Monday, June 30, 2014
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Monday, June 30

PARTICLE ASTROPHYSICS SEMINARS WILL RESUME IN THE FALL

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

4 p.m.
All Experimenters' Meeting - Curia II

Tuesday, July 1

10:30 a.m.
All-Hands Meeting - Auditorium

Noon
Undergraduate Lecture Series - One West
Speaker: Mark Pankuch, Central DuPage Hospital
Title: Cancer Therapy

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

4 p.m.
Accelerator Physics and Technology Seminar - One West
Speakers: Michael Geelhoed and Aria Soha, Fermilab, and Paul Reimer, Argonne National Laboratory
Title: Switchyard External Beamlines: From the Past to the Present

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Ongoing and upcoming conferences at Fermilab

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Weather Chance of thunderstorms
87°/68°

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Weather at Fermilab

Current Security Status

Secon Level 3

Current Flag Status

Flags at full staff

Wilson Hall Cafe

Monday, June 30

- Breakfast: banana and strawberry crepes
- Breakfast: sausage, egg and cheese croissant
- Classic club sandwich
- Smart cuisine: orange glazed pork
- Marinated roasted chicken
- Fermi burger
- Buffalo chicken tender ranch salad
- Chicken bourbon gumbo
- Texas-style chili
- Assorted pizza by the slice

Wilson Hall Cafe menu

Chez Leon

Wednesday, July 2
Lunch
- Ham and gruyere crepes
- Mixed greens with herb vinaigrette
- Lemon blueberry poundcake

Friday, July 4
Dinner
Closed

Chez Leon menu
Call x3524 to make your reservation.

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From symmetry

Computing power for all

The Open Science Grid enables faster, more efficient analysis of LHC data — and also contributes to advancements in fields from geology to medicine. Image: Sandbox Studio, with Shawna X.

Science today collects a mind-boggling amount of data. Particle physics experiments at CERN have collected more than 100 petabytes — that's 104,857,600 gigabytes — of data about particle collisions in the Large Hadron Collider.

Taking all this raw data and turning it into something meaningful takes enormous computing power, more than any single institution can provide. That's where the Open Science Grid comes in.

Funded by the Department of Energy's Office of Science and the National Science Foundation in 2006 to meet the US LHC community's computational needs, the OSG ties together individual groups' computing power, connecting their resources to create a large, robust computing grid. This grid allows scientists to tackle vast mountains of data in a logical, efficient way.

It also creates opportunity for non-LHC scientists.

"The LHC community has a large set of resources that work most efficiently when they're linked together," says OSG project manager Chander Sehgal. "But they're not always completely busy. When they're not, we can harvest unused cycles and make those available to other researchers."

Scientists have used the OSG to simulate interactions between DNA and proteins, investigate the human body's response to tuberculosis and study the agricultural impacts of large-scale drought.

OSG scientists share computing hours with researchers in many fields to enable their science, striving to make sure the computing grid is used with maximal efficiency. If a particular research group needs more computing resources than usual — say in the lead-up to summer conferences — it can use other groups' computing power through the OSG. But then, when that group is attending one of those conferences — and so not running as many calculations as usual — others can use the otherwise unused resources to run their own calculations.

"When you have a big enough community and you harvest all the dips in usage, you can allow researchers to get their work done by using these 'opportunistic cycles,'" says Sehgal. "These cycles would have otherwise been wasted, so we're putting them to good use for science in the United States."

Don Krieger, who studies brain trauma at the University of Pittsburgh, uses the OSG as part of a comprehensive group effort to better understand, diagnose and treat concussions. He says he is able to conduct his research more quickly and economically thanks to this powerful resource.

Krieger works with a large team to characterize brain anatomy and track brain function of patients with concussions and more severe head injuries. The work involves recording magnetic fields outside the head that are produced by the brain and then using the OSG to determine the neuroelectric activity that caused these fields. It takes about 150 CPU hours to analyze just one second of these magnetic field recordings.

