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  News in Brief

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  People

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This issue...

  News in Brief

   11 Physics Questions for the New Century

   View from the Inside

  Better Airport Security

  A New Way to Visualize Cells

  Astrophysicists Explore Supernovae

  Long-Life Rechargeable Batteries

  People

  About

  Subscribe Free



































This issue...

  News in Brief

   11 Physics Questions for the New Century

   View from the Inside

  Better Airport Security

  A New Way to Visualize Cells

  Astrophysicists Explore Supernovae

  Long-Life Rechargeable Batteries

  People

  About

  Subscribe Free

News in Brief

The Legacy of Enrico Fermi in America

embassy

Approximately 250 people attended an event in November 2001 at the Italian Embassy in Washington, D.C., in celebration of the centennial of Enrico Fermi's birth on September 29, 1901.

Enrico Fermi
Enrico Fermi

"Fermi was a physicist's physicist whose legacy was one of style as well of substance—a style so attractive and so productive for science that it became substantive in itself," said President Bush's Science Advisor John Marburger in his Fermi Centennial Celebration speech.

Marburger's speech was part of a symposium entitled "The Legacy of Enrico Fermi in America: Science, Energy, and International Collaboration."

The symposium speakers included Italian Ambassador Ferdinando Salleo; Deputy Secretary Francis Blake; Director of the International School for Advanced Studies in Trieste, Italy, Daniele Amati; and former Director of Los Alamos National Laboratory Harold Agnew. Luciano Maiani, Director-General of the European Laboratory for Nuclear Research (CERN), was unable to attend but sent his talk to be presented at the symposium.

The speakers described Fermi's wide-ranging contributions to both experimental and theoretical physics, his extraordinary contributions to defense, new sources of energy, and new methods of research, as well as his admirable personal qualities, his direct and pragmatic way of doing research, and his significant influence on physics education in the United States.

Deputy Secretary Blake noted that Fermi's work in physics contributed to the central missions of the Department—security of freedom and energy supply—and expressed pride in the leading role the Department of Energy now takes in providing and using major research facilities for high energy and nuclear physics research.

Contact: Nona Shepard, DOE's Office of Science, (202) 586-5767, nona.shepard@science.doe.gov

"Enrico Fermi's Impact on Science," presentation by John Marburger, Science Advisor to the President, November 27, 2001, Italian Embassy, Washington, D.C.

"The Centennial Celebrations of the Birth of the Physicist Enrico Fermi," DOE Science News, September 24, 2001.

"Enrico Fermi: Commemorating the Centennial of His Birth," DOE R&D Accomplishments.

Enrico Fermi Award Website—2002 Nomination Invitation: Deadline is January 31, 2002.

"Profile of an Atomic Physicist," Time Magazine Online (see and hear Enrico Fermi)

"Race for the Superbomb: Enrico Fermi Biography," The American Experience, PBS Online.


Centennial Year for Ernest Orlando Lawrence

Ernest Orlando Lawrence was the founder of Lawrence Berkeley and Lawrence Livermore national laboratories and the winner of the 1939 Nobel Prize for Physics for his invention of the cyclotron. He would have been 100 years old on August 8, 2001.

Enrico Fermi and Ernest Lawrence
Earnest Lawrence and Enrico Fermi

Ernest O. Lawrence and Enrico Fermi seemed to live parallel lives. They were born only a month apart, though an ocean away—Lawrence in South Dakota and Fermi in Rome, Italy. Both Lawrence and Fermi became interested in physics at an early age; both won Nobel Prizes only a year apart for work related to the discovery of radioactive elements; both contributed significantly as leaders in winning the science war during World War II; and sadly, both died premature deaths—Fermi was only 54 years old and Lawrence was 57.

But this was not the end of their similarities. Prestigious science awards were established as memorials for both Fermi and Lawrence by President Eisenhower and the Atomic Energy Commission, now the U.S. Department of Energy.

The Fermi Award is for lifetime achievements of internationally recognized scientists; the Lawrence Award recognizes relatively recent achievements and excellence in nuclear science and technology, and, as Lawrence did, it also encourages and supports the careers of scientists and engineers who show exceptional promise for the future.

