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Fermilab — Excursions Into Matter, Space and Time

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on from the lots-of-good-work dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Fermilab is one of the great physics research facilities in the U.S. It is mainly known for its Tevatron proton/anti-proton accelerator to help physicists understand how materials interact with each other. TG Daily has a extensive article detailing Fermilab's accelerator chain and the work that is being done there. It's an interesting read, especially since many of us won't have a chance to visit Fermilab and the fact that the Tevatron accelerator is scheduled to be shut down next year."

10 of 71 comments (clear)

  1. No matter... by mastermemorex · · Score: 4, Funny

    All we have to know about mater-space-time is in the series documental Star-Trek.

  2. Fermilab Bison by sonoronos · · Score: 5, Interesting

    One thing that the article leaves out, unfortunately, is another unique property of Fermilab - that it owns a herd of American Bison. Having "signature" animals at National Labs isn't unique to Fermi - for example, Argonne National Labs, also in Illinois, has a large population of the cream-colored Dama Dama "White Deer." However, while Argonne merely allows the deer to roam freely on its land, Fermilab Bison are actively cultivated by the lab, creating some really fine breeding studs, and acting as a sustainable way of preserving one aspect of the natural "Prairie" that is part of North American history.

    1. Re:Fermilab Bison by LiquidCoooled · · Score: 5, Funny

      The Femilab bison have to be fine breeding studs; travelling at half light speed and crashing into a matter sample in under a millisecond doesn't leave much time for foreplay.

      --
      liqbase :: faster than paper
    2. Re:Fermilab Bison by shawn(at)fsu · · Score: 4, Informative

      Actually that was on page 4
      Bisons
      6800 acres of land provide lots of opportunity to preserve vegetation and wildlife. Arriving at Fermilab through its signature gate in fact feels much more like arriving at a park rather than a high-energy research site. Vegetation is brought back to its original prairie state; wildlife includes 277 bird species, 54 species of butterflies, about 18,000 Canada geese during migration cycles, more than 350 deers - and 45 bisons.

      --
      500 dollar reward for tip(s) leading to the arrest of the person(s) who stole my sig.
    3. Re:Fermilab Bison by martyb · · Score: 5, Funny

      However, while Argonne merely allows the deer to roam freely on its land, Fermilab Bison are actively cultivated by the lab, creating some really fine breeding studs, and acting as a sustainable way of preserving one aspect of the natural "Prairie" that is part of North American history.

      And let me guess... they named the first calf a "Higgs Bison"? <grin>

  3. Actually, it's on page 4 by apsmith · · Score: 5, Interesting

    The bison are indeed mentioned in the article.

    Some things it doesn't mention though, that I recall from my brief summer there 20+ years back:

    * the radioactive groundhogs. Every national lab I've been to seemed to have a colony of groundhogs, I guess they like the security.... At Fermilab, there was a burrow in the middle of a mile-long berm of dirt that acted as a beam dump to generate neutrinos (only neutrinos make it through that much matter without being stopped).

    * Wilson's artworks - I assume they're still around. Robert Wilson was the instigator of the lab, and got it built on time and under budget. He was also a bit of a sculptor, and a number of his artworks were on the grounds around the administration building. In fact I think he designed the rather unique admin building too.

    * the annual "race around the ring" - actually, maybe that's gone away since Leon Lederman's no longer the lab director. It was quite a challenge when I was there though; you can imagine a bunch of desk physicists and engineers trying to make it around the 3+ miles of the ring road in a reasonable amount of time...

    --

    Energy: time to change the picture.

    1. Re:Actually, it's on page 4 by Xzzy · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Wilson's artworks - I assume they're still around.

      They are. The power poles shaped like the Pi symbol are being replaced this summer, they even got the city of Batavia to pay for it.

      One bit of entertaining lore (I can't confirm it's true but I've heard it from several lab veterans) about the art around the lab is the "symmetry" sculpture at the lab's west gate. It's a large arch with three limbs that towers over the roadway, and a visitor paying attention may notice the west-facing (public) side is painted completely black, and the east (lab) side is orange. The reason? Originally the sculpture was entirely orange. Stayed that way for almost 20 years. Eventually locals decided it was an eyesore, orange hasn't been a popular color since the 70's and I guess people got tired of it. So the lab painted the outside flat black to keep the peace with the community.

      Orange and blue is still pretty common around the lab, the CDF detector building even got a fresh coat of paint last year. It is pretty ugly, but it's been that way for decades and it would suck to change it now.

  4. The Ring of Fire by ExE122 · · Score: 4, Funny

    The company I work for is involved with the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory in England just outside of Abingdon. They also have a synchotron facility and gave us a demonstration on how they accelerate particles within a beam by bending it with magnets to form a giant ring (I think the one in RAL is about 3 miles in circumference). They use very complex sensors to study the "scattering" of particles colliding with various materials to determine various characteristics and properties.

    It was a very neat and interesting presentation... Unfortunately, having some of the finer details explained by scientists who live and breath the stuff put it just ever so slightly above my level of understanding (I was lost in the first 30 seconds)... At one point, I could've sworn they just broke out some random Star Trek technobabble just to get a laugh out of me later =P.

    I agree with the author, the article is indeed a very interesting read. And yes, while Tevatron is shutting down, US still leads the world in similar facilities, including one not too far from Fermilab at Argonne.

    --
    Capitalism: When it uses the carrot, it's called democracy. When it uses the stick, it's called fascism.
  5. Nothing to see here: Move Along! by bbsguru · · Score: 3, Interesting

    From TFM:
    "Most recently, you may have heard of discovery of the "triple scoop" baryon, which contains one quark from each generation of matter."
    That's really all there is about "the work being done there". This is really just a sort of know your neighbors piece for the local pholks who drive by every day.

    So, Captain, where do they keep the Death Ray?

  6. Poorly Written by DerekLyons · · Score: 4, Insightful

    "A random blogger regurgitates PR stuff, drools over PR stuff, and can't be bothered to Google, spellcheck, or edit his writings". Would be an apt description of TFA.
     
    I long for the day when Slashdot linked to substantial material, rather than fanboi crap.