Where old physics stuff
goes to live

Fermilab's boneyard is a recycling center for old equipment and pieces of experiments.

Editor's note: The new issue of symmetry magazine is now online.

Hidden from view by old willow trees, the cast-off tools of high-energy physics are strewn across 11 acres: rejected cables, tables with missing limbs, and computers that couldn't keep pace. Swallows nest in rusty magnet frames, raccoons pillage through buckets of bolts, and coyote pups hide from the wind under a metal plate painted with the American flag.

Many laboratories and universities lack the space to store old equipment and scrap, so Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory takes it in. "I just hate to see stuff get melted down when it doesn't have to be," Todd Wagner says. "Sooner or later, somebody is going to come out here and need it. There's enough talent at this lab here that we can find a use for anything."

Wagner oversees the Fermilab boneyard-a recycling center for experimental components that might otherwise end up in a landfill. Scientists adapt these pieces for other experiments-some for short terms, others permanently. Sometimes, to his dismay, Wagner can't find a good home for a part and must recycle it for a new life in consumer goods.

"The name of the yard-boneyard-is misleading," Wagner says. "You hear 'bone' in the title and you think it's where stuff comes to die. I like to think the opposite-that it's where items get reborn."

Read more

-- Jennifer Johnson

Chinese premier commends US/China collaboration

Premier of China Wen Jiabao meets the U.S. delegates at IHEP

From symmetrybreaking, Nov. 20, 2008

The 29th annual meeting of the US/People's Republic of China Joint Committee on High Energy Physics had an unexpected guest this year. On Nov. 4, the Premier of China, Wen Jiabao, visited the Institute of High Energy Physics in Beijing and met the US delegates. Premier Wen congratulated IHEP on their recently completed upgrade of the Beijing Electron Positron Collider. He also emphasized the importance of collaboration between the two nations.

"Premier Wen voiced appreciation for the strength and longevity of the collaboration," said Jerry Blazey, a member of the US delegation from the Department of Energy. "He expressed a desire for continued and broadened collaborations and cited the efforts as a leading example of broader Sino-American relations."

Read more

Atom Smashers on TV

From MSNBC Cosmic Log ,
Nov. 24, 2008

Can the movies turn real-life physicists into stars? "The Atom Smashers," airing Tuesday on PBS, packs a lot of real life into its saga about the world's biggest subatomic quest - plus a bit of movie magic.

The documentary, which has been making the film-festival rounds for weeks, focuses on the years-long effort at Fermilab's Tevatron particle collider to find the Higgs boson - a.k.a. the "God Particle" - and other exotic subatomic phenomena.

The quest is in its latter days at Fermilab in Illinois, and Europe's Large Hadron Collider is due to begin the quest next year - that is, after scientists spend a winter of discontent repairing the damage done shortly after the LHC's startup.

The LHC looms as an off-stage character throughout the film - in fact, one scene shows a digital countdown clock at Fermilab, ticking down toward the LHC's scheduled turn-on. Will America's Fermilab find the Higgs before Europe's collider enters the chase? Will shrinking budgets in Washington cut Fermilab's run short?

Read more