All-hands meeting Friday

An all-hands meeting will take place at 11 a.m. on Friday, June 19 in Ramsey Auditorium. Director Pier Oddone will discuss the focus group reports and how the laboratory plans to address the findings.

Employees can prepare for the meeting by reading and discussing the focus group reports.

H1N1 flu alert level rises, but no need to panic

The World Health Organization has raised the H1N1 alert level to 6, the highest designation, while still considering the virus "moderate."

The upgrade to level 6 came in response to the worldwide sustained spread of the illness to more than one region. As of June 12, H1N1 has been reported in 76 countries. The level 6 designation does not mean the virus has gotten stronger or the percentage of deaths has risen. WHO considers the virus's severity overall to be "moderate" at the moment, meaning, in part, that most of the people who catch the virus recover without needing hospitalization.

You should continue precautions against catching the flu, including keeping yourself healthy by getting adequate rest, eating a nutritious diet and exercising. Doing this is the best way to prepare yourself for the next U.S. flu season in November when the H1N1 strain may make its second visit.

The WHO's designation of level 6, which some groups equate with a pandemic level, was made to accelerate vaccine development and to facilitate the movement of supplies to less developed countries. So far the WHO has noted 27,737 cases with 141 deaths worldwide. Not surprisingly, the bulk of the new cases have occurred in the Southern Hemisphere, which is entering its peak seasonal flu season.The WHO's concern focuses on the fact that this novel virus travels from person to person relatively easily and may cause more severe illness as it changes.

As of June 10, the Illinois Department of Health reported the virus in 22 counties, with 1, 929 confirmed or probable cases and five deaths. You can view a county-by-county break down here.

Vaccine manufacturers received their "target" virus samples last month and began vaccine development. They plan to begin producing for a H1N1 vaccine right after seasonal flu vaccine manufacture ends in July.

Although a raise in alert level sounds ominous, this action was not unexpected, and does not prompt any additional action at the laboratory. There are no travel bans in place. When ill with flu-like symptoms, please avoid air travel or coming to work.

Good hand washing and attention to cough containment remain our best defense. Your personal physician and the Fermilab Medical Department can help if you have questions about H1N1. For links to local and national health sites tracking the virus see the ES&H Web page.

View a daily update of H1N1's status at Science Insider, a Science/AAAS blog.

-- Brian Svazas, MD

New employees

Front row from left: Zhihao Yuan, TD; Joshua Heidorn, FESS; Rebecca Bemrose-Fetter, PPD; Whitney Treadman, ES&H; Danielle Coppola, PPD; Kristin Ewald, TD; Jiangang Hao, Center for Particle Astrophysics; Paolo Giromini, PPD. Back row from left: Glenn Vallone, BSS; Andrew Densch-Giese, AD/ES&H; David Seigle, DI; Tom Gibbs, ES&H; Mike Beard, AD; Will Alvarez, FESS; Steve Gaugel; BSS.

FY 2010 House Appropriations Bill: National Science Foundation

From AIP FYI, June 15, 2009

The report accompanying the House Appropriations Committee version of the FY 2010 Commerce, Justice, Science Appropriations Bill has just been posted. This report stresses the importance of science and technology to the nation, stating in regard to the National Science Foundation:

"The value of the NSF to the future growth of the United States economy was clearly acknowledged in the National Academy of Sciences report Rising Above the Gathering Storm and in the America Competes Act (Public Law 110-69). NSF's budget is on course to double by fiscal year 2016, and the funding recommended in this bill is consistent with this goal."

House Report 111-149 has extensive language regarding the NSF, and may be viewed here. The following are selections from this committee report.

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The physics of nothing

From New York Times, June 12, 2009

A dispatch from my colleague Dennis Overbye:

As fans of the late, great "Seinfeld," know, there is a lot to say about nothing.

At the World Science Festival Thursday night, four physicists spent nearly two hours under the jocular and irreverent grilling radio broadcaster John Hockenberry, cohost of "The Takeaway," and barely scratched the surface of the void that is the background or perhaps the platform of all our experience. They did in the end offer an answer to the question that has plagued philosophers and scientists: Why is there something rather than nothing at all?

"Nothing is unstable," Frank Wilczek, a physicist and Nobel laureate from MIT, finally said to a general murmur of agreement of his colleagues on stage, John Barrow of Cambridge University in England, Paul Davies of Arizona State and George Ellis of the University of Cape Town in South Africa.

Given a chance, nature will make nothingness boil with activity.

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