The Higgs Boson, that is. The Higgs Boson is a particle predicted by the Standard Model of particle physics that gives everything in the universe mass. It has not been seen yet and the Large Hadron Collider at CERN is busy looking for it.
But the LHC's little brother, the Tevatron at Fermilab is still in the game as well. In some ways, it has a head start since it has been collecting a lot of data and it is a well understood machine (big complex machines like the LHC can take several years to fully understand all the quirks of the accelerator and detectors). If the Higgs exists in the right energy range, Fermilab could still scoop the LHC.
And rapper Funky 49 has put together a nice video about Fermilab and their efforts to find the Higgs. Funky 49 has geek cred as a Nerdcore All Star. Lots of nice shots of Fermilab, Wilson Hall, the famed bison herd, and the Collision Detection Facility (CDF). Enjoy.
Reprinted with permission from the Half-Astrophysicist Blog.
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5 comments:
Oh my, haven't you found that yet?
Nice tune.
I'm still dyslexic when it comes to the Large Hadron Collider.
LOL orbs, I concur! I read it backwards every time!
Many years ago I was in a situation of job displacement that would necessitate relocating my family near Fermilab.(we eventually made other arrangements) At that time, there was so much secrecy about what was taking place there... There was actual fear that radiation, health problems or nuclear fallout from whatever was underground would put one in harms way.
That's odd, kk. Nothing classified goes on at Fermilab. There is a lot of misinformation about it because it is a Department of Energy (DOE) lab. Lots of DOE labs do weapons research, but not Fermilab. This leads to lot of misinfo about Fermilab (probably amplified by the nearby Argonne National Lab which does DOD work).
I was working there in 2001. After 9/11, all DOE labs had the same security measures instituted whether they did anything weapons related or not. Lots of eye rolling going on to say the least. DOE did eventually star tailoring the security restrictions to what made sense at each lab, fortunately.
Fermilab is a great place. Check their schedule for the special weekend tours they do. It's a little under a two hour drive from Racine (from where I lived). You can see the bison herd, visit the Lederman Science Center, Wilson Hall, and possibly see some parts of the accelerator depending on what tour they are doing.
During the summer, take a bike with you and check out the Fox River bike trail. I liked biking and running those trails.
This was about 21 years ago. I remember the Realtor saying something about the distance from the lab to the properties she was showing us.
I think it was the fear of the unknown... what experiments would be conducted, etc. that had people jumpy. The environmental horror stories of contamination from The Love Canal, Three Mile Island and the Chernobyl disaster had people very uneasy about trusting any bureaucratic decision making.
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