Fermilab Today Wednesday, July 28, 2010
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Wednesday, July 28
3:30 p.m.
DIRECTOR'S COFFEE BREAK - 2nd Flr X-Over
4 p.m.
Fermilab Colloquium - One West
Speaker: Alessandro Olivi, Johns Hopkins University
Title: Recent Advances in Image Assisted Neurosurgical Procedures: Improved Navigational Accuracy and Patient Safety

Thursday, July 29
2 p.m.
Computing Techniques Seminar - FCC1
Speaker: Borja Sotomayor, University of Chicago
Title: The OpenNebula Cloud Toolkit: Experiences and Outlook
2:30 p.m.
Theoretical Physics Seminar - Curia II
Speaker: Jessie Shelton, Yale University
Title: Excavating a Buried Higgs
3:30 p.m.
DIRECTOR'S COFFEE BREAK - 2nd Flr X-Over
4 p.m.
Accelerator Physics and Technology Seminar - One West
Speaker: Lucio Rossi, CERN
Title: The CERN Plan for the LHC Upgrade

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Weather Chance of thunderstorms
88°/65°

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Secon Level 3

Wilson Hall Cafe

Wednesday, July 28
- Breakfast: English muffin sandwich
- Cajun-style lentil soup
- Cajun chicken ranch
- Braised pork chops
- Chicken parmesan
- Smoked turkey panini with pesto mayo
- Assorted sliced pizza
- Chicken Alfredo fettuccine

Wilson Hall Cafe Menu

Chez Leon

Wednesday, July 28
Lunch
- Beef kabobs
- Rice pilaf
- Blackberry parfait

Chez Leon Menu
Call x3524 to make your reservation.

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Feature

Fermilab gives Anderson Barn bees the boot

Local beekeeper Harry Patterson removes a beehive from Anderson Barn.

The sound was unmistakable: the hum of thousands of honeybees at work in the labyrinthine walls of their honeycomb. That is what Fermilab Accommodations' Dan Lee and Mark Hedrick heard when they began removing siding from the barn on July 13, a week after Roads and Grounds received notice of the bees.

"This was the second bee incident this year," said Fermilab Roads and Grounds' Mike Becker, who coordinated the response. "Honeybees are no real hazard, but we wanted to get the hive out quickly since the barn is close to a children's playground."

Harry Patterson of the Cook-DuPage Beekeepers' Association guided Lee and Hedrick, burning pine needles to smoke out the bees from their hive. Smoke dulls the senses of honeybees and causes them to slow down. The bees begin eating as much honey as possible, believing there is an actual fire.

"It was really kind of neat to walk up to the hive with bees flying all over and none being aggressive," Lee said. "You can actually pet the drones, they don't sting you. I even got a taste of prairie honey."

The trio successfully removed the walls of the beehive, so copious that they needed additional boxes for Patterson to transport them. Patterson rescues the hives for other beekeepers to adopt.

"It was a great learning experience," said Hedrick, an on-call volunteer for Fermilab Accommodations. "I teach special education at Geneva High School, and I'd never even looked the subject up. I intend to incorporate it into a lesson plan for my classes."

Since the incident, Lee has checked the barn, and no bees have returned. This gives Fermilab staff members confidence that they have successfully removed the queen, which the rest of the hive follows. Lee will soon replace the siding on the Anderson barn and will stay on the lookout for other invaders.

"This week it's bees, next week it's snakes," Lee said. "If it's spiders, then you're going to have to call my wife."

-- Daisy Yuhas

Photo of the Day

South Dakota students learn about particle physics, lab

This month, students from South Dakota are participating in a three-week summer program at Fermilab and Sanford Laboratory in South Dakota, the proposed site of the Deep Underground Science and Engineering Laboratory. The 10 undergraduates, selected in a competitive application process, spent two weeks at Fermilab to learn about the laboratory and particle physics research. They returned to Sanford Laboratory on July 23, where they are participating in lectures, activities and tours for the rest of the week. The students either have just completed their first year as an undergraduate or will enter college in the fall. On their trip to Fermilab, the students were accompanied by teacher Steve Gabriel, from Spearfish, S.D., and student chaperone Haaken Phelps.
In the News

Teams of physicists closing in on the 'God Particle'

From the New York Times, July 27, 2010

Editor's note: Bloggers are also covering the news from ICHEP. Check out summaries and coverage of ICHEP presentations here.

A thousand physicists working at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory in Batavia, Ill., reported in Paris on Monday that they had not found the "God particle," yet. But they are beginning to figure out where it is not.

Its mass - in the units preferred by physicists - is not in the range between 158 billion and 175 billion electron volts, according to a talk by Ben Kilminster of Fermilab at the International Conference on High Energy Physics in Paris.

And so the most intensive particle hunt in the history of physics goes on.

Over the last decade physicists working on two separate experiments at Fermilab have combed the debris from a thousand trillion (1 with 15 zeros) collisions of protons and anti-protons looking for signs of the Higgs boson, which is said to be responsible for imbuing some other elementary particles with mass. Rumors fanned by a blogger that the Higgs, dubbed the "God particle," by former Fermilab director Leon Lederman in a book of the same name, had been detected reached all the way to Gawker last week and focused attention on the Paris conference, which also featured a speech by President Nicolas Sarkozy of France.

Read more

From the Business Services Section

Whom do you call in the middle of the night?

David Carlson, head of the Business Services Section, wrote this week's column.

From left: Communication Center employees Mary Hobbs and Richard Meaderdes Jr. operate the Fermilab switchboard on Tuesday, July 27. Hobbs and Meaderdes, Jr., are two of nine Com Center employees who help to provide vital Fermilab services 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.

Everyone should know the on-site emergency phone number, x3131, but do you know who to call after normal work hours to report a non-emergency safety, security or site condition?

Nestled in the ground floor of Wilson Hall, midway between the east and west elevator towers, is the Communications Center (also known as Security Dispatch). Inside the center, a crew runs vital Fermilab services 24 hours a day, all year long. You can reach them by calling x3414.

The nine employees of the Communications Center team operate the Fermilab switchboard, dispatch emergency responders, and run the BSS Security Department convenience services, including maintaining a lost-and-found service and issuing dosimetry badges to trained personnel. After regular work hours team members also handle some services for the Housing and Recreation Departments.

As you might imagine, the types of calls that Comm Center team members receive range from routine to quite peculiar. They generally are requests for building access, reports of utility problems, wild life problems or requests for tourist information, but occasionally they involve suspicious activity.

The Comm Center team is always available to put you in touch with other people or services, and if those are not immediately available, team members will take reports for follow-up the next business day.

If you encounter a situation that can wait for attention, it's probably best to work through the normal service and management systems when they are available. Remember, though, that non-emergency help is available any time of day or night at x3414.

Special Announcement

Farewell party for DOE's Joanna Livengood Thursday

Joanna Livengood, former Department of Energy Office of Science Fermi Site Office Manager, has taken a position as the Argonne Site Office Manager. Wish her well during a farewell party from 2-4 p.m. on Thursday, July 29, on the 15th floor of Wilson Hall.

Safety Update

ES&H weekly report, July 28

This week's safety report, compiled by the Fermilab ES&H section, includes five incidents. Three of those incidents resulted in injuries that required only first aid treatment. One incident, a vehicular accident, did not require any treatment. A fifth incident involved an employee who suffered a strain while filling pumps with oil. This is a DART case. Find the full report here.

Safety report archive

Announcements

JoAnn Larson wins iPod in walking program drawing

Argentine Tango - today

Bristol Renaissance Faire discount

Aug. 20 deadline for The University of Chicago Tuition Remission Program

Applications for URA Visiting Scholars Awards due Aug. 20

Martial arts classes begin Aug. 9

Take 5 Challenge Quiz

Benefit News

Safari online access to O'Reilly content available for purchase

Club & League Fair - Aug. 11

Regal Movie Theater discount tickets available

NIM and Physics Reports now completely online at Fermilab

Toastmasters - Aug. 5

Grounding and Shielding of Electronic Systems course - Aug. 12 and 13

Free Piano Concert featuring Sandor Feher, Ramsey Auditorium at noon on Aug. 12

Claudia Schmidt - Singer/Songwriter - Fermilab Arts Series - Aug. 14

Gizmo Guys - Fermilab Arts Series - Sept. 25

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