For information about H1N1, visit Fermilab's flu information site.
|
Friday, Aug. 27
- Breakfast: Chorizo burrito
- Smart cuisine: Chunky vegetable soup w/ orzo
- Buffalo chicken wings
- Cajun breaded catfish
- Smart cuisine: teriyaki pork stir-fry
- Honey mustard ham & Swiss panini
- Assorted sliced pizza
- Smart cuisine: carved turkey
Wilson Hall Cafe Menu
|
Wednesday, Sept. 1
Lunch
- Fire steak salad
- Banana chocolate cake
Thursday, Sept. 2
Dinner
Closed
Chez Leon Menu
Call x3524 to make your reservation.
|
|
|
Honorarium acceptance
Gary Leonard, Fermilab General Counsel, wrote this column.
|
Gary Leonard, Fermilab general counsel |
Many Fermilab scientists and staff are on occasion asked to give talks at other institutions. A Fermilab scientist giving a talk at CERN as part of his duties as a Fermilab employee was recently offered an honorarium. The scientist refused the offer, and he was right to do so.
As a Fermi Research Alliance LLC employee at Fermilab, he was already compensated for his travel to CERN and work. Therefore, it would be wrong to take additional money for such work. The main ethical issue here stems from the Standards of Conduct gratuities policy, which prohibits FRA employees from accepting any gratuities. The laboratory's relationship with CERN is collaborative, but it also has subcontracting elements, so the gratuities policy is relevant. The penalty for violating this policy can be as severe as discharge.
If the situation were different and CERN, not FRA, paid for the employee's travel and accommodations and gave him a small stipend, then this would be outside employment. Check the WDRS website for Fermilab outside employment policies and for forms (PDF) to notify Fermilab of such employment and get it approved.
This situation illustrates FRA's high expectations. FRA employees are held to the highest standards of integrity, honesty and fair dealings to avoid actual or apparent conflicts of interest between the laboratory's interests and the employee's own financial or personal interests.
-- Gary Leonard, Fermilab general counsel
|
Eager egret
|
Brian Chase of Fermilab's Accelerator Division took this photograph of an egret in the pond near the Lederman Science Education Center. |
|
LHC lawsuit dismissed by US court
from symmetry breaking, Aug. 26, 2010
After a lengthy process examining a complaint by Walter Wagner about the risks of switching on the LHC, an appellate judge has dismissed the lawsuit, finding that Wagner had no standing before the court. According to the decision, Wagner failed to show a “credible threat of harm”, and the US government does not control the operation of the LHC and therefore is not the correct party to bring action against.
The decision itself is short and sweet. Read the entire text below or see the original (PDF).
Read more
|
The Particle Physics Song
from symmetry breaking, Aug. 26, 2010
“I’m watching something very strange right now,” a colleague texted from the CERN Control Center on Feb. 3.
Members of the CERN choir, all in black, had gathered there to perform their rendition of a song that a non-physicist had submitted to CERN's monthly publication.
Danuta Orlowska, a clinical psychologist with Guy's and St. Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust in London, wrote "The Particle Physics Song," an ode to the Higgs boson to be sung to the tune of "The Hippopotamus Song" by British comedians Michael Flanders and Donald Swann.
Read more and watch the video.
|
|
|
Progress at NOvA
Editor's note: Recent photos from Ash River, Minn., illustrate progress at the future site of the NOvA detector facility, a construction project funded in part by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.
Construction crews building the NOvA detector facility in Ash River, Minn., have almost completed the walls of the detector enclosure. Photo by Deb Miller
Workers from Adolfson & Peterson Construction have poured more than 7,000 cubic yards of concrete and have installed the first quarter of the pre-cast beams that will form the roof over the enclosure. Workers also have covered the roads to the site with blacktop. As of Monday, Aug. 23, A&P had gone 346 days without a lost-time accident and 126 days without a recordable incident. Photo by Dan Traska of Einarson Flying Service
Visit Fermilab's Recovery Act Web site.
|
European particle physics lab tightens belt but cancels no projects
from Science Insider, Aug. 25, 2010
Many physicists around the world must be breathing a sigh of relief, as officials at the European particle physics laboratory, CERN, today released a revised budget for the next 5 years that trims spending by about 6%, but does not cancel any projects. The facility near Geneva, Switzerland, houses the world's largest atom smasher-the 27-kilometer-long, subterranean Large Hadron Collider (LHC)-and has an annual budget of just under $1 billion that was supposed to increase with inflation. But the world's financial woes have hurt the nations that pay CERN's bills and they've been pressuring the lab to trim its costs. CERN officials now say that they can save about $340 million from 2011 through 2015 by delaying upgrades to current machines and research and development for future ones. Officials do not plan to lay off any of CERN's 2250 staff members.
Read more.
|
|