Research
Highlights...
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Powders
spark Swank's interest
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| Number 65 |
October 2, 2000 |
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Collider
Detector rolls in
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| View
of detector part and event |
In a
major milestone for particle physics, the 5,000-ton Collider
Detector
at Fermilab collaboration has rolled into the Tevatron
beamline for an "engineering run." The roll-in marks a new stage
in preparations for Collider Run II at DOE's Fermi National
Accelerator Laboratory. When Run II officially begins in March
2001, the 500-member CDF collaboration, along with an equal
number of colleagues across the Tevatron at the DZero
detector will take up the search for new physics at the
energy frontier: the Higgs boson, supersymmetry, extra dimensions
and other exotic phenomena.
[Mike Perricone,
630-840-5678,
mikep@fnal.gov]
"Cool"
materials turn into hot research
Alloys that cool
and heat dramatically in response to changes in magnetic fields—a
property discovered at DOE's
Ames Laboratory—could have applications that extend
far beyond temperature regulation. The alloys, already under
study for magnetic-refrigeration technology, may also be useful
in sensors and energy-conversion devices. But first, scientists
need to better understand why the gadolinium-silicon-germanium
alloys respond so powerfully to changes in temperature and
magnetic field. A four-year, DOE-funded project will enable
Ames Lab to explore the properties of the alloys and several
closely related materials. "These alloys could be among the
most significant materials of the new millennium," says scientist
Vitalij Pecharsky.
[Susan Dieterle,
515/294-1405,
dieterle@ameslab.gov]
Tin
compound relieves bone cancer pain
About 75 to 80
percent of patients with prostate, breast, and lung cancer
find that their cancers spread to bone, causing severe pain
in the later stages of illness. Improving on their earlier
invention, Brookhaven National
Laboratory medical researchers Suresh Srivastava and George
Meinken have refined the formulation as well as the method
for making a tin compound that can be applied to pain management.
The compound targets only the bone, sparing the marrow and
soft tissue, but still delivers a highly localized dose of
electrons to the tumors to ease pain without sedation.
[Karen McNulty,
631/344-8350,
kmcnulty@bnl.gov]
Turbulent
tale from talking fish
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| Sensor
fish |
If fish
could talk they no doubt would tell enlightening tales of passage
through Columbia River hydropower dams. But since they can't,
scientists at DOE's Pacific Northwest
National Laboratory have designed a mock fish filled with
sensors that record environmental conditions, such as pressure
and acceleration, found during turbine passage. The sensor fish
is one of many tools and studies being used to secure a better
understanding of where, how and to what degree fish are injured
as they pass through turbines. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
already has used this prototype at the Northwest's Bonneville
Dam to analyze the impact of high-volume outfalls and new fish-friendly
turbines. DOE's Advanced Hydropower Turbine Program sponsored
a portion of the developmental research.
[Staci Maloof,
509/372-6313,
staci.maloof@pnl.gov]
'You
are there' in Argonne virtual research
To determine
the microscopic culprit that has caused a costly work stoppage
at a computer chip manufacturer, researchers from across the
country gather at Argonne's the Materials Microcharacterization
Collaboratory at DOE's Argonne
National Laboratory to attack the problem. Although they
work in different states, they haven't spent a dime on travel.
In fact, they don't have to travel farther than their desktop
computers. The Collaboratory uses an Argonne-developed technology
to integrate expertise, data and state-of-the-art instruments
from several sites over the Internet. The DOE 2000 project funded
the Collaboratory to investigate research that transcends geographic,
disciplinary and organizational boundaries and to bring scientists
together to this virtual research laboratory.
[Donna
Jones Pelkie, 630/252-5501,
djpelkie@anl.gov]
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Blazing
powders spark Swank's interest
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| Glowing
gas stream |
Sitting
behind protective glass, mechanical engineer David Swank intently
watches a glowing gas stream. He pushes a remote control, injecting
tiny particles of metal into the stream. The particles hurtle
toward their target, where they impact and form a thin metal
coating.
The
thermal spray coating research performed by Swank and the physics
group at the DOE's Idaho National
Engineering and Environmental Laboratory helps companies
monitor and control the thermal spray process. The torch is
key in making thermally sprayed coatings. The torch emits plasma,
a stream of charged, heated gas (such as argon). "The plasma
stream is bright, like a welding arc. It looks a continuous
fountain of Fourth of July sparklers," says Swank.
When
he's not pummeling things with powder in the lab, Swank is with
his family. "I try to balance family and work," he says. An
astronomy buff, Swank constructed a five-inch refractor telescope—big
enough to see planets and galaxies. A photograph of his son
and daughter—with the Hale-Bopp comet ablaze in the background—adorns
his cubicle.
At
the INEEL, Swank turns from hunting stars to tracking powder
particles in the plasma. "Our group's forte is really understanding
the process," says Swank. "We try to understand the link between
the variables of the torch and the final product," he says.
"We
can determine the temperature, velocity and size of individual
particles," he says, "and we can measure up to one thousand
particles per second." This information helps improve thermal
spray equipment and processes, revealing how different particle
velocities and temperatures affect the coatings.
Swank
says he enjoys developing and using these instruments. "I like
that I work at the desk analyzing and reporting data, and in
the lab running experiments," he says. "It's one of the reasons
I'm here at the INEEL."
Submitted
by DOE's Idaho National Engineering
and
Environmental
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