

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