Monday - May 22, 2006

David Saenz looks on as John Galayda cuts the ribbon to officially open the LCLS Sector 20 drive laser facility. (Click on image for larger version.)

LCLS Opens Drive Laser Facility

by Brad Plummer

SLAC celebrated another major LCLS milestone Friday with the commissioning and ribbon-cutting ceremony of the Sector 20 building.

A festive atmosphere of refreshments and balloons prevailed and approximately 30 attendees looked on as Project Manager Robert Law, Conventional Facilities Systems Manager David Saenz, and University Technical Representative Jo Beth Folger presented Director of LCLS Construction John Galayda with a symbolic Very Large Key (VLK) to the building.

Since 1962, the Sector 20 site has consisted of a small alcove positioned about a third of the way down the linac.  Read more...

GLAST: One Step
Closer to Launch

Congratulations to the
Worldwide LAT Team
When a large truck, whose interior is atmospherically controlled, rolled out of the SLAC gates on May 11, it marked an important moment for SLAC and its worldwide collaborators. The truck carried the Large Area Telescope (LAT), an instrument that owes its existence to particle physics detectors and the people who know how to make them. As exemplified by its main detection devices, namely silicon strip charged particle tracking devices and cesium iodide calorimeters, the LAT is BaBar in space. It's been a long road for the SLAC staff and a dedicated group of collaborators from France, Italy, Japan, Sweden and the U.S. who designed, modeled, built, assembled and tested the LAT and its many components. Producing a "space-worthy" instrument, as we have come to fully understand, is an extremely demanding engineering task. The instrument, part of the Gamma-ray Large Area Space Telescope (GLAST) mission, has safely arrived at the Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) in Washington, D.C. for pre-launch testing. Following testing, the LAT will go to the spacecraft vendor and, in the fall of 2007, NASA will boost it into space using a massive Delta II rocket.

I want to congratulate the entire LAT collaboration who has worked long and hard to meet the exacting demands of space instrumentation while maintaining extremely tight cost and schedule challenges. It is most gratifying to know that the LAT performs exceptionally well as has been demonstrated these past few months by detailed tests at SLAC using cosmic rays. The LAT meets its design technical specifications and thus provides a grand window into our universe, illuminating exciting questions such as the nature of dark matter, the evolution of stars, and the accelerating powers of super-massive black holes. We at SLAC are most fortunate to host the Instrument Science Operating Center, thus placing us at the center of this exciting scientific adventure.  Read more...

SLAC Seeks Tour Guides

by Krista Zala

Summer Undergraduate Laboratory Internship (SULI) students from Lawrence Livermore National Lab tour SLAC. (Click on image for larger version.)

Tour Coordinator Maura Chatwell is looking to recruit SLAC employees and graduate students to talk the talk and walk the walk.

Each day, at least one busload of science enthusiasts makes its way around the site on a tour. This number increases during the summer months. Each tour needs a tour guide: someone who's enthusiastic about science and doesn't mind taking a few hours each month to share this excitement with others.

"I always like explaining things to the general public," said Adam Cunha, a BaBar collaborator who started giving SLAC tours last year. "I think I'm a teacher at heart."  Read more...

Electrical Safety Tip:
Tampering With Lock and Tag

by the Electrical Safety Committee

In 2005, lockout/tagout (LOTO) ranked number five among the list of Top 10 OSHA violations. LOTO was also one of the Top 10 most-cited "willful" violations.

Once a lock has been installed and the danger tag has been attached, no one should tamper with a LOTO isolating device without authorization. Changing the status or position of a locked or tagged device is dangerous because others may already have started work under its protection and could be exposed to a hazard they believed isolated. The time to verify the effectiveness of a locking device is at the initial installation.

LOTO is a critical part of the Integrated Safety and Environmental Management System and it only works as well as those using it!

Events (see all | submit)

• May 22: (4:15 p.m.) Colloquium: Imaging the Nervous System
• May 23: (12:00 p.m.) WIS Seminar: Age Management Medicine in the 21st Century

Access (see all)

• 5/19 - 5/26: South Side of Gallery Closed
• 5/2 - 5/30: Sand Hill Rd Construction
• 4/3 - 6/1: Short Spur Road Off North Access Road Closed
• 3/27 - TBA: Alpine Gate Temporarily Closed
• 3/31 - TBA: Gate 17 Hours Extended During Alpine Gate Shutdown

Announcements
(see all | submit)

 Lab Announcements

• Walking Class Survey at Medical
• Public Speaking Course 6/6/2006
• The DOE designates May as National Electrical Safety Month
• Register now for LoopFest V - June 19-21, 2006

Community Bulletin Board

• A Parent's Guide to Internet Awareness & Safety
• Stanford Drama Department Presents Deianeira
• Juneteenth Celebration Tickets Now On Sale

News (see all | submit)

• First Pictures From the Map of the Universe Mission  EurekAlert
• Chaos Could Keep Fusion Under Control   Nature
• A Big Tent for Science  Science
• Hard Landscape  Scientific American

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What's Cookin' at the Linear Cafe (see weekly menu)

Monday
Breakfast Boosters	Sunshine Muffin Egg Sandwich with Ham, Cheese and served with Potatoes	$4.73
Hot	Pozole or Cream of Spinach	$2.35/$2.95
Taste	London Broil or Roasted Cornish Game Hens served with Mashed Potatoes and Garlic Red Potatoes	$5.95
Good Food For You	Combination Calzone or Vegetable Calzone served with Green Salad	$5.65
Tossed	Blackened Chicken Caesar Salad	$5.45
Panini	California Chicken Sandwich	$5.45
Sandwich Favorite	Lamb Fajita served in a Pita Pocket with Greek Salad	$5.45