Fermilab Today Tuesday, April 20, 2010
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Tuesday, April 20
3:30 p.m.
DIRECTOR'S COFFEE BREAK - 2nd Flr X-Over
4 p.m.
Accelerator Physics and Technology Seminar - Cancelled

Wednesday, April 21
3:30 p.m.
DIRECTOR'S COFFEE BREAK - 2nd Flr X-Over
4 p.m.
THERE WILL BE NO FERMILAB COLLOQUIUM THIS WEEK

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For information about H1N1, visit Fermilab's flu information site.

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WeatherSunny
67°/43°

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Weather at Fermilab

Current Security Status

Secon Level 3

Wilson Hall Cafe

Tuesday, April 20
- Bagel sandwich
- Chicken & rice soup
- Italian sausage w/peppers & onions
- Beef stroganoff
- Chicken lemon
- Peppered beef
- Assorted sliced pizza
- Chicken tostadas

Wilson Hall Cafe Menu

Chez Leon

Wednesday, April 21
Lunch
- Thai chicken sauté
- Macaroon shortcake w/roasted pineapple

Thursday, April 22
Dinner
- Closed

Chez Leon Menu
Call x3524 to make your reservation.

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Feature

Wilson Hall west road to close on Wednesday

The Wilson Hall west road between the Wilson Hall Medical Office and the Linac will be closed between noon and 3 p.m. on Wednesday, April 21, due to construction.

FESS will ensure access to the Medical Office remains open.

North Aurora company Pandecon Inc. will install a new emergency generator for Wilson Hall over the next few days. On Thursday, the subcontractors will perform a check and fuel the generator. On Friday, they will run the generator for approximately four hours as a test. The generator may produce a cloud of smoke when it first turns on. Should you have any questions, please feel free to contact Tom Lackowski at x3640.

In Brief

Visa holders with delayed travel - contact the Visa Office

A number of Fermilab users are discovering that their flights from the U.S. have been cancelled or rescheduled because of disruption to air service over Europe resulting from the Icelandic volcano eruption. Two groups are most affected - users admitted to the U.S. on the basis of a B-1 visa and those admitted under the visa waiver program. This should not affect users holding J or H visas or other statuses.

B-1 and visa waiver users with approaching departures (or who were unable to leave the U.S. as scheduled) should make an appointment with the Visa Office (visaoffice@fnal.gov) as soon as possible. They also should photocopy their current I-94 card and documents reflecting their current travel plans (a flight itinerary, airline tickets or other documents) and keep them in a safe place. The inability to depart the U.S. in a timely manner due to the volcanic eruption cannot be used as a reason to remain in the U.S. for longer than necessary.

The Visa Office is in communication with the Bureau of Customs and Border Protection about this matter. More specific guidance on procedures to follow will become available over the next few days.

Photos of the Day

Sandhill crane visits Fermilab

The Computing Division's Gene Oleynik took these photos of a lone sandhill crane in an area on-site just south of Eola Road. The area contains marshy water and prairie grass.
Reminder

Earth Day Fair Thursday provides treats, transportation

ES&H is sponsoring an Earth Day Fair from 11 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Thursday, April 22, in the Wilson Hall atrium. Win great prizes, get free goodies, learn about volunteer opportunities and find out about on-going green programs at Fermilab. A conference held in Wilson Hall the same day will make parking even more difficult than usual. Taxi service has been increased during the fair hours to allow everyone to attend. To schedule a taxi call x4225.

In the News

Sean Carroll talks school science and time travel

From New York Times, April 19, 2010

The world of science has two Sean Carrolls. One is an evolutionary biologist. The other is a cosmologist and theoretical physicist, an expert on time and the early moments of the universe. As it happened, the physicist stopped by the offices of The New York Times on a recent March morning. Dr. Carroll, a 43-year-old research professor at the California Institute of Technology, had come to New York for an appearance on "The Colbert Report." He was in town promoting his meditation on the physics of time, a trade book with the clever title "From Eternity to Here."

Q. WHEN YOU GO TO A COCKTAIL PARTY, DO YOU TELL PEOPLE THAT YOU ARE A PHYSICIST? SOME PHYSICISTS WON'T.

A. I do! But I know what you're talking about. Whenever you say you're a physicist, there's a certain fraction of people who immediately go, "Oh, I hated physics in high school." That's because of the terrible influence of high school physics. Because of it, most people think physics is all about inclined planes and force-vector diagrams. One of the tragedies of our educational system is that we've taken this incredibly interesting subject - how the universe works - and made it boring.

