Fermilab prairie restoration earns top marks from students

A policy of controlled prairie burning every other year keeps native plants thriving and minimizes the invasive species population.

A study of restored prairies found Fermilab's Main Ring prairie one of the area's best.

"The way that Fermilab managed its prairie restoration and kept its data analyzed put it at the top of our list," said Judy Hooysman, a junior at the Illinois Math and Science Academy in Aurora.

Hooysman and fellow student Elizabeth Richardson looked at data collected during 20 years to determine if the quality of a prairie increased over time with continuous restoration.

They studied prairies at Almon Underwood Prairie Nature Preserve in Kaneville, LeRoy Oakes in St. Charles and in Fermilab's Main Ring.

"Anytime you get a Fermilab prairie compared with regional prairies it gives you a basis for how you're doing," said Bob Lootens of Fermilab Roads and Grounds.

According to Hooysman and Richardson, Fermilab is doing great. The students completed data analysis in February and found the quality of the plants increased in all of Fermilab's 20 prairie plots over time. The duration and effort of restoration led to increased biodiversity and an increase in the number of native plants.

Fire was also an integral part of restoration for Fermilab's 1,100-acre native prairie. Fermilab burned the prairie every other year, which was more frequent than at the other prairies. The burns destroy non-native plant species and increases soil fertility.

The study looked at the popular processes for restoring a prairie and found they were working well. That gives Fermilab and other prairie stewards in the county a guide. Fermilab donates seeds of its native prairie plants to schools as a form of outreach and education. The students presented their analysis at the laboratory's Ecological Land Management Committee meeting in April.

"I have to give them credit for going through the hundreds of documents," Lootens said. "What they came up with was interesting.

--Tia Jones

Mike Bardill of Wheaton-Warrenville High School harvesting prairie seed in 2005.

Head to the Main Ring today for exercise

Fermilab will celebrate National Employee Health & Fitness Day today from 11:30 a.m. - 1:30 p.m at the Main Ring. Walk, run or bike your way to fitness. Start at Ring Road A1. Stop at mile marker tables for water, snacks and fun activities. The event is sponsored by the Recreation Department and the Wellness Committee.

Scientists debunk "Angels and Demons" antimatter

From Reuters,
May 20, 2009

Editor's note: Fermilab theorist Marcela Carena will give a lecture l about how antimatter is used in "Angels & Demons" and in real-life research at 8 p.m. Thursday in Ramsey Auditorium.

"Angels and Demons," the recently released film version of the Dan Brown thriller, focuses on a plot to destroy the Vatican using a small amount antimatter pilfered from the European particle physics laboratory CERN, the world's largest particle accelerator.

Some of the world's top particle physicists attempted to sort through facts and fiction about antimatter on Tuesday, and comment on their real quest behind CERN -- to unlock secrets about the origins of the universe.

"Antimatter atoms exist, but it is very difficult to make them," Rolf-Dieter Heuer, director-general of CERN, or the European Organization for Nuclear Research, said on Tuesday in a telephone briefing.

Antimatter particles are subatomic particles that are mirror images of matter, added Boris Kayser of the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory in Batavia, Illinois, and chairman of the American Physical Society's Division on Particle Physics.

When the two come together, they annihilate one another, and their mass is released in the form of energy.

In Dan Brown's book, on which the Sony Pictures film was based, a quarter gram of antimatter was thought to be the equivalent of 5,000 tonnes of dynamite, enough to wipe out everything within a half mile or so.

"That number was correct," Kayser said.

But it is not likely to be used in any bomb, they said. "It would take us billions of years to produce the amount which is used in the film," Heuer said.

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