Fermilab explores new physics frontier
John Plese, Fermilab herdsman. Image courtesy of Gabriel Spitzer/WBEZ.
From Chicago Public Radio, May 13, 2009
Researchers at Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory seem poised to answer some of the most basic questions in science. But now, the focus of high-energy physics is moving away from Chicago's western suburbs. Europe's Large Hadron Collider is expected to dwarf Fermi's collider into obsolescence. Fermilab now has to figure out how to keep up its prominence, its funding, its relevance. So scientists there are making a big pivot, training their sights on a new physics frontier.
Of all the people at Fermilab - cosmologists, Nobel laureates, John Plese may have the coolest job title: lab herdsman.
PLESE: Well that's the herd bull right there, lying down, getting ready to turn over and itch his back.
On a sunny spring morning, this herd of American bison is lolling in the grass. Plese, a muscled guy with a buffalo tattoo on his right shoulder, has been looking after them for about 20 years.
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Congressman Bill Foster explains future of Fermilab
From Chicago Public Radio, May 13, 2009
Congressman Bill Foster is a physicist who participated in several big projects while working at Fermilab for 22 years. But as the Congressional Representative for the area, Foster's job now involves bringing attention and funding to the lab. He tells us whether Fermilab's Tevatron collider might be shut down now that Europe's Large Hadron Collider - or LHC - has displaced it as the highest energy particle collider in the world.
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