Tuesday, Jan. 29, 2013
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Have a safe day!

Tuesday, Jan. 29

3:30 p.m.
DIRECTOR'S COFFEE BREAK - 2nd Flr X-Over

THERE WILL BE NO ACCELERATOR PHYSICS AND TECHNOLOGY SEMINAR TODAY

Wednesday, Jan. 30

3:30 p.m.
DIRECTOR'S COFFEE BREAK - 2nd Flr X-Over

4 p.m.
Fermilab Colloquium - One West
Speaker: Ruben Juanes, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Title: The Lifetime of Carbon Capture and Storage as a Climate-Change Mitigation Technology

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Flags at full staff

Wilson Hall Cafe

Tuesday, Jan. 29

- Breakfast: All-American breakfast
- Hungarian pork goulash soup
- Twin chili cheese dogs
- Cuban steak with black bean salsa
- Smart cuisine: Mediterranean baked tilapia
- Rachel melt panini
- Personal pizza
- Chicken BLT ranch salad

Wilson Hall Cafe Menu

Chez Leon

Wednesday, Jan. 30
Lunch
- Chicken satay with peanut sauce
- Pea pods
- Jasmine rice
- Coconut flan

Friday, Feb. 1
Dinner
Menu unavailable

Chez Leon Menu
Call x3524 to make your reservation.

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Feature

Crisscrossing cables give new look to Wilson Hall stairwells

The design of the Wilson Hall stairwell guards provides safety while maintaining the open-air aesthetic of the atrium.

One of Wilson Hall's many attractive features is its open stairways, which overlook the building's central plot of flowers, ivy and trees from as high up as the 15th floor. However, this feature was in danger of disappearing when engineers compared its aesthetic value against safety regulations last year.

One proposal, for example, was to build cement or glass walls that would completely enclose the stairs. The walls would unquestionably keep people safe, but would also cut them off from the open air of the atrium. With some ingenuity, however, engineers found a better solution, one that would minimize construction costs while maintaining the stairs' spacious quality. On Jan. 26, construction workers completed many months of drilling and welding, successfully meeting that goal.

Long, metal cables now criss-cross through the open space, which might otherwise have been a wall, along each stairwell. The cables are diagonal, parallel with the angle of the stairs, and they protect stair steppers from any open ledges. Moreover, railings now have metal bars for easy grasping, and rail pickets have 4-inch gaps instead of 12 for additional safety.

"The changes are to meet building code requirements related to safety and also to help people be more stable and safe as they climb up and down the stairs," said Fermilab engineer Gary VanZandbergen.

So far, the additional safety precautions are having a positive effect.

"Now with the new rails and guards in place, I've heard people comment about feeling safer on the stairs," VanZandbergen said.

Even with this successful project complete, VanZandbergen's team is not yet finished with Wilson Hall. Using the modest amount of money remaining from the stairwell project, VanZandbergen and his colleagues have their sights set on some additional improvements in the Wilson Hall atrium.

Within the next few months, the design team hopes to install additional light fixtures to increase the nighttime lighting level, particularly at the north end of the atrium. The team also hopes to provide some casual seating in the expanded floor area at the center of the atrium.

Jessica Orwig

Photo of the Day

Consul general of Italy visits Fermilab

H. E. Adriano Monti, consul general of Italy (2nd from left), and Mariella Meiarini Salvatori, attaché for economics and scientific affairs (right), visited Fermilab earlier this month. They met with Fermilab Director Pier Oddone and Giovanni Piacentino. Photo: Reidar Hahn
In the News

A different kind of experiment at CERN

From The Hindu, Jan. 24, 2013

At the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN, near Geneva, Switzerland, experiments are conducted by many scientists who don't quite know what they will see, but know how to conduct the experiments that will yield answers to their questions. They accelerate beams of particles called protons to smash into each other, and study the fallout.

There are some other scientists at CERN who know approximately what they will see in experiments, but don't know how to do the experiment itself. These scientists work with beams of antiparticles. According to the Standard Model, the dominant theoretical framework in particle physics, every particle has a corresponding particle with the same mass and opposite charge, called an anti-particle.

