End view, showing the BABAR Calorimeter

The international BABAR Collaboration at DOE's Stanford Linear Accelerator Center recently released initial results on the behavior of subatomic particles called B mesons. These are the best results yet obtained on the short-lived particles, expected to provide clues about why our universe contains far more matter than antimatter. A tiny difference between matter and antimatter was first discovered in 1964, but physicists have struggled ever since to find other examples. In a paper soon to appear in Physical Review Letters, BABAR physicists give the value of a key parameter—about twice as accurate as earlier measurements—that suggests a matter-antimatter asymmetry. More data will be needed to reach a definite conclusion.

[Michael Riordan, 650/926-3990, michael@SLAC.Stanford.EDU]

Enhancing manufacturing technology at FEL

One of the best ways to increase metal hardness, thereby increasing its wear and corrosion resistance, is a process called nitriding. It requires high vacuum, nitrogen gasses, and baking at high temperatures for at least 24 hours. A faster process may be on the horizon thanks to experiments taking place at DOE's Jefferson Lab using its Free Electron Laser. Researchers are conducting experiments using the FEL to replace the baking portion of the process. Tests are showing the FEL requires minutes rather than hours—saving time and money for manufacturers and end users.

[Linda Ware, 757/269-7689,
ware@jlab.org]

 

Magnetic field fires 20 times faster than rifle

A magnetic field that accelerates pellets faster than anything except a nuclear explosion has been developed experimentally at the DOE's Sandia National Laboratories. The propulsion speed of 20 km/sec—almost three times that necessary to escape the gravitational pull of Earth (about 7 km/sec)—would send material from New York to Boston in half a minute. A rifle bullet is typically propelled at 1 km/sec. The machine that generates the field has been jokingly dubbed "the fastest gun in the West," but physicist Marcus Knudson, lead scientist on the project, says simply: "It's the fastest gun in the world."

[Howard Kercheval, 505/844-7842,
hckerch@sandia.gov]

 

Wind power's effect on grid modeled

Researchers at DOE's National Renewable Energy Laboratory are analyzing the impact of multiple wind turbines on weak electricity grids. Currently, researchers are studying existing grids with existing wind farms to maximize the efficient use of the existing grid for wind applications. Problems on these grids will be duplicated using computer simulation and solutions will be proposed to wind farms and utilities. New models eventually will be offered to utility planners for more accurate representation of wind turbines' impacts.

[Sarah Holmes Barba, 303/275-3023,
sarah_barba@nrel.gov]

 

Wind turbines of the future

Wind Partnerships for Advanced Component Technology (WindPACT) is a major new initiative at DOE's National Renewable Energy Laboratory. WindPACT's objective is to develop highly advanced component concepts appropriate for application to large-scale wind turbines of the future. Objectives also include improved performance and reliability resulting in a lower cost of energy. At least three major subcontracts will be competitively awarded to industry participants for the detailed design, fabrication and testing of the selected advanced components. Testing of these large-scale components may take place on the Advanced Research Turbine test beds at NREL's National Wind Technology Center.

[Sarah Holmes Barba, 303/275-3023,
sarah_barba@nrel.gov]

 

Basic science meets medicine

Dr Drew Weisenberger

The world of nuclear science research can lead to many new discoveries in the inner world of the nucleus-such as learning where mass comes from, and maybe why we can never see a quark—the smaller particles that make up protons and neutrons—by themselves.

DOE's Jefferson Lab is exploring this area as one of the newest nuclear physics facilities in the country. Since beginning taking data in 1994, the lab has been host to many researchers busy unlocking the mysteries quarks might hold. That should be enough for any research facility but not the researchers at Jefferson Lab.

One such researcher, Dr. Drew Weisenberger, a member of the JLab Detector Group, holds several patents for his work that have their technological beginnings in nuclear physics research but then go further and apply that technology to medical imaging.

Drew's interest in medical imaging came about by a circuitous route. He started studying astrophysics using light detectors for his undergraduate studies, his masters work focused on radio astronomy and after coming to Jefferson Lab in 1990 his expertise in gamma ray detectors was used to study the very small instead of the very far away.

His interest at Jefferson Lab eventually turned to biophysics—the area of study for his doctorate. That expertise was applied with his colleagues to the medical imaging area where patents followed using equipment originally thought to only have usefulness in nuclear physics research.

One project could reduce the need for breast biopsies. In a clinical study being conducted with the local hospital system, a new imaging system patented by Drew and his colleagues could reduce the number of false positives associated with conventional mammography.

Asked what he is proudest of so far in his life, though, and he smiles and says it's his two red-headed daughters waiting to greet him every night.

Submitted by DOE's Jefferson Lab