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Wednesday, August 30, 2006 |
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Wednesday, August 30
Thursday, August 31 Click here for a full calendar with links to additional information. |
 Mostly Cloudy 55º/75º
Extended Forecast |
Secon Level 3 |
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Wednesday, August 30 -Italian Wedding w/Meatballs -Diner Style Patty Melt -Chicken A La Mer -Stuffed Cabbage -Greek Chicken Panini w/Feta Cheese -Assorted Slice Pizza -Chicken w/Pesto Cream |
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Wednesday, August 30 Lunch -Wild Rice and Grilled Duck Salad -Steamed Snow Peas -Amaretto Cheesecake
Thursday, August 31
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 |
| What's in a name? Zoo event | |||
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When physicists at Fermilab smash particles together in the Tevatron, most of what comes out of the collisions is well-understood. But every once in awhile strange things appear in the Dave Toback, a Texas A&M University professor who works on the CDF experiment, says zoo events are rare by definition, but occur frequently enough to catalogue--like animals in a zoo. "The idea is that you try and collect these animals so you can study them," he said. Toback uses a program called "ZooFinder" (originally named "PhysMon") that monitors collision data and e-mails him and other physicists when zoo events occur. "Every so often," he said, "we'll get other physicists together to try and look at the zoo." Although the exact origin of the "zoo event" term is cloudy, Henry Frisch of the University of Chicago says the concept has evolved into a systematic strategy for finding new physics. "Keeping a sharp eye out for anomalies is a big part of trying to bust the standard model of physics," Frisch said, "because we really don't know what we're looking for."
Because anomalies like cosmic rays and improper detector readouts can cause zoo events, some physicists are cautious about using them as a basis for discovery. But Frisch says using the correct approach can be fruitful. "One has to be very careful not to attribute new physics in cases where it's not and not to ignore new physics when it is," Frisch said. Toback argues that unexplainable events are especially hard to ignore. "Many great discoveries weren't made with a 'eureka,'" Toback said, "They were made with a 'hmm, that's funny.'"
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| Register for final golf outing of the season before Sept. 1 | |||
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Attention golfers: Friday, September 8, will be the final Fermilab golf outing of the season. Tee-off is at 8:00 a.m. at the Tamarak golf club on route 59, just south of I-88. The $50 dollar cost includes cart, contest holes and prizes. The deadline to register is September 1; contact Carl Lundberg x8636, swede@fnal.gov; or
Mark Kujawa x8504, kujawa@fnal.gov.
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Scientific American, August 28, 2006: What are dark matter and dark energy, and how are they affecting the universe? Dark energy and dark matter describe proposed solutions to as yet unresolved gravitational phenomena. So far as we know, the two are distinct. Dark matter originates from our efforts to explain the observed mismatch between the gravitational mass and the luminous mass of galaxies and clusters of galaxies. The gravitational mass of an object is determined by measuring the velocity and radius of the orbits of its satellites, just as we can measure the mass of the sun using the velocity and radial distance of its planets. The luminous mass is determined by adding up all the light and converting that number to a mass based on our understanding of how stars shine. This mass-to-light comparison indicates that luminous matter comprises less than 1 percent of the total mass in the universe. Read More |
| Two tales--one dog | ||
| In today's column, Accelerator Division Head Roger Dixon finds role models among mathematicians and baseball players.
The Russian mathematician, Dr. Grigory Perelman, recently refused to accept the Fields Medal,
Most of our accomplishments at Fermilab require us to work together in teams. An important component of teamwork is backing up one another to make certain that costly mistakes are not made. This is a form of oversight. It works much the same way in baseball when the shortstop backs up the second baseman on a throw down to second base. Even though the second baseman may be an All-Star, there is a small probability that the ball will end up in the outfield. This concept is particularly important when it comes to safety. A good team never expects a mission to go as planned, even though similar undertakings may have succeeded many times before. Oversight, reviews, and backing-up one another are all components of our team strategy. Occasionally, an award is refused because an individual feels it should go to the team. In the case of Dr. Perelman, his very significant accomplishment was probably the result of many quiet hours spent in deep thought. Coupled with the fact that he is apparently not playing the game of self-promotion, his story becomes particularly fascinating. Perhaps we could all learn from his example. It might even make our team stronger. Now, if we could only find a mathematician who can play second base. . . . Next week's column will feature Computing Division Head Vicky White. |
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Unix Users Meeting
Benefits survey
Email outage tomorrow
Tuesday night bowling league
Wednesday night bowling league
Pool hours
International Folk Dancing
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