Muons used to test the condition of a road bridge in Estonia

This week, a new technology was tested in Jõgisoo, Harju County, as part of a nearly €1.3 million research project. Using cosmic radiation and artificial intelligence, the technology aims to assess the technical condition of bridges without the need for destructive testing. Some drivers crossing the Jõgisoo Bridge this week may have wondered about the strange box placed on the structure. For those still curious, here's the answer — this was the world's first test of using cosmic radiation, specifically muons, to assess the condition of a bridge open to traffic. "These particles are born in the atmosphere, exist for just 2.2 milliseconds and travel at nearly the speed of light. They are charged particles that pass through everything, and as they pass through materials, they either lose some energy or scatter. When they go through this bridge, some scattering and energy loss occur. We have four boxes here, each detecting about 20,000 particles per minute," explained Sander Sein, produc ... Read full article.