Lawrence was the second-ever recipient of the Enrico Fermi Award in 1957, just a year before his death, and Lawrence's own memorial award was established a year after his death in 1959.

Lawrence was the University of California's first Nobel Prize winner for his invention of the cyclotron, the granddaddy of today's most powerful accelerators. He was the "father of big science," the first to advance the idea of doing research with multidisciplinary teams of scientists and engineers—the team-based approach to modern science.

"Lawrence will always be remembered as the inventor of the cyclotron, but more importantly, he should be remembered as the inventor of the modern way of doing science," said Lawrence team member Luis Alvarez, winner of the 1968 Nobel Prize for Physics.

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory celebrated the Lawrence's centennial birthday with a special issue of LLNL's Newsline newsletter that covered Lawrence's myriad accomplishments as well as his approach to "big science," recollections from his son Robert, and articles by former LLNL directors Edward Teller, Herbert York, and John Foster.

"'Atom Smasher' Taught Science World to Think Big," Newsline, August 3, 2001. (PDF 1646 KB)

Who was Ernest Orlando Lawrence?

In celebration of Lawrence and his legacy, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory created a series of articles with rare photographs on the Lab's website to enlighten readers about Lawrence's revolutionary idea of the cyclotron, highlight the landmarks of his remarkable life, and preserve words of remembrance from those who knew him.

Ernest Orlando Lawrence: The Man, His Lab, His Legacy

A Revolutionary Idea that Changed Modern Physics

A Few Important Events in Lawrence's Life

E.O. Lawrence Remembered

Ernest O. Lawrence Award


New Way to Make "Neuts"

Ka-Ngo Leung
Ka-Ngo Leung

Neutrons can penetrate deeply to find defects in large machine parts or tiny microdevices, elucidate the structure of biological systems and polymers, sense fluids in geological formations, and probe solids and liquids on the atomic scale. Ka-Ngo Leung and his colleagues in Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory's Accelerator and Fusion Research Division have devised a series of neutron generators small enough to descend into a borehole, provide neutrons for brain-cancer therapy, peer inside airport luggage, or perch on a laboratory bench at a fraction of the cost.

This research was supported by the Office of Fusion Energy Science within DOE's Office of Science.

For more information, see "New Way to Make Neuts"on the Office of Science website.


Magnetic Refrigerator

Karl Gschneidner Jr.
Karl Gschneidner

Ames Laboratory scientist Karl Gschneidner Jr. has discovered a new class of magnetic refrigeration materials that could revolutionize air conditioning and refrigeration. Using these new materials, researchers have successfully demonstrated the world?s first room-temperature, permanent-magnet, magnetic refrigerator.

The refrigerator was developed by Milwaukee-based Astronautics Corporation of America as part of a cooperative research and development agreement with Ames Laboratory. Instead of ozone-depleting refrigerants and energy-consuming compressors found in conventional vapor-cycle refrigerators, this new style of refrigerator used gadolinium metal that heats up when exposed to a magnetic field, then cools down when the magnetic field is removed.

The materials research was funded by the Office of Basic Energy Sciences within DOE's Office of Science.

For more information, see "New Magnetic Refrigerator" on the Office of Science website:


Free Software to Help Children Learn Basic Arithmetic Skills

"The ArithmAttack," a free software program offered by Argonne National Laboratory, is available to anyone who wants to learn or teach arithmetic. This upgraded version of the game randomly creates problems using numbers that the user sets between 0 and 25. Users can focus exclusively on addition, subtraction, multiplication, or division, or can let the game choose at random. Parents and teachers can download free software from the Argonne website.


New Material Expands Under Pressure

Expand

Most materials get compacted or fall apart under pressure, but scientists working in an international collaboration between Brookhaven National Laboratory and the School of Chemical Sciences at England's University of Birmingham have discovered some that expand. These unusual materials may have applications as "molecular sponges" for soaking up chemical pollutants or even radioactive waste.

This research was supported by the Office of Basic Energy Sciences within DOE's Office of Science.

For more information, see: Brookhaven's News & Information.

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