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Have a safe day!
Wednesday, Feb. 1
12:30 p.m.
Grad Student Chalk Talk - One West
Speaker: Sohyun Park, University of Florida
Topic: Quantum Effects During Inflation
3:30 p.m.
DIRECTOR'S COFFEE BREAK - 2nd Flr X-Over
4 p.m.
Fermilab Colloquium -
One West
Speaker: Jasper Kirkby, CERN
Title: Cosmic Rays, Climate and the CERN CLOUD Experiment
Thursday, Feb. 2
2:30 p.m.
Theoretical Physics Seminar - Curia II
Speaker: Joachim Kopp, Fermilab
Title: Phenomenology with Sterile Neutrinos
3:30 p.m.
DIRECTOR'S COFFEE BREAK - 2nd Flr X-Over
THERE WILL BE NO ACCELERATOR PHYSICS AND TECHNOLOGY
SEMINAR TODAY
Click here for NALCAL,
a weekly calendar with links to additional information.
Upcoming conferences
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Wednesday, Feb. 1
- Breakfast: English muffin sandwich
- Smart cuisine: Cajun style lentil soup
- Cajun chicken ranch
- Caribbean jerk pork chops
- Chicken parmesan
- Smoked turkey panini pesto mayo
- Assorted sliced pizza
- Chicken alfredo fettuccine
Wilson Hall Cafe Menu |
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Wednesday, Feb. 1
Lunch
- Pork Schnitzel w/ noodles and browned cabbage
- Apple strudel w/ cinnamon cream
Friday, Jan. 3
Dinner
Closed
Chez Leon Menu
Call x3524 to make your reservation.
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Wilson Hall stairwells to close for safety feature updates
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The construction in Wilson Hall will soon move to the stairwells, to provide updated safety features. Click here to see a mock-up of the finished work.
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This week, FESS crews have begun preparation for the last stage of the Wilson Hall atrium upgrades. Crews are closing off the northwest stairwells and putting up construction barriers to protect from potential falling debris. The elevators will remain open but the stairwell will be closed until about
June 1.
Scaffolding, demolition and preparation work will occur first, and then the installation of the cable barrier system and railing improvements will begin.
In June, work crews will move to the east side of the atrium to make the same improvements. Work should finish in the fall. Follow progress of the construction with updates from FESS here.
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Fermilab onsite shuttle extended through February
An after-hours shuttle service is available at 5:15 p.m. on Wednesdays and Fridays through February, in front of Wilson Hall. It runs service to SiDet, CDF, DZero and the User's Center. For more information, please email David Carlson or Michael Cooke.
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Saving Sally the salamander
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| While installing a nesting platform on the east side of Fermilab, workers found this little salamander. Dubbed Sally, FESS members found her a suitable pile of leaves to finish out her winter hibernation. Photo: Dave Shemanske, FESS |
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Repulsive gravity as an alternative to dark energy
From PhysOrg.com, Jan. 31, 2012
When scientists discovered in 1998 that the Universe is expanding at an accelerating rate, the possibility that dark energy could explain the observation was intriguing. But because there has been little progress in figuring out exactly what dark energy is, the idea has since become more of a problem than a solution for some scientists. One physicist, Massimo Villata of the National Institute for Astrophysics (INAF) in Pino Torinese, Italy, describes dark energy as "embarrassing," saying that the concept is an ad hoc element to standard cosmology and is devoid of any physical meaning. Villata is one of many scientists who are looking for new explanations of the Universe's accelerating expansion that involve some form of repulsive gravity. In this case, the repulsive gravity could stem from antimatter hiding in voids.
"Cosmic voids (and in particular the nearby Local Void) are observationally very well known and constitute the largest structures of which our Universe is composed," Villata told PhysOrg.com.
Read more
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Dipole hunt stuck in neutral
From Nature, Jan. 31, 2012
Physicists admit to delays as attempts to measure the neutron's charge are plagued by difficulties.
Discovered 80 years ago this month, the neutron is famous for what it lacks: electric charge. Yet this is a simplification of a deeper truth. Each neutron is made of charged quarks: two down quarks that each carry a negative charge one-third as strong as an electron's; and an up quark that carries a two-thirds positive charge
In theory, this arrangement could create an electric dipole moment (EDM) — an offset between the centres of positive and negative charge.
Read more
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Changes in the AD organization
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Roger Dixon
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Roger Dixon, head of the Accelerator Division, wrote this column.
When the Tevatron rode off into the sunset on Sept. 30, people around the laboratory wondered what the people working on the Tevatron would be doing in the future. That was not a problem in the Accelerator Division. We had many projects on the books that were hungry for manpower, and we still do. Nevertheless, the shutdown of the Tevatron was a major transition for our division. As a result, we have made some organizational changes:
- The most obvious change was that the Tevatron department went away, freeing up eight people for other assignments in the division.
- The Antiproton Source Department also required major changes: we no longer need to produce antiprotons for the Tevatron. We created the Muon Department since we will use the equipment of the Antiproton Source to create muons for the proposed Muon g-2 experiment and to support the Mu2e experiment. Many Antiproton Source people had already been working on plans for the new Muon Campus, and people from the Tevatron Department and AD Headquarters joined the Muon Department as well to move ahead the projects supporting the muon experiments.
- In the support departments, most personnel already focused on projects associated with future experiments, including NOvA, Mu2e, Muon g-2 and LBNE. These departments now have extra help from support people who transferred from the former Antiproton Source Department.
- A large group of AD people continues to work on Accelerator R&D in the SRF Electron Linac and SRF Proton Linac Departments, which were formed last year. They work on the AD efforts related to the Advanced Superconducting Test Accelerator, located at NML, and work on a small proton accelerator, located in the MDB building in the fixed-target area. AD also supports the Muon Test Area, which is located at the end of the linear accelerator and houses the MuCool project.
As you can tell, there are a lot of projects going on at the laboratory. Keeping up with all of these activities will be an enormous challenge for our division.
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ES&H weekly report, Jan. 31
This week's safety report, compiled by the Fermilab ES&H section, contains one report. An employee slipped and fell on the ice in the parking lot, but was not injured. The incident was reported, but the employee did not require treatment.
Find the full report here. |
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Mostly sunny
