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An open letter to the broader users community
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Tim Meyer
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Fermilab's future is very bright indeed. Thanks to the combined efforts of our staff, our scientific user community, our industrial partners and the neighbors that live near our facilities, Fermilab is moving into a new era of international collaboration, led by the Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment (DUNE) at the Long Baseline Neutrino Facility (LBNF). Already, we have over 150 institutions and 700 individuals participating in this flagship, many of whom are working at Fermilab already.
We expect those numbers to grow even more as the plans for LBNF and DUNE become an operational reality. But such growth demands even greater responsibility. We must protect the health and safety of all of our employees and our on-site users and visitors. We must protect our collective investments in property and equipment from damage or neglect. And we must protect the intellectual capital of each institution and its representatives. That is why Fermilab has decided to adopt the formal Non-Proprietary User Agreement (NPUA) framework established by the U.S. Department of Energy for all designated user facilities.
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A new first for T2K
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The Japan-based neutrino experiment has seen its first three candidate electron antineutrinos. |
Scientists on the T2K neutrino experiment in Japan announced [Thursday] that they have spotted their first possible electron antineutrinos.
When the T2K experiment first began taking data in January 2010, it studied a beam of neutrinos traveling 295 kilometers from the J-PARC facility in Tokai, on the east coast, to the Super-Kamiokande detector in Kamioka in western Japan. Neutrinos rarely interact with matter, so they can stream straight through the earth from source to detector.
From May 2014 to June 2015, scientists used a different beamline configuration to produce predominantly the antimatter partners of neutrinos, antineutrinos. After scientists eliminated signals that could have come from other particles, three candidate electron antineutrino events remained.
T2K scientists hope to determine if there is a difference in the behavior of neutrinos and antineutrinos.
"That is the holy grail of neutrino physics," says Chang Kee Jung of State University of New York at Stony Brook, who until recently served as international co-spokesperson for the experiment.
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—Kathryn Jepsen
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Yoichiro Nambu, Nobel-winning physicist, dies at 94
From The New York Times, July 17, 2015
Yoichiro Nambu, a particle physicist at the University of Chicago whose mathematical description of the phenomenon known as spontaneous symmetry breaking helped explain the interaction of subatomic particles, contributed to the prediction of the Higgs boson, or "God particle," and earned him the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2008, died on July 5 in Osaka, Japan. He was 94.
The University of Osaka, where he was a distinguished professor, announced his death on Friday.
In the late 1950s, Professor Nambu began investigating superconductivity, the process by which, at very low temperatures, electric current suddenly flows without any resistance.
He decided that spontaneous symmetry breaking, or SSB — the change from a symmetric to asymmetric state that scientists were just beginning to observe at the subatomic level — might better explain how substances become superconducting.
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Mosquitoes and infection
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West Nile virus-positive mosquitoes have been reported in northern Illinois. Photo: CDC |
You may have heard recently in the news the Illinois Department of Public Health has confirmed mosquitos have tested positive for the dreaded West Nile virus in northern Illinois. No human cases have been reported yet, and there are steps you can take to avoid being infected.
The best way to protect yourself and your family is to reduce your exposure to mosquitoes by:
- Avoid being outside at dawn and dusk, when mosquitoes are most active.
- Wear long-sleeved clothing and insect repellant containing DEET if you must be outside.
- Spray a light layer of insect repellant on clothing, rather than skin, if you're concerned about chemical exposure.
- Pour out any standing and stagnant water that has collected.
- Keep gutters free of leaves and debris so water will run off properly.
- Keep pet water dishes filled with fresh water.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, a majority of people infected with West Nile virus do not develop any symptoms, but about one in five could experience headaches, body aches, fatigue, fever and sometimes a skin rash. For those infected, these symptoms can last for a few days or up to a couple of weeks. Less than 1 percent of those infected will develop encephalitis or meningitis, serious neurological illnesses.
Recovery from these conditions can take several weeks to months and can be fatal if not properly treated. Serious illness from West Nile virus can occur in anyone, but for people over 60 or people with certain medical conditions, such as cancer, diabetes and hypertension, the risk is greater.
Visit the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention website or the Illinois Department of Public Health website for more information on West Nile virus and protection from mosquito bites.
—Kathy Zappia
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Black swallowtail
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A black swallowtail alights on a bergamot flower in Big Woods. Photo: Sue Quarto, FESS |
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New employees - July
The following regular employees started at Fermilab in July:
Chris Bushman, FS; Michael Guzman, AD; Chris Mossey, DO; Michael Piekarski, TD; Scott Reid, SCD; Brian Rubik, FESS; Thomas Strauss, TD; Jeny Teheran Sierra, SCD; Matthew Toups, ND.
Fermilab welcomes them to the laboratory.
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Physicist 3D prints 70 models of the Large Hadron Collider's CMS experiment
From 3DPrint.com, July 21, 2015
It was July 4, 2012 when researchers at CERN's Large Hadron Collider (LHC) made a major announcement: the Higgs boson, an elementary particle crucial to particle physics theory, was discovered. The world's largest and most powerful particle collider had been a success, but its work had only begun.
While the Large Hadron Collider is what gets all the media attention, it's actually the two particle physics detectors built on the LHC that deserve much of the credit. One of these detectors is known as the Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS), and it has several goals, among them, to search for extra dimensions as well as find particles which may make up the very elusive dark matter that likely exists in our universe.
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