Q. LEON LEDERMAN, THE NOBEL PRIZE PHYSICIST, HAS PROPOSED THAT WE REFORM HIGH SCHOOL SCIENCE BY REQUIRING PHYSICS IN THE SOPHOMORE AND NOT THE SENIOR YEAR. WILL THAT HELP - OR IS IT REARRANGING DECK CHAIRS ON THE TITANIC?

A. I don't think it's the right solution. What we need to do is find a new way to teach the spirit of physics. What we do now is water down what professional physicists do and make it into this dry puzzle-solving thing with little pictures of pulleys and things like that. We ought to teach kids more about the Big Bang and entropy and particles. Every high school graduate should know that everything in the universe is made of a handful of particles. That's not a hard thing to know. But that's not what's emphasized.

Read more

Director's Corner

Balance I

Fermilab Director Pier Oddone

Last week I wrote about the first issue discussed at the April 7 Office of Science Lab Directors' meeting: attracting "the best and brightest" to the DOE national laboratories. The second issue, much harder than the first, was a discussion on Director Brinkman's question: "How can we achieve a balance between basic science and the urgent drive toward making contributions to the nation's energy and environmental needs?" The question is particularly relevant to particle physics, since we do not pretend to make direct contributions to energy or climate applications from the fundamental scientific questions we answer. We do develop technological spinoffs with wide applicability, but these are not necessarily predictable.

In the last 15 years, the balance has clearly changed: there has been a major shift in Office of Science research toward "end-use inspired basic research" that is directly relevant to energy, environment and new materials. From FY1996 to the FY2011 President's budget request, particle physics in the U.S. has suffered about a 15 percent drop in real terms compared with an increase of about 60 percent in real terms for the rest of the Office of Science. This trend to decrease basic research into fundamental questions relative to basic research aimed at applications could accelerate with the much-increased emphasis of this administration on energy and climate change.

Clearly the set point between the kinds of research we do in particle physics and "end-use inspired basic research," including the new practical thrust towards energy and environment, depends on many factors that finally integrate to a judgment of the Office of Science leadership about what the right balance is. The set point in this balance will change over time and with different administrations. The factors that affect this balance are hard to disentangle but they include:

  1. First and foremost, the perceived scientific opportunities and the cost to achieve them
  2. A judgment of the value of basic research on fundamental questions relative to the potential impacts of end-use inspired basic research (This judgment starts at the Office of Science but is exercised also by the leadership of the administration and by Congress.)
  3. The standing that the U.S. wants to take in this research in the world (In the same period, the investments in Japan, China and Europe in particle physics have risen significantly.)
  4. The role that Office of Science plays as a steward of particle physics relative to the energy mission of the DOE (In the more than $60B of federal research, most is geared towards applications, but DOE's role as steward of fundamental research is recognized in legislation.)

In the next Director's Corner I'll discuss these factors in more detail, including the danger that year-to year funding decisions pose for reaching an overall balance.

Accelerator Update

April 16-19
- Three stores provided ~69 hours of luminosity
- 402.4E30 a new record store
- LCW leak in Pbar
- Main injector LCW leak
- Main injector vacuum problems
- Problems with ECool transfer line solenoid

The integrated luminosity for the period from 4/12/10 to 4/19/10 was 49.33 inverse picobarns. NuMI reported receiving 6.1E18 protons on target during this same period.

Read the Current Accelerator Update
Read the Early Bird Report
View the Tevatron Luminosity Charts

Announcements

Latest Announcements

Ask HR comes to TD, Hermitage conference room - April 23

IMAP users: Configure your e-mail client by May 5

Ask HR - 15th floor comes to Site 38 Conference Room today

Thursday Phillips Park golf league

Celebrate National Humor Month

Weight Watchers Open House Wednesday

Heartland Blood Center needs blood types A-, B+, B- - reserves are very low

Fermilab blood drive today

Sign up now for National Lab Day 2010

Argentine Tango through April 28 - student discount available

FORE! The 2010 golf season is about to hit you

SciTech summer camps start June 14

Butts & Guts class - sign up now

Qi Gong, Mindfulness and Tai Chi Easy for Stress Reduction

Blackberry Oaks Monday night golf league

Employee discount at Batavia Rosati's

Country House discount for Fermilab employees

Calling all softball players

Fermilab Management Practices Seminar classes take place in April

ANSYS Mechanical Application classes offered in May

Interaction Management class offered May 5, 12, & 19

AutoCAD Intermediate classed - June 22 - 24

AutoCad Fundamentals class - June 6 - 8

Performance Review class offered May 26

Fermilab Functions class offered June 2, 8, & 10

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