I'm not a high energy physicist, and I did not stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night, but if we accept at least the broad outlines of the story as factual, then let's consider the following:
1. If a proton beam can be shot at someone's head to help treat a tumor, then a proton beam can exist in a non-vacuum, and, at least for a while, outside the confines of a collimating magnetic field.
2. Might older, lower energy accelerator technology than currently being used not have required a vacuum to reach the energies at which it was designed to work?
3. Ditto on the magnetic field...
This seems to be a pretty well corroborated story. Instead of assuming it's wrong ("sounds fishy"), find out how it could be right. Might learn something (like the guy who thinks the LHC is the only particle accelerator in the world).
1. If a proton beam can be shot at someone's head to help treat a tumor, then a proton beam can exist in a non-vacuum, and, at least for a while, outside the confines of a collimating magnetic field.
2. Might older, lower energy accelerator technology than currently being used not have required a vacuum to reach the energies at which it was designed to work?
3. Ditto on the magnetic field...
This seems to be a pretty well corroborated story. Instead of assuming it's wrong ("sounds fishy"), find out how it could be right. Might learn something (like the guy who thinks the LHC is the only particle accelerator in the world).