Fermilab Today

Monday, July 23, 2007

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Mon., July 23
PARTICLE ASTROPHYSICS SEMINARS WILL RESUME IN THE FALL
3:30 p.m.
DIRECTOR'S COFFEE BREAK - 2nd Flr X-Over
4:00 p.m.
All Experimenters' Meeting - Curia II
Special Topic: MI Group Collimation Efforts

Tue., July 24
12:00 p.m.
Summer Lecture Series - One West
Speaker: H. Prosper, Florida State University
Title: The Standard Model and Beyond
2:00 p.m. Research Techniques Seminar - West Wing, WH-10NW
Speaker: N. Otte, Max-Planck-Institüt fur Physik / Humboldt Universität Berlin
Title: The Geiger-APD: A Novel Photon Detector and Its Application in Astrophysics Experiments and Positron Emission Tomography
3:30 p.m. DIRECTOR'S COFFEE BREAK - 2nd Flr X-Over
THERE WILL BE NO ACCELERATOR PHYSICS AND TECHNOLOGY SEMINAR TODAY

Click here for NALCAL,
a weekly calendar with links to additional information.

Sunny 82°/59°

Extended Forecast
Weather at Fermilab

Secon Level 3

Monday, July 23
- Minestroni
- Chicken & mushroom cheese steak
- Baked chicken enchiladas
- Pot roast
- Garden turkey
- Assorted slice pizza
- Szechwan green bean w/chicken

Wilson Hall Cafe Menu

Wednesday, July 25
Lunch
- Salad of ham, gruyere & cabbage in roquefort dressing
- Chocolate mousse w/almonds & cookies

Thursday, July 26
Dinner
- Pasta w/roasted summer vegetables
- Veal saltimbocca
- Sautéed spinach w/lemon & pine nuts
- Peach melba

Chez Leon Menu
Call x4598 to make your reservation.

Fermilab Today
Result of the Week
Safety Tip of the Week
ILC NewsLine

Fermilab Today is online at:
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Send comments and suggestions to:
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Fermilab playgroup provides home away from home

Events like last week's playgroup BBQ give fathers a chance to participate in the playgroup activities with their families.

When the Weber family moved here from Switzerland five years ago, Anita Weber wanted to find a way to connect with other families. Her husband, Michael, had taken a job as a physicist at DZero and became part of the Fermilab family, but Anita and their three kids knew no one. So Anita found other expatriate parents and children in the same situation and helped to form the Fermilab playgroup, which has since become a close-knit family. The playgroup gathered together at a BBQ last week to say a difficult goodbye to the Webers, who plan to return to Switzerland.

Even when there is no farewell to be said, events like these are held after work throughout the year to give dads and other family members a chance to join in the group's activities. The playgroup meets twice a week, and moms socialize with each other while their kids play. "If you come here and you don't know anybody, it's a way you can make friends," Anita said. "You get tips about everything - from where to go shopping to where the best daycare is."

Because many of the families in the group are from other countries, the play sessions are also a good opportunity for the kids to practice their English by talking with other kids their age. "The good thing about the playgroup is that it gives our kids a chance to get out and socialize with other kids," said Ana Maria Rios from Ecuador, whose husband works on CMS. "My daughter has best friends now - it's great. And the moms definitely socialize and make friends too because we don't have our families here. The playgroup gives us a home away from home."

-- Amelia Williamson

Children from Fermilab's playgroup play with a toy rocket at a group picnic last week.

Painted beauty

This Pandorus sphinx moth was found out at Site 38 by Business Services Section employee David Meyers. It is 3 inches wide and slightly larger than a quarter.

It's not a postcard - it's a virus!

Although that friendly-looking email in your inbox may say that you've received a postcard from a friend or family member, chances are that it is actually a virus. If you receive an email stating that you received a postcard or ecard, Fermilab's computer security team warns not to click on the email's enclosed link or you could download a virus. Please use discretion when clicking on email links or attachments.

Nature,
July 18, 2007

How the LHC came to be

Approval of a project the size of the Large Hadron Collider is an exercise in politics and high finance.

The idea of following CERN's Large Electron-Positron Collider (LEP) with a Large Hadron Collider (LHC), housed in the same tunnel, dates back at least to 1977, only two years after LEP itself was conceived. The importance of not compromising the energy of an eventual LHC was one of the arguments for insisting on a relatively long tunnel in the discussions that led to the approval of LEP in 1981.

