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Fermilab Exploring the Universe by Blasting Neutrinos Under Wisconsin

by Warren Riddle on August 20, 2009 at 06:45 AM


Fermilab, perhaps the premier research facility in the United States, peers into "the fundamental nature of matter and energy" in order to answer the most elemental questions surrounding the composition of the universe. Over the decades, the lab has played an integral role in the birth of the Internet and can even lay claim to the second Web site in the U.S.

While the lab lost $50 million in funding two years ago, Fermilab is now receiving over $100 million in economic stimulus aid to further its research, reports the Washington Post. The funding specifically focuses on continuing a project that involves blasting a beam of neutrinos (or tiny, neutrally charged particles with very little mass) in a straight, 500-mile line, through the curving surface of the Earth, from Illinois to northern Minnesota. Neutrinos are so minuscule, posses such a slight amount of mass, and interact so strangely with matter that they can pass through solid objects.

Neutrinos are subdivided into three classifications: the familiar electron, muon, and tau. (Fermilab scientists actually found the first direct evidence of tau neutrinos.) By aiming a beam of neutrinos to a detector in Minnesota, the scientists hope to find evidence of "muon neutrinos turning into electron neutrinos." If successful, the experiment could yield important information about interactions between matter and antimatter, the beginnings of the universe, and the building blocks of creation.

While Europe's Large Hadron Collider has become a household name (mostly due to ridiculous assertions that it could destroy the universe), the work of Fermilab generally goes unnoticed by the public. But it does house the awesome Tevatron, the "most powerful proton-antiproton accelerator in the world." Maybe with the stimulus money, Fermilab can fend off its Euro-contemporaries and help the U.S. to regain global scientific dominance. [From: The Washington Post]

Tags: economic stimulus, EconomicStimulus, Fermilab, Large Hadron Collider, LargeHadronCollider, neutrino, neutrino detector, NeutrinoDetector, particle accelerator, ParticleAccelerator, particles, science, top

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