The highly endangered oak savanna was once one of the most common vegetation types in the Midwest. But during the surge of settlement in the 1840s the savanna gave way to the plow, and now less than one percent of Illinois' original savanna remains.

Thanks to a grant from the DuPage Community Foundation, one of those remnants, located in the center of the Main Ring, will be restored.

Every day, your email inbox is bombarded with spam, which most people properly ignore. Laboratory users are well aware that this spam is designed to extract personal information, such as passwords and financial account numbers. With this information, Fermilab personnel know to safeguard this information carefully.

However, when attackers tailor spam to coincide with events in your life, you can let your guard down. One common example is malicious requests to verify email account information due to oversubscribed email quotas or other issues purported to prevent users from accessing their email.

Near misses can provide valuable information about potential dangers that we might fail to notice in our everyday work. Take, for example, a recent event that happened at the laboratory.

In December, two staff members were preparing to move equipment stored on a large shelving system that contained decommissioned equipment earmarked as excess or scrap. A floor dolly loaded with equipment was propped against the shelving, and when one of the workers moved it away, the shelving system collapsed. Fortunately, no one was hurt.

This near miss was used as a chance to educate the laboratory about dangers similar shelving systems can pose.

Pain relief through medication has changed medicine and people's lives dramatically. It has also created a growing problem in society that can, and has, ended lives of otherwise healthy people.

One in 20 Americans have reported recreational use of painkillers. Nearly 15,000 Americans die from painkiller overdoses annually, according to the Centers for Disease Control. Many of the deaths are linked to opiod abuse. Opiods such as codeine or OxyContin can be easily obtained through legal means, a prescription bought through illegal internet sales, secured from unscrupulous physicians or imposters or borrowed from a spouse or family member. Borrowed medication is not considered a legitimate use under Femilab's drug testing program.

Opiods were originally produced via opium derived from the poppy plant. They provide effective pain relief but have a downside in terms of tolerance. With regular use over time, a larger dosage is needed to obtain the same effect.

In the course of our work, we've all had a new technical responsibility assigned or been asked to implement a new administrative or regulatory practice. These responsibilities may fall outside our expertise or comfort zone. Our needs may be unique and we want to find the best solution to accomplish our task.

Our first inclination may be to begin collecting information and formulating a plan to meet the new requirement. Drawing on our experience, we try to consider all options and anticipate future problems. We may feel the need to invent a custom solution to our own specific needs, but we should avoid spending time and money developing an idea if a solution already exists.