Fermilab Today Monday, Oct. 20, 2008
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Monday, Oct. 20
2:30 p.m.
Particle Astrophysics Seminar - Curia II
Speaker: Marta Volonteri, University of Michigan
Title: Massive Black Holes from Early Times to the Present Day
3:30 p.m.
DIRECTOR'S COFFEE BREAK - 2nd Flr X-Over
4 p.m.
All Experimenters' Meeting - Curia II
Special Topic: Collider Shot Setup Improvements

Tuesday, Oct. 21
2:30 p.m.
Particle Astrophysics Seminar (NOTE DATE) - Curia II
Speaker: Susan Gardner, University of Kentucky
Title: Shedding Light on Dark Matter: How Faraday Rotation Can Limit a Dark Magnetic Moment
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.

Weather

WeatherFew showers
57°/36°

Extended Forecast
Weather at Fermilab

Current Security Status

Secon Level 3

Wilson Hall Cafe

Monday, Oct. 20
- Smart cuisine: spicy beef & rice soup
- Corned beef reuben
- Smart cuisine: honey dijon glazed pork loin
- Smart cuisine: vegetable lasagna
- Chicken oriental wrap pineapple
- Assorted sliced pizza
- Smart cuisine: Pacific rim rice bowl

Wilson Hall Cafe Menu

Chez Leon

Wednedsay, Oct. 22
Lunch
- Grilled salmon w/scallion sauce
- Lemongrass rice
- Pineapple upside down cake

Thursday, Oct. 23
Dinner
- Closed

Chez Leon Menu
Call x4598 to make your reservation.

Archives

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

Info

Fermilab Today
is online at:
www.fnal.gov/today/

Send comments and suggestions to:
today@fnal.gov

Feature

Classroom presenters wanted to showcase science


DZero's Michael Cooke and AD's Amber Johnson review the Education Office's supplies for presenting classroom science experiments on light and color during a Sept. 29 picnic to recruit volunteer presenters.

When Michael Cooke came to Fermilab for his graduate studies, he reveled in the experiments but missed teaching undergraduates.

So he found the next best thing: teaching area students about the principles underlying his work at Fermilab.

“There can be more enthusiasm with elementary students because they know they are not going to be tested on it,” Cooke said.

With his wife, Amber Johnson, Cooke has averaged about one educational talk a month during the last two school years. The couple intersperse their talk about electricity and magnetism with hands-on examples, computer-based demonstrations and plenty of questions for the students.

“It is a lot of fun,” Johnson said. “There are so many schools interested and nearby that we have never had to drive more than 30 minutes.”

The Education Office supplies demonstration kits and a van to support classroom visits to dozens of schools annually in northern Illinois either close to the laboratory or on the commuting path of volunteers.

But the office still needs more volunteers. A sign-up meeting last month only drew 16 participants, many already volunteers. New volunteers can partner with veterans or use slides created by former presenters.

The typically 30-to 40-minute presentations offer a chance to expose students to Fermilab and create an interest in science at a young age. Demonstrations are tailored for second through 12th grades and cover light, motion, electricity, sports physics, cryogenics, cosmic rays and science career paths.

“I have found some students who are less enthusiastic than others but there is something that everyone finds fun,” said Anne Heavey.

Anyone interested in becoming a classroom presenter should contact Nancy Lanning at lanning@fnal.gov. Visit the presentation Web site for more information.

“You have got all these fun demos and stuff and then the students say, ‘How does all this apply to science?’” said Jim Zagel. “And you can tie it all together.”

Photo of the Day

Users of Fermilab's Remote Operation Center Thursday participate in the inauguration of a similar center at DESY via video with their colleagues in Germany.

In the News

Einstein's relativity survives neutrino test

From IU NEWS ROOM, Oct. 15, 2008

Physicists working to disprove "Lorentz invariance" -- Einstein's prediction that matter and massless particles will behave the same no matter how they're turned or how fast they go -- won't get that satisfaction from muon neutrinos, at least for the time being, says a consortium of scientists.

