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	Wednesday, Nov. 19, 2014

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Calendar

Have a safe day!

Wednesday, Nov. 19

3:30 p.m.
Director's Coffee Break - WH2XO

4 p.m.
Fermilab Colloquium - One West
Speaker: David Newell, NIST
Title: Defining Fundamental Constants of Nature: The New SI

Thursday, Nov. 20

2 p.m.
Particle Astrophysics Seminar (NOTE DATE, LOCATION) - WH6NW
Speaker: Farinaldo Queiroz, University of California, Santa Cruz
Title: Dark Matter Complementarity

2:30 p.m.
Theoretical Physics Seminar - Curia II
Speaker: Travis Martin, TRIUMF
Title: Electroweakino Constraints from LHC8

3:30 p.m.
Director's Coffee Break - WH2XO

Visit the labwide calendar to view Fermilab events

Weather

Chance of snow
29°/13°

Extended forecast
Weather at Fermilab

Current Flag Status

Flags at full staff

Wilson Hall Cafe

Wednesday, Nov. 19

- Breakfast: crustless quiche casserole
- Breakfast: ham, egg and cheese English muffin
- Western barbecue burger
- Spinach and jack cheese enchiladas
- Chicken parmesan
- Zesty turkey pastrami sandwich
- Peruvian beef and potato stir fry
- Split pea soup
- Texas-style chili
- Assorted calzones

Wilson Hall Cafe menu

Chez Leon

Wednesday, Nov. 19
Lunch
- Broiled tilapia with coconut curry sauce
- Crunch Asian salad
- Almond cake

Friday, Nov. 21
Dinner
- Spinach, mandarin orange and red onion salad
- Mahi mahi with avocado tomatillo salsa
- Lemongrass rice
- Sauteed pea pods
- Coconut flan

Chez Leon menu
Call x3524 to make your reservation.

Ancient pigments, modern mystery

When Chinese workers searching for water found the famous Terracotta Warriors instead, they brought to light a scientific mystery. Photo: Andy Freeberg, SLAC

True purple is one of the rarest colors in nature. Before the advent of artificial coloring, a tiny sea snail called the spiny dye-murex furnished the purple dye for royal robes of Rome.

But thousands of years ago in China, artisans developed a purple pigment — one of the first man-made pigments known. Archaeologists first discovered it on artifacts from the Han Dynasty (206 BC to 220 AD), which led them to call it Han Purple. But that's a misnomer, as the pigment has been found on glass beads and other decorations from as long ago as China's Western Zhou period, from 1046 to 771 BC.

The pigment's best-known use was in paint found on some of the Terracotta Warriors, an 8,000-strong army of ceramic soldiers created to guard the tomb of Qin Shi Huang, the first emperor of China, in the village of Xi'an.

Physicist Zhi Liu first saw the pigment in Xi'an, in the Museum of Qin Terracotta Warriors and Horses, while on vacation visiting relatives in China. "I saw a painted warrior in the lobby of the museum," Liu says. "That got me interested."

—Lori Ann White

Photo of the Day

Light to dark

Visitor Alan Amati photographed this sunset near Wilson Hall. Photo: Alan Amati

In the News

Is dark energy eating dark matter?

From Physics World, Nov. 18, 2014

A tantalizing hint that dark matter could be slowly changing into dark energy has been uncovered by a team of cosmologists in the UK and Italy. While the specific nature of the interaction driving the conversion is not known, the process could be responsible for slowing the growth of galaxies and other large-scale structure in the universe across the past eight billion years. If the conversion continues at the current rate, the universe's ultimate fate as a cold, dark and empty place could come sooner than expected.

Since the accelerating expansion of the universe was discovered in 1998, the best model of the evolution of the universe involves a cosmological constant (Λ) — which describes the accelerating expansion — along with cold dark matter (CDM). CDM comprises slow-moving particles that do not interact with electromagnetic radiation and are extremely long-lived. The particles account for about 85 percent of the matter in the universe and therefore their gravitational forces dominate the formation of large-scale structure.

In the News

Dark matter could be seen in GPS time glitches

From New Scientist, Nov. 17, 2014

GPS has a new job. It does a great job of telling us our location, but the network of hyper-accurate clocks in space could get a fix on something far more elusive: dark matter.

Dark matter makes up 80 per cent of the universe's matter but scarcely interacts with ordinary matter. A novel particle is the most popular candidate, but Andrei Derevianko at the University of Nevada, Reno, and Maxim Pospelov at the Perimeter Institute in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada propose that kinks or cracks in the quantum fields that permeate the universe could be the culprit.

From ESH&Q

The evolution of FESHM: Change is good

T.J. Sarlina

T.J. Sarlina, quality assurance manager, wrote this column.

At Fermilab, you can be certain that if you work here long enough, you'll eventually be included in a reorganization effort. Well, organizations aren't the only things that get restructured. Sometimes, manuals undergo the same treatment.

Recently, the Fermilab Environment, Safety and Health Manual (FESHM) chapters were renumbered to more accurately group chapters according to subject matter. The original series names had been in existence for a number of decades, with the 5000 series named Occupational Safety. This series became the repository for a wide variety of topics dealing with fall protection, industrial hygiene, electrical safety, pressure and vacuum vessels, occupational medicine, sustainable acquisition, material handling and aviation safety. It contained more than 50 chapters, while other series had only one or two. The numbering system was not particularly well organized, making it difficult to find the appropriate guidance on a specific topic.

We conducted a quality assurance self-assessment audit and concluded that certain subjects needed higher visibility. Now the 4000 series includes all industrial hygiene chapters, 5000 holds the pressure and vacuum vessel and piping chapters, 7000 is for construction safety and fall protection, 9000 is dedicated to electrical safety, 10000 addresses material handling and transportation, 11000 takes you to the Fermilab Radiological Control Manual, and 12000 brings you to the Quality Assurance Manual.

Moved chapters have been renumbered, but links remain the same. So if you click on the link to the old chapter 5120, Fermilab Energy Control Program (Lockout/Tagout), you will be taken to the newly numbered Lockout/Tagout chapter, which is now chapter 2100. All links have been updated throughout the entire manual, so clicking on the link will take you to the correct chapter.

Check out the new FESHM directly or from the ESH&Q home page. It's always recommended that you refer to the electronic version of FESHM to ensure that you are referencing the latest version. Bookmark the location for easier reference. The reorganized manual makes it easier to find the guidance you're looking for and contributes to a safer operating environment for all of us.

Safety Update