 | Tuesday, October 24, 2006 |
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Tuesday, October 24 Wednesday, October 25 Click here for a full calendar with links to additional information. |
 Partly Cloudy 45º/30º
Extended Forecast |
Secon Level 3 |
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Tuesday, October 24 -Creamy Turkey Vegetable -Chicken Gyros -Salisbury Steaks with Mushroom Au Jus -Chicken Cacciatore -Italian Panini with Provolone -Grilled Chicken Caesar Wrap -Assorted Slice Pizza -Super Burrito |
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Wednesday, October 25
Chez Leon Menu |
| Fermilab Today is online at: http://www.fnal.gov/today/ Send comments and suggestions to today@fnal.gov Fermilab Today archive 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 |
| Exotic particles, native plants |
The grounds of Fermilab host more than Sigma-sub-b particles, B-sub-s mesons and top quarks. The indigenous grasses and flowers that grow on the prairie have properties almost as interesting. Native tribes and early pioneers depended upon many of the plants we see when looking out the window.
The local tribe, the Winnebagos, used Culver's Root (Veronicastrum virginicum) to treat snakebite. Throughout its growing region, Culver's root served as a purgative and reviver. It was an important part of medicine bags and war bundles. "This is only one of many such revivers and is always found with evil medicines, so that a sorcerer can undo his work," Wisconsin naturalist Huron Smith wrote in his 1923 book, Ethnobotany of the Menomi Indians. Pioneers also used Culver's root as a purgative and emetic, often as a substitute for mercury, to treat liver disorders, respiratory problems, fever and venereal diseases.
The native grass, big bluestem or turkey-foot (Andropogon gerardii), is the main component of prairies in our area. The root system--which branches throughout the topsoil and may extend as deep as 12 feet--knits the prairie together. Modern gardeners plant it for erosion control. Native Americans used the grass medically, as an analgesic and diuretic, and as building material. Tribes like the Ponca and the Omaha covered poles with this grass to support earth coverings of lodges. The Ponca and Omaha also used the jointed stems of the grass to make arrows for the toy bows of little boys.
--D.A. Venton
Special thanks to Rita Hassert of the Morton Arboretum and Mary Jo Murphy of the Lederman Science Center.
Disclaimer: Although Native Americans and settlers used these plants, their effect is often unpredictable and, in large doses, toxic. We do not recommend home use.
Photo credit: Big Bluestem: Jennifer Anderson @ USDA-NRCS PLANTS Database |
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Chicago Sun-Times, October 24, 2006: Fermilab gets charge out of new particles Physicists catch up with matter mostly absent since Big Bang Nature's zoo of subatomic particles just got more crowded. Physicists at west suburban Fermilab on Monday announced the discovery of two exotic particles that haven't been around much since the first few moments after the universe began with a Big Bang. Physicists spent five years and combed through enough data to fill 2 million CDs before identifying the new particles. Each one existed for less than a millionth of a second before breaking apart into other particles.
There are hundreds of known and suspected subatomic particles. Physicists sometimes give them whimsical names such as quarks and squarks. But the newly discovered particles have a relatively drab name: sigma-sub-b. (Sigma is the 18th letter of the Greek alphabet.) There are two types of sigma-sub-b: one has a positive charge, the other a negative charge.
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| CR | ||
One of the difficult aspects of managing any laboratory is
For FY07, the fiscal year we started three weeks ago, there is a very significant difference between last year's budget (the lower number) and the President's budget request. To make things even more challenging, DOE's initial financial plan (IFP) for the laboratory for FY07 is based on the IFP for FY06, which was considerably below the final budget for the full FY06. All of this can be quite confusing if you have never thought about it before. It is a necessary background, however, for what I want to communicate next, namely how we manage under this year's CR. The bottom line is that under a CR we have a lot less funding than what the laboratory needs to operate normally. In managing under the CR we cannot spend at the planned rate under the president's Budget Request. We need to slow spending as much as possible because the final budget outcome, especially in this election year, is highly uncertain. We want to take reversible measures not irreversible ones. Hopefully this situation will not last longer than a few months, but there have been cases in which a CR continued for a full year. Until the situation with the budget is clarified we should delay or minimize expenditures for items like travel, purchase orders and service contracts to the extent possible. That said, we must also be careful to minimize the damage and delays to the program under these difficult circumstances. |
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October 20 - 23 - Booster Kicker problems - H- Source current drop - Accumulator ground fault - MI RF vacuum burst - Tevatron beam established Read the Current Accelerator Update Read the Early Bird Report View the Tevatron Luminosity Charts |
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Another computing scam:
SciTech museum pizza party
A new Golf League location? |