The test of Lorentz invariance, conducted by MINOS Experiment scientists and reported in the Oct. 10 issue of Physical Review Letters, started with a stream of muon neutrinos produced at Fermilab particle accelerator, near Chicago, and ended with a neutrino detector 750 meters away and 103 meters below ground. As the Earth does its daily rotation, the neutrino beam rotates too. "If there's a field out there that can cause violations of Lorentz invariance, we should be able to see its effects as the beam rotates in space," said Indiana University Bloomington astrophysicist Stuart Mufson, a project leader. "But we did not. Einsteinian relativity lives to see another day."

Read more

Safety Tip of the Week

Watch out for deer


Mating instincts go into high gear in autumn, leading deer to ignore caution and dart onto roadways.

During autumn, deer become more active as they search for mates and food sources. Their additional activity greatly increases the risk of deer-vehicle collisions.

In 2007, there were 25,006 deer-vehicle crashes reported in Illinois, with 496 occurring in Kane County, making it the ninth deadliest county in the state. Statewide, these accidents injured 846 people, including five fatally.

On the Fermilab site, we have recently averaged four deer-vehicle accidents per year. Most occur around dusk and are minor in nature, but some result in vehicle damage and injuries.

To avoid deer-vehicle accidents, Fermilab's Security Chief, Bill Flaherty, provides the following advice:

  • Drive slowly in areas where deer signs are posted, especially after dark. Look for the reflection given off by deer eyes.
  • If you see one deer, slow down and be watchful, they usually travel in groups.
  • Don’t get lulled into a false sense of security. Deer sometimes run alongside a vehicle for a while before attempting to cross the road.
  • Attempt evasive maneuvers carefully so that you don’t wind up running into something else.

If you do collide with a deer, a few basic safety precautions can prevent injury. Buckle your seat belt, or, if on a motorcycle, wear a helmet. A nationwide study of vehicle-animal crashes conducted by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety shows that 60 percent of people killed riding in vehicles were not wearing seat belts, and 65 percent of motorcyclists killed were not wearing helmets.

Additional information is available from the Illinois Department of Natural Resources

Accelerator Update

Oct. 15-17
- Three stores provided ~31.5 hours of luminosity
- New MTest experiment T977 (MINERvA) begins
- Recycler stash (~200E10) lost during card change
- TeV conducts beam-beam compensation study

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

Announcements

Have a safe day!

Fire drill Oct. 22
A fire drill will take place on Wednesday, Oct. 22.

Wilson Hall emergency warden training
If you are a current or new emergency warden and have not gone through annual training, please contact John Kent via e-mail or at x4753.

Bike path closures begin Oct. 20
Beginning Monday, Oct. 20, the bike path between Road D and the Wilson Hall east parking area will close for construction. A project will begin Monday to install a redundant source of drinking water for Wilson Hall. Crews will excavate and install a water service pipe between the reflecting pond and the Tevatron berm, adjacent to the bike/walking path. Check the map for alternate routes. All bicyclists should follow Illinois regulations and be aware of their surroundings and traffic. Contact Tom Lackowski at tomski@fnal.gov with any questions.

Lecture on Litvinenko death
Borys Mychalczak, a New York-based associate clinical professor in radiation oncology, will present "The Death of Alexander Litvinenko: Understanding the Health Effects of Polonium 210 Exposure" at 2 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 26, in Wilson Hall's One West. The talk is sponsored by The Ukrainian Medical Association of North America, Illinois Branch, as part of its fall lecture, which coincides with a tour of Fermilab. The lecture is free and open to all Fermilab employees and users.

DreamWeaver CS3: Advanced Nov. 5
An advanced course in Dreamweaver CS3 will take place Nov. 5. Attendees can learn to establish database connectivity, work with record sets, create interactive page elements and administer database records and Web sites. Attendes can also learn to create a user authentication system. Learn more and enroll

Word Tips, Tricks & Techniques Nov. 6
A class in tips, tricks and techniques for Microsoft Word will take place Nov. 6. This class will allow attendees to use Word to enable better time management. Learn these tips and shortcuts to enhance task performance and create more appealing documents. Learn more and enroll

 
Additional Activities

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