Since April, the 60 volunteers signed up for the program have made physics presentations to more than 7,000 students. They hope to reach at least 3,000 more by year's end. "The idea is to build enthusiasm about physics, present the idea that it's a cool thing to do," said Mike Albrow, of the Particle Physics Department, who initiated the program. Schools can choose between nine presentation topics including "Space, Time and Einstein," "Cryogenics" and "Zap! Light and Color." Susan Dahl, of the Education Office, has helped put together demonstration materials and Nancy Lanning coordinates the visits.

"Science needs to be presented in a fun and exciting way for kids to want to pursue it," said Clifton Horvath, of the Computing Division, who's accumulated a stack of thank-you letters from classroom visits. "I tell the kids that I'm going to entertain them and, perhaps, they might accidentally learn something."

Although the official tally of students reached will end by January, the presentations won't. "I would love to keep doing it," said Anne Heavey, of the Computing Division. "I'm not governed by any Dec. 31 deadline."

Those interested in the program should contact Nancy Lanning at lanning@fnal.gov

—Kendra Snyder

BATAVIA -- You can't blame Don Petravick and Matt Crawford if they became a tad impatient with their Internet provider when the network burps and they have to endure a delay. Come to think of it, you can't blame them for being impatient when things are running smoothly.

That's because Petravick and Crawford, scientists at Fermilab National Accelerator Laboratory near Batavia, have gotten used to transferring data a little more quickly than what most of us are used to--in fact, thousands of times faster than high-speed Internet connections with home computers.

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