Dark Matter

KIPAC visualization expert Ralf Kaehler and his colleague astrophysicist Tom Abel joined forces with Carter Emmart, the history museum's director of astrovisualization, and Mordecai-Mark Mac Low, a museum curator and professor at Columbia University. They turned numerical simulations calculated by Abel and then-KIPAC astrophysicist Oliver Hahn into striking scenes.

 

Gravitational Lensing

KIPAC visualization expert Ralf Kaehler and his colleague astrophysicist Tom Abel joined forces with Carter Emmart, the history museum's director of astrovisualization, and Mordecai-Mark Mac Low, a museum curator and professor at Columbia University. They turned numerical simulations calculated by Abel and then-KIPAC astrophysicist Oliver Hahn into striking scenes.

 

Accelerator on a Chip: How It Works

In an advance that could dramatically shrink particle accelerators for science and medicine, researchers used a laser to accelerate electrons at a rate 10 times higher than conventional technology in a nanostructured glass chip smaller than a grain of rice.

 

Public Lecture—The Dark Universe Through Einstein's Lens

Lecture Date: Tuesday, July 23rd. Debbie Bard, a staff scientist at SLAC and a member of the Kavli Institute for Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology, delivered the July 23 SLAC Public Lecture, "The Dark Universe Through Einstein's Lens."

 Bard's talk explains the phenomenon known as gravitational lensing and how astrophysicists use it to explore the 95 percent of the universe that remains unseen: dark matter and dark energy.

 

Public Lecture—Black Holes and Galaxies: A Love-Hate Relationship

Silvia Bonoli, a post-graduate researcher with the Kavli Institute for Particle Astrophyics and Cosmology, delivered this SLAC Public Lecture, titled "Black Holes and Galaxies: A Love-Hate Relationship."

Bonoli's talk details how the supermassive black holes lurking at the hearts of most galaxies affect the evolution of those galaxies, and how the galaxies provide raw material for the black holes' growth.

 

Quantum Lightswitch: A New Direction in Ultrafast Electronics

Joshua Turner, a staff scientist at SLAC's Linac Coherent Light Source X-ray laser, delivered the Jan. 29 SLAC Public Lecture, "Quantum Lightswitch: A New Direction in Ultrafast Electronics."

Turner's talk highlighted research in manipulating atoms' electrons that could revolutionize computer data storage and retrieval. While today's computer hard drives rely on tiny magnets, which are a result of the direction in which electrons spin, Turner explained the novel concept of "orbital electronics," and how it could speed up data storage and retrieval thousands of times by controlling how electrons orbit the atomic nucleus. He also described how experiments at LCLS, which can identify ultrafast magnetic properties on the scale of atoms and molecules, may light the way toward such technology breakthroughs.

Turner received a doctoral degree in experimental condensed matter physics from the University of Oregon, a master's degree in physics from Boston University, and bachelor's degrees in physics and mathematics from the University of California, Santa Barbara.

Synchrotrons and Preserving the Tudor Warship Mary Rose

 Ritimukta Sarangi, staff scientist in the Structural Molecular Biology group at SSRL, a subdivision of SLAC, delivered the Public Lecture, "Saving the Mary Rose: Synchrotrons and the Preservation of a Tudor Warship." (October 2, 2012)

Sarangi's talk, explains how synchrotron-generated X-rays were used to help preserve a 500-year-old warship after it was salvaged from the bottom of the Atlantic in 1985.

The warship was the Mary Rose, built in 1511 and the flagship of King Henry VIII. She sank in 1545 while en route to confront the French fleet in battle. The ship lay undersea for 440 years before being raised, and her salvaging was not the end of her troubles. The restored Mary Rose is being constantly treated to preserve the wood structure, but in 2002 a new problem arose that began rapidly destroying the ship.

Sarangi tells the story of how research at SSRL uncovered the cause of the problem and a way to help. As Sarangi says, "This lecture will present the amazing story of archeology, chemistry, and physics that preserves this precious artifact and gives us a glimpse back into Tudor times."

Lecturer: Ritimukta Sarangi, SLAC

Supernova Shock Waves—Powerhouses of the Galaxy

Yasunobu Uchiyama, a scientist with the Kavli Institute for Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology at SLAC, delivered the Nov. 27 SLAC Public Lecture, "Supernova Shock Waves: Powerhouses of the Galaxy."

Uchiyama's talk highlights the powerful remnants of exploding stars, called supernovae, which are among the universe's most spectacular pyrotechnics displays.

For thousands of years after a supernova explosion, massive orbs of high-energy particles with strong magnetic fields remain confined by the expanding shock wave. These remnants "are among the most beautiful and mysterious objects in the cosmos," notes Uchiyama, a member of the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope Large Area Telescope collaboration who has expertise in supernova remnants.

The Fermi space telescope allows researchers to study supernova remnants in many wavelengths, from visible light to radio waves, X-rays and gamma rays. Uchiyama describes Fermi telescope observations that reveal how supernova remnants act as giant particle accelerators, spewing high-energy cosmic rays. Lecturer: Yasunobu Uchiyama, SLAC

X-ray Laser Captures Atoms and Molecules in Action

The Linac Coherent Light Source at SLAC is the world's most powerful X-ray laser. Just two years after turning on in 2009, breakthrough science is emerging from the LCLS at a rapid pace. A recent experiment used the X-rays to create and probe a 2-million-degree piece of matter in a controlled way for the first time—a significant leap toward understanding the extreme conditions found in the hearts of stars and giant planets, and a finding which could further guide research into nuclear fusion, the mechanism that powers the sun. Upcoming experiments will investigate the fundamental, atomic-scale processes behind such phenomena as superconductivity and magnetism, as well as peering into the molecular workings of photosynthesis in plants.

 Filmed and produced by SLAC Multimedia Communications; Music ("The Dig") courtesy Dwight Chalmers @ The Listen Laboratory. Copyright 2012 SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory.

 

"The Future of the Highest Energy Accelerators" by Frank Zimmerman (CERN)

The Large Hadron Collider is famous for its size (17 miles in circumference), its cost (more than 7 billion euros), and accomplishments (the discovery of the Higgs boson chief among them). SLAC's two-mile-long linear accelerator could be considered the LHC of its day -- 50 years ago.

In this video, recorded during the Aug. 24, 2012, symposium commemorating those 50 years, Frank Zimmerman of CERN gives a crash course on the history of particle colliders, from the first cyclotron, built by Ernest Lawrence and his graduate student Stanley Livingston in 1931 (that could fit in the palm of a hand), to CERN's nation-spanning behemoth. He also lets the audience in on his own secret master plan for ever more powerful accelerators -- not just at CERN, but at SLAC.

SLAC at 50: "Creating the Future"

For five decades, scientists from around the world have been coming to SLAC to seek answers to some of the most challenging questions about our universe. This video, produced in honor of SLAC's 50th anniversary, celebrates the lab's evolution from groundbreaking particle physics research facility to one of the world's foremost multi-program laboratories, leading the way with some of today's most important discoveries.

 

The Evolution of SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory

Over the course of its 50 year history, SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory has evolved from a groundbreaking particle physics research facility to one of the world's foremost multipurpose laboratories. Here lab director Persis Drell tells the story of how the focus of research at SLAC has grown and changed since the earliest days.

(SLAC is for Stanford Linear Accelerator Center)

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