|
Director's Corner: SLAC Has a
Unique Contribution to Make to International Linear Collider
By
Jonathan Dorfan
 As many of you know, the worldwide
high energy physics community has reached an important milestone on the
path to building an electron-positron linear collider, a facility that
will unlock some of nature’s greatest mysteries.
The International Technology
Recommendation Panel (ITRP), after eight months of very hard work,
recommended on August 19th that superconducting (“cold”) technology,
rather than conventional room temperature copper( “warm”) technology
developed by SLAC and its Japanese partner KEK, be used for the linacs
that will have to accelerate the electrons and positrons to record
energies of 500 GeV.
See whole story...
|
SSI a Triumph in Science and
Sociability
By Shawne Neeper
The 2004 SLAC Summer Institute (SSI)
bubbled with the vitality of a new, topic-a-day format that brought
textbook learning directly alongside cutting-edge research. Themed on
Nature’s Greatest Puzzles, SSI opened on August 2 with the first puzzle:
dark matter. In each of the nine weekdays that followed, SSI’s 332
participants explored another Great Puzzle from the ground up.
Each day began with three, one-hour talks
covering background and current understanding in one of the 10 puzzles.
After lunch, students returned to Panofsky Auditorium to hear
researchers from around the world report their latest advances on the
puzzle of the day.
See whole story...
|
|
SPEAR3 Project Wins DOE Award
for Excellence
By Keith Hodgson and Nina Stolar
 On August 13, Secretary of Energy Spencer
Abraham presented the Secretary’s Excellence in Acquisition Award to the
SPEAR3 Management team in a ceremony at the DOE headquarters in
Washington, DC. The Fourth Annual DOE Project Management Awards pay
tribute to those teams or individuals who have achieved outstanding
results through resourceful, innovative thinking and implementation.
The $58M, 3-GeV SPEAR3 accelerator—jointly
funded by DOE and the National Institutes of Health (NIT)—is now
providing 3rd generation light source capability for the SSRL user
community.
See whole story... |
Echoes of the Past in Silicon
Chips
By Heather Rock Woods
Thermal oxide is the real on-off switch
for your computer. The nanometers-thick film on the surface of silicon
transistors helps turn on and off the flow of electricity through the
transistor, providing the 0 and 1 binary signals modern electronics run
on. There are several million transistors on each computer chip.
As technology produces smaller chips that
require thinner oxides, the ability of thermal oxide to act as the basis
for integrated circuits is starting to break down.
See whole story...
|
|
Meson Visualizations: A
Collaboration of Art and Physics
By Shawne Neeper
 How would neutron decay look at human
scale and in full Technicolor? From September 9 to October 1, the halls
of the Research Office Building (ROB, Bldg. 48) will come alive with
visualizations of quantum phenomena from standard-model collisions to
particle-wave duality.
The exhibit marks the debut of artist Dawn
Meson’s body of work entitled Sum over Histories. In these paintings,
Meson uses color, translucency, texture and shape to represent the tiny,
invisible interactions that pervade our everyday world.
See whole story... |
Get Ready for SLAC Family Day:
Our Universe, Large & Small
Saturday,
September 18
11:00 a.m. – 3:00 p.m.
Everyone in the SLAC Community is invited!
Please use Web form for lunch reservations, activity sign ups and to
pre-order t-shirts.
Preliminary Program Highlights
ENTERTAINMENT, MUSIC AND MORE ON CENTER
STAGE
Welcome: SLAC Director Jonathan Dorfan
DJ Eddie McGee (RP): Music for dancing and
zany entertainment
See whole story...
|
