Needles and Threads fashions hope for cancer patients

From left: Sheila Cisko and Kathy Johnson demonstrate fleece blanket making at the Fermilab Wellness Fair on Sept. 23.

When Kathy Johnson was diagnosed with cancer in 2009, it was easy for her to become discouraged. But the oncology center where she was treated gave her a scrap of cheer: handcrafted items donated by volunteers. She received a pretty shawl, a tote bag that came in handy for her chemo visits and a variety of hats that kept her coworkers guessing what she’d wear each day.

“It’s amazing what those gifts can do for your spirits,” she said. “I thought that we at the laboratory could do that for people, too.”

Thus, the Needles and Threads volunteer project was born.

For the past year, Johnson has scoured the web for user-friendly patterns and ideas for caps, scarves, bags, blankets and pillowcases that Fermilab volunteers of all skill levels could make and donate to oncology centers. Whether participants prefer to knit or crochet, quilt or sew, Johnson and other experienced crafters will provide the instruction.

“If you can tie a knot, you can contribute,” said Fermilab employee Sheila Cisko, a longtime friend of Johnson’s who will assist with the project.

After the group's inaugural meeting on Oct. 20, the Needles and Threads volunteers will form smaller groups to plan their own projects and schedule meetings both on and off the Fermilab campus. The organizers hope that the variety of crafts will attract participants from every skill level – and even some men. The program will also accept yarn and fabric donations.

Johnson hopes to focus on practical items for cancer patients. Chemo caps, for instance, can be made in a variety of styles for patients of different ages. Needles and Threads will donate the items to the organizations Haloes of Hope and ConKerr Cancer, oncology centers such as Southern Virginia Regional Medical Center, Massey Cancer Center of Southern Virginia, and Fermilab’s own Neutron Therapy center.

“By making these items for cancer patients, we can let them know people are thinking about them, and maybe relieve some of their suffering,” Cisko said.

The first meeting will take place at noon on Oct. 20 in the Abacus Conference Room, WH4E.

-- Sara Reardon

Fermilab pairs dinner hosts with guests for TurkeyDate 2010

International Services will play matchmaker again this Thanksgiving between volunteers at Fermilab who are hosting Thanksgiving dinners and anyone at Fermilab who does not already have Thanksgiving plans. The goal of the program is to ensure that everyone at Fermilab has a place to go for Thanksgiving and people with whom to share this unique celebration.

The program is open to anyone at Fermilab, domestic or international, user, employee or contractor.

Hosts and guests interested in joining the program should visit turkeydate.fnal.gov for more information and to complete a short questionnaire about dietary restrictions, transportation arrangements and other topics. There is one questionnaire for potential hosts and one for potential guests. International Services will announce matches as they are made.

Contact Katharine M. Johnson by e-mail (kjohnson@fnal.gov) or at x8640 with questions.

Thinking in aeons

From Nature, Oct. 13, 2010

John Mather and George Smoot won the Nobel Prize 2006 in Physics for their work on cosmic background radiation. Smoot measured the temperature variation (anisotropy).

How important is an interdisciplinary approach in addressing urgent scientific questions, and how can we foster such collaborations?

This is vitally important and crucial to the progress of modern science. There are a number of ways to do this. The approach that I prefer and am trying is to create a centre adressing interesting science problems requiring interdisciplinary skills and knowledge and with a mandate to address these issues. It is important to have both the incentives - financial and approved research directions (official, peer, and public) - and the proximity including coffee/discussion areas so that personal contacts are made and incidental discussions arise that often lead to other avenues of investigations and ideas.

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Large Hadron Collider starts edging out rivals

From Wired, Oct. 15, 2010

The Large Hadron Collider has made its first steps beyond the standard model of particle physics. With just four months of data gathered, the monster collider has already edged past the Tevatron, its particle-smashing rival.

"The surprising thing for me is how quickly the experiments started to top the Tevatron data," commented theoretical particle physicist Ulrich Baur of the State University of New York at Buffalo, who is not on the LHC team but whose theoretical predictions laid the groundwork for new research done there. "You really see the power of the Large Hadron Collider coming in here."

The contest concerns an exotic hypothetical particle called an excited quark. In the standard model - the theoretical picture of what physicists think matter is made of - atomic nuclei are broken down into protons and neutrons, which are broken down further into fundamental particles called quarks and gluons. Electrons, which orbit atomic nuclei and give atoms their distinctive characters, are also considered fundamental particles.

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