Early discussions of the LHC were dominated by sometimes acrimonious competition and comparisons with the proposed 40 teraelectronvolt (TeV) Superconducting Super Collider (SSC) in the United States. Serious work on the SSC was kick-started by American reactions to the discovery of the carriers of the weak force, the Wplusminus and Z bosons, at CERN in 1983. CERN's discovery was greeted by a New York Times editorial entitled "Europe 3, US Not Even Z-Zero", and a call from the President's science adviser for the United States to "regain leadership" in high-energy physics.

A bottle trap consists of a container with small opening(s) wasps can enter through. The bottom few inches are filled with a fragrant carbohydrate-containing liquid like orange soda, apple juice or beer. Wasps drown when they land on the liquid to feed. Bottle trap instructions and information can be found online.

We recently spoke with Tom Dobrinska to obtain additional information about wasps. Dobrinska is an entomologist who provides training for Anderson Pest Solutions - the company that provides Fermilab's pest control services.

Dobrinska explained that when it comes to stinging, yellow jackets are the main culprit. From May to July yellow jackets look for protein to use in egg production, but beginning in July they switch to carbohydrates. During either time, a good preventive measure is to cover food and waste.

Although experts recommend letting the wasps go about their business, it is sometimes necessary to kill them. When an area needs to be cleared of wasps, Dobrinska suggested using bottle traps as an effective method. Traps should be set up one or two days ahead of time and placed a comfortable distance from the location of planned activity. Two or three traps should be enough for a typical backyard situation.

If pesticides are necessary, Dobrinska suggested dusts for ground-dwelling insects such yellow jackets and bald-faced hornets. Dusts are poured into nest entrance(s) according to label instructions and then insects distribute the material as they move about the nest. Recommended products are carbaryl (Sevin) or a pyrethroid (DeltaDust or pyrethrum). For open nests like those of paper wasps, a readily available wasp and hornet spray is the most effective.

DEET and other personal repellants are ineffective on wasps. These products work by blocking smells that people-feeding insects use to find us and Dobrinska said that encounters with wasps are mostly random.

Safety Tip of the Week Archive

July 18 - 20
- Two stores provided 34 hours and 17 minutes of luminosity
- Power glitch due to thunderstorm trips off devices
- LRF3 problems after power glitch
- Energy mismatch between MI and Recycler found

Read the Current Accelerator Update
Read the Early Bird Report
View the Tevatron Luminosity Charts

Hole-In-One for Eric James
Eric James, a Particle Physics Division employee and a golfer in the Fermilab Golf league hit a hole-in-one last week while playing in the Tuesday Night Bliss Creek Golf League. This feat was accomplished on the 13th hole using his 7-iron from 148 yards away. This was witnessed by his playing partners: Ron Ray, Mike Coburn, and Cons Gattuso. Congratulations Eric!

2007 GSA Triathlon
The 2007 GSA Triathlon will take place on August 11, 2007. Those interested in participating should email Mandy Rominsky as soon as possible. Please include your estimated swim time and overall completion time in your message. Volunteers are also needed to help during the event and should contact Mandy.

Professional Development classes
New classes are always being added to the professional development schedule. For the most up-to-date course offerings, visit the training web site.

Midsummer Theatre Troupe
Shakespeare in the Park
If you're looking for something to do this weekend, head out to see Bruce Worthel of the Accelerator Division plays Egeus in Shakespeare's "Midsummer Night's Dream." Batavia's Clark Island is still off limits due to construction, but you can see the play for free at these locations:
Tuesday 7/24/07 - Aurora, Peyton's Roundhouse - 7 p.m.
Tuesday 7/31/07 - Aurora, Peyton's Roundhouse - 7 p.m.
Saturday 8/4/07 - Aurora, Phillips Park - 7 p.m.

Salary Review Process Location Change
General information for all employees on updates to the salary review process is now available online. Please review this presentation. If you have any questions on the information provided or any topic related to the upcoming salary review, please attend one of the town-hall meetings scheduled for 1:30 p.m. on July 25, 26, and 31 in Wilson Hall, Auditorium.

Labwide party on August 3
To celebrate our laboratory community and its achievements, the Fermi Research Alliance will host a labwide party in the Wilson Hall atrium on Friday, August 3, from 3:30 to 6:30 p.m. The theme of the party is "World-class people, world-class research." The party will feature international snacks, beverages, music and door prizes. All Fermilab employees, users, contractors and DOE employees are invited.

Additional Activities

Fermilab playgroup provides home away from home

Painted beauty

It's not a postcard - it's a virus!

Nature, July 18, 2007

More on wasps

Nature,
July 18, 2007