Climate Change and Trust II

Let me approach this issue from another angle.  For those of you who are skeptical of climate change science or are suspicious of its political implications, I have a thought experiment.   

Let us imagine, just for a few minutes, that the following statements are true.

• Average global temperature is increasing.
• Human activity, such as the industrial production of greenhouse gasses, is the main cause of this warming.
• Anthropogenic global warming (AGW) will have negative consequences for large numbers of people during the coming decades if present trends continue.
• Conditions on this planet decades from now are affected by actions humans take now.

If this were all true, what would the proper response be by our nation and world?

Neutrino Overload

I am currently in St. Charles, IL, at the Pheasant Run Resort, where I am staying for the International Neutrino Summer School. We have had a very busy schedule filled with mostly interesting lectures. The resort is beautiful, and I am relaxing by one of the pools right now. I only wish my favorite companion could be here to share it with me.

The curriculum has been so packed with fascinating and complicated physics that I am not sure I can absorb any more, but the school is only half over. The organizers have given us the weekend off; yesterday I traveled into Chicago to see the Museum of Science and Industry. Today, I am taking a much slower pace with church and lunch with a friend my only activities so far.

Need Help Unloading a Moving Van In Bloomington

I am writing to ask for your help unloading furniture and other items from a moving van at my apartment on Saturday, July 18. My fiancée Kelly will be moving most of her possessions into the apartment then, and we could use your help hauling and re-arranging.

Her lease expires in August, and she will be moving in with friends of ours until we are married in December. Most of what she has in her apartment will not fit in the new place, so she is moving it to Bloomington.

So, can any of you help us?

Feel free to pass this along to any mutual friends who might be interested.

NOvA

I have written previously that I am working on two experiments: MINOS and NOvA, and I would like to provide a little more detail about what has been happening with NOvA. First, I should explain that the name is an acronym: NuMI Off-axis ν_e Appearance, then I should explain the acronym within the acronym. NuMI stands for Neutrinos at the Main Injector. Neutrinos are the particles NOvA was designed to study, and the Main Injector is a part of the Fermilab accelerator complex that produces the neutrino beam studied by NOvA.

Some controversy exists about whether the proper name of the experiment is NOvA or NOνA ("v" vs. the neutrino symbol). The neutrino symbol would more accurately represent the name of the experiment, but it is difficult or impossible to find using a search engine. For that reason, and because one of my supervisors prefers it, I shall use the "v." 

Whatever acronym is used, the project has experienced a resurgence of funding after being nearly cancelled in late 2007. It, like MINOS, consists of two detectors. One will be built at Fermilab; the other will be in a building in northern Minnesota.   The neutrinos travel from Fermilab to northern Minnesota in a few milliseconds.  The two detectors will measure changes in the beam between those two points, which will give us the most precise understanding of these ghostly particles to date.  For a more detailed description of the purpose and physics behind this experiment, I recommend an article written for the College of William & Mary, "Tracking the elusive ghost particle," featuring my colleague Patricia Vahle.

The latest sign of progress toward making this experiment a reality was the groundbreaking for this new building on May 1. It was attended by several officials, including Congressman Bill Foster, who has a Ph.D. in Physics (like two other members of Congress) and an interesting sense of humor.

As part of the local publicity for this event, the neutrino group at Indiana was called together one morning to pose for a photograph.  It shows us with our arms on a small section of extruded PVC very similar to the extrusions that will be produced for the detectors.  

(Photograph courtesy of Indiana University)

Pictures from Cambridge

Though much delayed, here are the photographs promised from my trip to Cambridge, England.

MINOS Collaboration Meeting in Ely, MN

To see more details, go to the album; photo descriptions are there.

Tesla Coil Show!