Fermilab Today

	Friday, Nov. 4, 2011

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Calendar

Have a safe day!

Friday, Nov. 4
3:30 p.m.
DIRECTOR'S COFFEE BREAK - 2nd Flr X-Over
4 p.m.
Joint Experimental-Theoretical Physics Seminar - One West
Speaker: Ken Bloom, University of Nebraska, Lincoln
Title: In Search of the Standard Model at CMS

Monday, Nov. 7
9 a.m.
“Helpful Hints in Preparing an Early Career Grant Award” - Comitium
Speaker: Rob Roser
2:30 p.m.
Particle Astrophysics Seminar - Curia II
Speaker: Brian Odom, Northwestern University
Title: MilliKelvin Trapped Molecular Ions: A New Tool for New Physics
3:30 p.m.
DIRECTOR'S COFFEE BREAK - 2nd Flr X-Over
4 p.m.
All Experimenters' Meeting - Curia II
Special Topics: Resonant Extraction from the Debuncher for Mu2e; COUPP 60 kg Run in the MINOS Underground Area

Click here for NALCAL,
a weekly calendar with links to additional information.

Upcoming conferences

Campaigns

Take Five

Weather

Scattered showers
53°/33°

Extended Forecast
Weather at Fermilab

Current Security Status

Secon Level 3

Wilson Hall Cafe

Friday, Nov. 4

- 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

Chez Leon

Friday, Nov. 4
Dinner
Closed

Wednesday, Nov. 9
Lunch
- Northern Italian lasagna
- Caesars salad
- Italian cream cake

Chez Leon Menu
Call x3524 to make your reservation.

Learn to patent your invention

On Monday, Nov. 7, Fermilab patent attorney Luis Ortiz will give two presentations concerning intellectual property in Curia II. Ortiz will also discuss how to get an invention recorded and the possibility of gaining a patent at the laboratory. The first presentation will take place from 10:30 a.m. to noon, followed by another presentation from 1 p.m. to 2:30 p.m. He will be available for questions at the end of each session.

The visit is jointly sponsored by the Office of Research and Technology Assessment and the Laboratory Counsels Office.

Feature

Neutrinos make a splash in SciBath detector at Fermilab

The internal components of SciBath, a neutron and neutrino detector, include liquid scintillator and wavelength-shifting fibers. Photo courtesy of Rex Tayloe, Indiana.

The latest underground dweller in the MINOS tunnel is SciBath, a neutron and neutrino detector designed and built by an Indiana University team. Scientists are using the detector cube, which is about the size of a mini fridge, to track neutrons and neutrinos more effectively and economically.

Originally a prototype for a 10-ton version called FINeSSE, SciBath has taken center stage for the project. It's mounted to a cart that has been craned into the MINOS tunnel, 100 meters underground.

“SciBath is the first experiment to combine liquid scintillator and wavelength-shifting fibers in an open volume to get tracking precision,” said Rex Tayloe, associate professor in neutrino and nuclear physics. “We’ve put two ideas together into one to get an improved detector to track charged particles.”

When a neutron created in Fermilab’s NuMi neutrino beam reaches the SciBath cube, it hits 70 kilograms of liquid scintillator.

—Brad Hooker

In the News

Search for elusive Higgs Boson particle on hold until 2012

From Live Science, Nov. 2, 2011

One of the world's most elusive particles will stay hidden a while longer, it seems.

Scientists at the gigantic Large Hadron Collider (LHC) particle accelerator at the CERN physics lab in Switzerland have wrapped up — at least for 2011 — the kind of experiments that might have shown a glimpse of the long-sought Higgs boson particle.

The Higgs boson, which has been theorized but never observed, is thought to give all other particles their mass. Physicists have been hoping to see signs of it ever since they began colliding particles at the LHC in 2008. Yet there is still no sign of the Higgs.

In the News

Undulator brings ILC closer to reality

From PhysicsWorld.com, Nov. 3, 2011

A full-scale undulator module that could produce the intense positron beams needed for next-generation particle colliders has been unveiled by an international team of physicists. Similar modules could be used in future projects such as the International Linear Collider (ILC) and the Compact Linear Collider (CLIC) – both of which aim to collide high-energy positrons with high-energy electrons.

Future collider projects such as the ILC and CLIC will need stable positron sources that are about 60 times more intense than those available today. In addition, these sources must produce positrons that are spin aligned and circularly polarized.

In Brief

Fall backwards on Nov. 6

This weekend on Sunday, Nov. 6, daylight savings ends. While you are moving your clocks back one hour, it is also an excellent time to change those old batteries in your smoke detectors and carbon monoxide detectors.

This habit can be lifesaving. Thirty-eight percent of all fatal fires occur in homes without working smoke alarms, while 24 percent occur in homes in which at least one smoke alarm is present but fails to operate. Families are encouraged to use the extra hour “gained” to remind their friends, family and neighbors of the life-saving habit of changing and testing smoke alarm and carbon dioxide batteries and to help those who may need some assistance.

—The Fermilab Fire Department

Special Announcement

2012 EDIT application closing

The deadline to apply to Fermilab's 2012 EDIT detector school is Sunday, Nov. 6. Based on CERN's Excellence in Detectors and Instrumentation Technologies (EDIT) 2011 school, the Fermilab EDIT 2012 program gives graduate students the chance to get their hands on actual particle detector components. Click here to learn more about the program.

To submit an application, visit the EDIT 2012 website.

Photo of the Day