In fact, at the little-known AEgIS experiment, physicists will attempt to produce an entire beam composed of not just anti-particles but anti-atoms by mid-2014.

Read more
In the News

Quantum biology: Do weird physics effects abound in nature?

From BBC News, Jan. 27, 2013

Disappearing in one place and reappearing in another. Being in two places at once. Communicating information seemingly faster than the speed of light.

This kind of weird behaviour is commonplace in dark, still laboratories studying the branch of physics called quantum mechanics, but what might it have to do with fresh flowers, migrating birds, and the smell of rotten eggs?

Welcome to the frontier of what is called quantum biology.

Read more
Director's Corner

URA Council of Presidents

Fermilab Director
Pier Oddone

The annual meeting of the Council of Presidents of the Universities Research Association took place last Wednesday in Washington, D.C. URA and the University of Chicago partner to form the Fermi Research Alliance, which operates our laboratory for the Department of Energy.

The annual meeting, which attracts top-level representatives from each of URA's 86 member universities, serves as a business meeting for the association and a forum for discussion of science policy and of the role of particle physics research in the United States. Invited speakers at the URA meeting included Office of Science Director Bill Brinkman, who spoke of his strong support for LBNE; our Congressional representative Randy Hultgren, who communicated his strong support for science research in the national agenda; Congressman Bill Foster, who represents the 11th Congressional district that includes Argonne National Laboratory and who demonstrated his command of particle physics; and NASA's John Grunsfeld, associate administrator for the agency's Science Mission Directorate, who presented the vast NASA science program. I gave a presentation on the role of Fermilab in the global particle physics landscape. A final, notable event at this meeting was the incorporation of the University of Manchester as URA's newest member institution.

Another very important event occurred on the same day and in the same city: the inaugural meeting of the House Science and National Labs Caucus formed by Representative Randy Hultgren. He co-chairs the caucus with three additional members of Congress: Rep. Chaka Fattah (D-PA-02), Rep. Ben Ray Lujan (D-NM-03) and Rep. Alan Nunnelee (R-MS-01). Congressman Hultgren's introductory remarks explained the caucus' goal of changing the culture so that the Congress and the public understand that science matters. He introduced the event's speaker, Neil DeGrasse Tyson, who did an excellent job in describing the importance of science for the nation, why our country needs national labs to support the fabric of scientific research with major facilities, and why a set of long-range national needs can only be addressed by national laboratories and not by other performers of scientific research. The inaugural meeting had a terrific attendance with more than 400 staffers, members of Congress and the public.

Construction Update

The LArTF loading dock area

The window and door panels have been installed in the LArTF loading dock area. Photo: Cindy Arnold

Whittaker Construction Company, contracted to construct the Liquid-Argon Test Facility, and its window subcontractor, Cardinal Glass, have completed the installation of the window and door panels of the LArTF loading dock area. The loading dock area also will have a large overhead door installed in the remaining opening, seen in the pre-cast wall.

The loading dock area provides a space where deliveries of the MicroBooNE refrigeration plant components can be offloaded from trucks using a 5-ton building crane. The crane-way extends from the loading dock area into the main LArTF cylinder area. In the cylinder area, parts can be lowered 40 feet to the cylinder floor, where the MicroBooNE refrigeration plant will be assembled beneath the MicroBooNE cryostat tank. MicroBooNE will be the first tenant of the LArTF.

Announcements

Today's New Announcements

FermiMail server maintenance - Jan. 31

Employee art show applications - due Feb. 20

Budgeting Basics for 2013 - Jan. 30, Feb. 2

Service Desk Web interface upgrade - Jan. 31

January 2013 float holiday for timecard use

Financial and procurement systems down - Feb. 6-11

UChicago panel discussion on Higgs discovery - Feb. 7

Fermilab Lecture Series: Engineering Biology - Feb. 22

Fermilab Gallery Series: Dios no Choro (Brazilian flute and guitar)

URA Visiting Scholars Program deadline - Feb. 25

2013 FRA scholarship applications accepted until April 1

Professional development courses

Abri Credit Union - member appreciation

Scottish country dancing Tuesday evenings in Kuhn Barn

International Folk Dancing Thursday evenings in Kuhn Barn

Indoor soccer

Employee discounts