With the continued federal deficit and expense redistribution from the war to homeland security, physical sciences are feeling the pinch. The Stanford Linear Accelerator (SLAC) is getting the brunt of money cut, missing out on $23 million of requested funding. In response, SLAC is laying off 125 of it’s 1600 employees and shutting down its PEP-II collider in March.

The PEP-II collider was scheduled to be shut down in September, but this was still quite a jolt. Here’s a picture of DtaS’ recent tour of SLAC, perhaps tours will be the only thing going on at this facility in the future.

The DtaS Science in Action event - the Stanford Linear Accelerator was an amazing event. 20 people were able to get a 1st hand look at the one of the premier particle acclerators in the world.

We all gathered for a half hour explanation of particle physics…that quickly turned into an hour with all the fascinating questions (leave to science cafers to come up with good questions). We then spent another hour looking at the accelerator itself, along with more fascinating discussion on the research conducted there. Rather than my take, here’s a recap from David Ferris, an attendee from the tour.

Adam gave this analogy to explain atoms. Let’s say you puffed up an apple so big its diameter extended from the Earth to the sun (take that, New York!). If an apple were that huge, how big would one of its atoms be?

Answer: the size of a football field.

OK so far. Pretty small. But does that mean that this magnificent apple is made up of football-field-sized chunks? No. All that means is that the components of an atom – its nucleus and electrons – exist in that football-field sized space.

So how big are the nucleus and electrons? The nucleus, Adam continued, is the size of an apple seed in the middle of that football field. And the electrons are far smaller than that. They are, in Adam’s words, “the size of a small virus,” which is to say, so small they’re hard to measure. In fact, Adam concluded, electrons don’t have any mass at all, as we humans understand it. Oh, and they don’t really exist anyplace, either. There’s just a probability they exist.

This means that all matter – your hands, your mouse, the coffee cup, the screen upon which you read this – are made up of infinitesimally teeny bits of almost-nothing. How can something that appears so substantial in fact be the exact opposite? Mind blown. Game over.

More Info:
Ferris’ entire post

This past weekend, 6 DtaS attendees strapped on their boots and hit the trail. Considering the recent 5.6 quake last week, what better time to learn about faults here in the Bay Area?

Six of us hit the dusty trail in Los Trancos Open Space Preserve. It was a docent led hike and our leader was quite knowledgeable. Over the course of the 2-3 mike hike (click the link to see a virtual tour of the hike), we were learned about basic earthquake science, with a eye on the 1906 quake. Many after effects of the 1906 quake were still visible, from tree trunks growing sideways to flat earthquake “benches” formed on the side of the hill. Most fascinating was the view from the hillside…you could see how the San Andreas snaked toward San Francisco, especially into Crystal Spring reservoir.

This hike is offered once a month. Check out the calender on Los Trancos’ website for more information.