 | Wednesday, January 4, 2006 |
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Wednesday, January 4 |
 Light Rain 40º/27º
Extended Forecast |
Secon Level 3 |
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Wednesday, January 4 - Vegetable Beef - Fish & Chips - Smart Cuisine Salmon w/Lemon Pepper - Country Fried Steak w/Pepper Gravy - Beef & Cheddar Panini w/Sauteed Onions - Assorted Personal Sized Pizzas - Cavatappi Pasta w/Italian Sausage & Tomato Ragu The Wilson Hall Cafe accepts Visa, Master Card, Discover and American Express. |
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Wednesday, January 4
Thursday, January 5
Chez Leon Menu |
| Fermilab Today is online at: http://www.fnal.gov/today/ Send comments and suggestions to today@fnal.gov Fermilab Today archive Hurricane Relief Page Fermilab Today PDF Version Fermilab Result of the Week archive Fermilab Safety Tip of the Week archive Linear Collider News archive Fermilab Today classifieds Subscribe/Unsubscribe to |
| Tevatron Ends 2005 With One More Luminosity Record |
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The Tevatron collider set a new integrated luminosity record for the week of
December 26, producing 24.7 inverse picobarns in one week. That's about one
seventh of the entire luminosity produced during Run I, which lasted 3.5
years (1992 to 1996). Congratulations. |
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Seen a Gray Fox Recently?
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Have you seen a gray fox? Allison Willingham, a researcher working at Fermilab through the DOE National Environmental Research Park is studying the presence of these foxes in northeastern Illinois. Gray foxes are sometimes confused with the more common red fox, but they have a grizzled gray coloration with rusty-red fur on ears, neck, legs and flanks, and a prominent black stripe running down their bushy tails, which end in a black tip. They are sometimes called "tree foxes" because they can climb trees. Red foxes are more reddish, with "pointier" muzzle and ears, a white-tipped tail and black paws.
Gray foxes, which used to be fairly common in the area, are sensitive to forest fragmentation and have become rare. "They are kind of particular when it comes to habitat," said Rod Walton, ecologist and director of the Fermilab National Environmental Research Park. Walton says that their presence would indicate high-quality deep forest in the surrounding area. "As we think about reconstructing deep forest habitat, they are one of the best mammal indicators we have," he said. Please report any information about location of sightings and approximate dates to Alison Willingham at 1-847-428-6331 ext. 3# or email her at Illinoisgrayfox@yahoo.com.
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From The Christian Science Monitor, December 29, 2005: Physicists keep faith in constants For a long time, physicists took for granted that the fundamental numerical constants they plugged into their equations would remain unchanged throughout time. Some modern theories of matter's basic structure have suggested that these "constants" are chameleons. But now, events that happened long ago in a galaxy far away support the physicists' original faith.
In Friday's issue of Physical Review Letters, an international astronomical team describes how their measurements of these events put "very tight limits on changes" in some of those crucial constants. They appear to have had exactly the same values 6 billion years ago in a galaxy 6 billion light-years away that they have here on Earth today.
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| Physicist George Gollin Interviewed on CNN | ||
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CNN interviewed George Gollin, Fermilab physicist and professor of physics at the University of Illinois, on December 7 regarding his pivotal role in cracking down on diploma mills. Investigations that Gollin started on his own time, in response to spam from such places, have led to the indictment of eight people in Spokane, Washington.
Would you rather earn a doctoral degree in 5 minutes or 5 years? Would you replace long hours in the lab with an easy online application and one-time credit card charge? This is what a diploma mill offers: A lifetime of hard work on paper without the lifetime of hard work. Some diploma mills offer even more. "I discovered that the St. Regis group advertised credentials that could allow a person to get an H1B visa. Here was a diploma mill operation that could be helping aliens enter the country on false credentials," said Gollin, who originally perceived the bogus universities as a consumer protection problem. When a foreign scientist with a legitimate degree enters the U.S. to conduct research, it can be a win-win situation for both the researcher and the institution. However, the diploma mill industry hurts both the people who have earned legitimate degrees as well as the institutions seeking to hire them.
Gollin now serves as an expert consultant on the St. Regis case for the attorney general of Washington State in addition to his duties as a physics professor and researcher. Trials are expected to start in fall of 2006. You can watch the CNN interview here.
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Symmetry Now Online The December/January issue of symmetry magazine is now online. The staff of symmetry would like to thank the numerous scientists who responded to our call for stories and recipes on how they survived graduate school. Read the Graduate School Gourmet article to find the best (and scariest) stories, including some that didn't make it into the print edition.
Fermilab Folk Club Barn Dance
Upcoming Classes
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