Ion collider, doomsday fears rev up.The knob is rattling on a door to the remote past. However, no monster lurks on the other side, say officials at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider The Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC, pronounced like "rick", IPA: /ˈrɪk/) is a heavy-ion collider located at and operated by Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL) in Upton, New York. (RHIC RHIC Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (Brookhaven National Lab) RHIC Radio Hypnotic Intracerebral Control RHIC Radiation Hardened Integrated Circuit ), a $600 million particle accelerator that took its first step toward full operation last month. On July 16, gold ions began zipping around one of RHIC's two 3.8-kilometer rings at Brookhaven National Laboratory Brookhaven National Laboratory, scientific research center, at Upton (town of Brookhaven), Long Island, N.Y. It was founded in 1947 by Associated Universities, a management corporation sponsored by nine eastern U.S. universities. in Upton, N.Y. Rumors were already circulating that the machine, some 8 years in the making, might destroy Earth. In experiments scheduled to begin in November, nuclei will collide in mighty blasts at six spots around the ring. Researchers expect protons and neutrons in the explosions to dissolve into wads of so-called quark-gluon plasma (SN: 9/21/96, p. 190), the primordial stuff from which all atomic nuclei were born in the Big Bang. "We are creating a new state of matter--new, that is, since the Big Bang," says Satoshi Ozaki, RHIC's director. The lab faces an odd safety question: Will collisions create black holes, starting a chain reaction that eats up Earth? Each blast is too tiny to make a black hole, Ozaki says. Nevertheless, the lab hag convened a panel to address the doomsday scenarios. As RHIC comes to life, two other large, extraordinary physics tools are also debuting. At the Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility (TJNAF), commonly called Jefferson Lab (JLAB), is a U.S. national laboratory operated as of 1 June 2006 by Jefferson Science Associates, LLC, a joint venture between Southeastern Universities Research Association, Inc. in Newport News, Va., the world's most powerful free electron laser A free electron laser, or FEL, is a laser that shares the same optical properties as conventional lasers such as emitting a beam consisting of coherent electromagnetic radiation which can reach high power, but which uses some very different operating principles to form the beam. has attained an average power of 1.7 kilowatts--more that 150 times better than its predecessor at Vanderbilt University in Nashville. Both basic researchers and industry scientists are using the unusual laser. Researchers working at Oak Ridge (Tenn.) National Laboratory have published results for the first time from the Holifield Radioactive Ion Beam Facility. The facility--the first of its kind in the United States and second in the world--accelerates beams of short-lived radioisotopes. In the July 5 PHYSICAL REVIEW LETTERS Physical Review Letters is one of the most prestigious journals in physics.[1] Since 1958, it has been published by the American Physical Society as an outgrowth of The Physical Review. , scientists describe using a beam of unstable fluorine fluorine (fl  `ərēn, –rĭn), gaseous chemical element; symbol F; at. no. 9; at. wt. 18.998403; m.p. −219.6°C;; b.p. −188.14°C;; density 1. ions to study an elusive nuclear state of neon critical to understanding stellar explosions called novae.
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion