P5 to help form Fermilab future

The new P5 will meet at Fermilab today and Friday to discuss the formation of a new 10-year plan for the laboratory.

The Particle Physics Project Prioritization Panel will meet at Fermilab this week in the first of three cross-country town hall meetings to aid in forming a new 10-year-plan for U.S. particle physics.

By April, P5 will make a recommendation to the U.S. High Energy Physics Advisory Panel that takes into account the field's fluid nature and considers projects in different budget scenarios.

"What it will mean, in my view, is the roadmap will really be a roadmap, not a road. A roadmap has many turns and branch points," said Mel Schochet, ex-officio as HEPAP chair.

The development of a plan for particle physics, recommended by a new P5 panel, gives the laboratory a chance to make the case for Project X R&D and extension of the Tevatron run and to reiterate support for the neutrino program and LHC commitments.

"One of the things P5 will look at is broadening the scope of accelerator experiments beyond the ILC," said Robert Tschirhart, P5 member.

That likely will include CLIC at CERN and the Muon Collider at Fermilab.

ILC participation remains a priority, but potentially at different funding levels, possibly opening the door to a more diversified research portfolio.

"I would say what we are looking for is to retain our path to the energy frontier but also build breadth to the field through astrophysics and through intensity frontier facilities," Tshirhart said.

P5 will consider U.S. participation in research plans in Europe and Asia and look for opportunities for vital U.S.-based projects.

"Fermilab is our flagship for particle physics," said Charles Baltay, P5 chair. "I'm coming with an open mind and will listen to what everyone has to say."

View the meeting agenda here.

--Tona Kunz

Worth 1000 words
Photos capture untold stories

The Fermilab Art Gallery currently features an exhibit of photography, including Jeff Curto's "Santo Stefano di Sessanio, Abruzzo."

The newest art exhibit in the Fermilab Art Gallery features works by photographers who love to get close to their subjects. Work on display through March 14 includes "Evidence of Hands on Stone" by Jeff Curto and "Flowers: Colors, Lines and Shapes" by Tanya Lunina. All employees may attend an opening reception Friday from 5-7 p.m. in the Fermilab Art Gallery.

Lunina's close-up images capture the flowers' lines, shapes and colors, highlighting the intricate and original design of each. "I try to find something unique in every flower," she said.

Tanya Lunina's "Flowers: Colors, Lines and Shapes" is part of the current exhibit of the Fermilab Art Gallery.

Lunina began photographing flowers as a hobby a few years ago when she came to the United States from Russia with her husband, Andrei Lunin, an employee in Fermilab's Technical Division. She uses a Canon 30D and prints her images on an ink jet printer.

Curto, a professor of photography at College of DuPage, began photographing Italy's architectural landscapes after a trip to the country in 1989. During each subsequent trip, he searches for inspiration in the subtle layering of ancient and modern materials and elements and care that have helped to shape each architectural landscape he photographs.

"Ultimately, one of the things that I am as a photographer is a storyteller," Curto said.

Curto said the title of his project, "Evidence of Hands on Stone," came from the idea that the buildings have been touched.

"When you walk into the Pantheon, or through a doorway, you think of all the people who have walked through that door for hundreds of years. You really get a sense of people who honored these buildings," Curto said.

Curto takes photographs are taken with a 1982 Deardorff camera. The high-quality 4-inch by 5-inch negatives produced from the camera are then scanned and printed on an ink jet printer.

--Rhianna Wisniewski

Gravity: the 'Holy Grail' of physics

From BBC.com,
Jan. 29, 2008

Isaac Newton wrote down his theory of gravity in 1689, and his equations are used to this day to send space probes to the outer edges of our Solar System.

So what could possibly be wrong with our understanding of it?

There are problems with Newton's theory, however. It doesn't quite describe the orbit of Mercury, the closest planet to the Sun, and as Newton knew very well it has nothing to say about what the force of gravity actually is.

It took over 200 years and the genius of Albert Einstein to discover a deeper theory.

Einstein's General Theory of Relativity describes the force we see as gravity as being due to the bending and curving of space and time (or to be more accurate "space-time") by heavy objects like the Earth and Sun.

Read more