June 3-4 Users' Meeting looks at new physics, future

Participants enjoy a break between sessions at the 2008 Users' Meeting.

For two days this June, hundreds of people will gather to celebrate the laboratory's accomplishments and focus on its future.

"Last year was doom and gloom. We were still reeling from furloughs, and we had a lot of speakers from our funding agencies address our uncertain future," said Lee Sawyer, Users' Meeting chair, DZero collaborator and physics professor at Louisiana Tech University. "This time, we'll focus on the great results we've achieved and the laboratory's planned and proposed future projects."

The 2009 annual Users' Meeting will take place at Fermilab on Wednesday, June 3, and Thursday, June 4. Registration is free. All users and employees are invited to attend. The meeting will feature talks about new physics results from the laboratory's experimental program, the laboratory's future initiatives and presentations from leaders of the scientific policy community. Other highlights include talks from outstanding young physicists and presentation of the 2008 Tollestrup Prize and the 2008 URA Thesis Award.

In conjunction with the meeting on Wednesday, June 3, the Fermilab Arts and Lecture series will host a lecture on the benefits and applications of accelerator technology by Tom Katsouleas, an accelerator physicist and the dean of engineering at Duke University.

Following the Users' Meeting on Friday, June 5, Fermilab and the UEC will hold an outreach workshop including a poster session, panel discussion and colloquium. Theoretical astrophysicist Michael Turner, from the University of Chicago, will give the colloquium about outreach.

A poster session organized by the Graduate Student Association will take place on June 3 in the atrium of Wilson Hall. Poster abstracts should be sent to UM2009POSTERS@fnal.gov by May 15.

The Users' Meeting Web site provides a tentative agenda and other information about the 2009 meeting.

Extreme Beam lecture Thursday, 4 p.m. in One West

The next talk in the Extreme Beam lecture series will focus on neutrinos.

The fifth lecture of the Extreme Beam lecture series will take place at 4 p.m. Thursday in One West. Chris Walter, Department of Physics at Duke University, will give a talk titled Neutrino Detectors: Current Techniques, Future Challenges.

The lecture series, which will feature talks at Fermilab throughout 2009, will give in-depth information about the science and accelerator and detector technologies that will create a world-leading physics program at the Intensity Frontier.

Visit the Extreme Beam Web site for more information.

A look at 40 years of Arbor Day celebrations

In Tuesday's Fermilab Today, the article on the history of Earth and Arbor Day celebrations mentioned that the event began in 1994. Arbor Day tree planting celebrations have been taking place since they were begun by founding Director Robert Wilson in April of 1969. The article should have stated that the event began in the current area in 1994.

Fermilab staff and volunteers planted about 85 trees and shrubs in honor of Earth Day and Arbor Day on Tuesday, May 5, 2009.

Science, spirituality, and some mismatched socks

From Wall Street Journal, May 5, 2009

Researchers turn up evidence of 'spooky' quantum behavior and put it to work in encryption and philosophy

One of quantum physics' crazier notions is that two particles seem to communicate with each other instantly, even when they're billions of miles apart. Albert Einstein, arguing that nothing travels faster than light, dismissed this as impossible "spooky action at a distance."

The great man may have been wrong. A series of recent mind-bending laboratory experiments has given scientists an unprecedented peek behind the quantum veil, confirming that this realm is as mysterious as imagined.

Quantum physics is the study of the very small -- atoms, photons and other particles. Unlike the cause-and-effect of our everyday physical world, subatomic particles defy common sense and behave in wacky ways. That includes the fact that a photon, which is a particle of light, exists in a haze of multiple behaviors. They spin in many ways, such as "up" or "down," at the same time. Even trickier, it's only when you take a peek -- by measuring it -- that the photon fixes into a particular state of spin.

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