Read more

Kelen Tuttle

Photo of the Day

Prairie prancers

Two young bucks and a doe bound around the prairie in between lanes of Pine Street. Photo: Marty Murphy, AD
In the News

NEMO closes in on neutrino mass

From CNRS, June 20, 2014

The NEMO (Neutrino Ettore Majorana Observatory) experiment, whose goal was to elucidate the nature of neutrinos and measure their mass, yielded very positive results. The product of an extensive international collaboration including seven CNRS joint laboratories, the detector, installed in the Modane Underground Laboratory (CNRS/CEA) in the Fréjus road tunnel, ran from 2003 to 2011. The observation, in seven different isotopes, of an extremely rare radioactive decay event, the so-called 'allowed' double-beta decay, helped improve our understanding of the atomic nucleus. In addition, the data collected during the search for the so-called 'forbidden' double-beta decay enabled the researchers to establish a range (0.3-0.9 eV) for the upper limit on the mass of the neutrino.

Read more

Tip of the Week: Safety

Safe and happy Fourth of July

Enjoy your local fireworks display this Fourth of July, but leave the handling of fireworks to the professionals. Image: Graphic Stock

The Fourth of July holiday is just around the corner, and many laboratory staff and users will gather with friends and family for picnics and perhaps attend a community fireworks presentation.

The Fermilab Fire Department hopes everyone will have fun on Friday. It would also like people to return to work uninjured after the holiday.

Grills and fireworks can be very dangerous and can cause severe injuries when improperly used.

  • Before using a gas grill, check the connection between the propane tank and the fuel line, making sure the venturi tubes — where the air and gas mix — are not blocked.
  • Do not wear loose clothing while cooking at a barbecue.
  • Be careful when using lighter fluid. Do not add fluid to an already lit fire as the flames can flash back into the container, causing an explosion.
  • Keep all matches and lighters away from children.
  • Dispose of hot coals properly. Douse them with plenty of water, and stir them to ensure that the fire is out. Never place them in plastic, paper or wooden containers.
  • Never grill or barbecue in enclosed areas, as carbon monoxide could be produced.

Remember that many communities have banned fireworks because of the dangers that they pose. Here are a few suggestions to keep your holiday gathering safe:

  • Treat all fireworks as suitable only for use by trained professionals.
  • Avoid sparklers, as they can burn at a temperature of more than 1,200 degrees Fahrenheit, which is hot enough to cause third-degree burns.
  • If you get something in your eye from a fireworks explosion, do not rub or rinse your eye. Report to an emergency room immediately.
  • If an injury does occur, remain calm. If your clothing catches on fire, stop, drop and roll.
  • If you see kids playing with fireworks, tell an adult.
  • While attending a fireworks show, keep the recommended distance from the shooting area.
  • If you find fireworks, do not touch them. Direct authorities to them.

Should a fire get out of hand or a burn warrant serious medical attention, call 3131 on the Fermilab site or 911 if off site.

For more on fire and holiday safety, visit Fermilab's Fire Department's website.

Please have a safe and happy holiday.

Chuck Kuhn, Fermilab Fire Department chief

Milestone

New employees - June

The following regular employees started at Fermilab in June:

Thomas Hamernik, FESS; Andrew McDaniel, FESS; Hasan Padamsee, TD; Christopher Sheppard, CCD; Jeffrey Spidle, CCD; Keshia Waddell, WDRS.

Fermilab welcomes them to the laboratory.

In the News

Not much force: Berkeley researchers detect smallest force ever measured

From Berkeley Lab News Center, June 26, 2014

What is believed to be the smallest force ever measured has been detected by researchers with the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) and the University of California (UC) Berkeley. Using a combination of lasers and a unique optical trapping system that provides a cloud of ultracold atoms, the researchers measured a force of approximately 42 yoctonewtons. A yoctonewton is one septillionth of a newton and there are approximately 3 x 1023 yoctonewtons in one ounce of force.

Read more

Announcements

Today's New Announcements

Employee Appreciation Day at Hollywood Palms Cinema

Reception for COO Vicky White - today

Swim lessons session 2 deadline - today

Artist reception - July 2

Lecture Series - Technology for Advanced Neural Prostheses - July 11

Register for the C++ Fermilab software school - Aug. 4-8

New updates available for Mac computers

FermiWorks training for managers with direct reports

Construction work at Main Ring Road and AZero

Outdoor soccer