SLAC Today is available online at:
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In this issue:
Public Lecture Tonight: Robots!
Safety Today: Earth Day
Pief's Birthday Bash
Interactions Collaboration Meets at SLAC
Blood Drive Tomorrow
Safety Seconds

SLAC Today

Tuesday - April 24, 2007

(Image - Colloquium Poster)

Public Lecture Tonight: Robots!

This evening at 7:30 p.m., SLAC Tour guide Dave Grossman will present the public lecture Robots: Fantasy and Reality in Panofsky Auditorium.

An irreverent non-technical review of the facts and fiction of robots throughout history, this public lecture will touch on teleoperators for hazardous environments, assembly systems, medical applications, entertainment, and science fiction. The talk will cover such varied topics as Memnon son of Dawn, Droz's automata, Vaucanson's duck, cathedral clocks, Von Kempelen's chess player, household robots, Asimov's laws, Disneyland, dinosaurs, movie droids and cyborgs.

Grossman received his Ph.D. in physics at the Cambridge Electron Accelerator. After working at the ADONE electron/positron ring in Frascati for a number of years, he joined IBM Research to manage groups on robotics research and artificial intelligence. After 25 years at IBM, he co-founded an internet company in Silicon Valley, and subsequently worked on Stanford projects in the mechanical engineering department and in the medical school.

(Column - Safety Today)

Earth Day

The Earth Day theme this year was A Call for Action on Climate Change. A few of the actions that Earth Day proposed are:

- Switch out incandescent light bulbs (fluorescent versions fit in the same sockets as the old incandescent bulbs—just screw in the new bulbs and you'll save energy and help the planet!)

- Offset your carbon footprint by supporting projects such as renewable energy to reduce carbon dioxide emissions. (Take the Ecological Footprint Quiz online.)

Other things we can do for the environment on a regular basis are use less water and "reduce, reuse, and recycle." Learn about SLAC's recycling program here.

Let's all celebrate Earth Day again!

Helpful links: http://www.epa.gov/earthday/ http://www.earthday.net/ http://carbonfund.org


Safety Seconds

The most fundamental cause of most of our injuries is people being on autopilot and not really thinking the hazards of their "routine" activity that day all the way through. All but one of our eye injuries occurred while the injured person had on safety glasses, which would be the right Personal Protective Equipment for incidental particles in the air, but inadequate for intensive grinding or cutting or drilling activities that throw material all over, and require instead some combination of glasses/goggles and a face shield.

Pief's Birthday Bash

It's Pief's 88th birthday, and you are all warmly invited to celebrate with him!

The event takes place today at 2:00 p.m. in the Kavli Auditorium. Jonathan Dorfan will host the event and the St. Lawrence String Quartet will perform a repertoire specifically selected for Pief. Afterwards, truffles will be served on the Kavli patio.

Come wish Pief many happy returns!

Interactions Collaboration
Meets at SLAC


The Interactions Collaboration.
(Click on image for larger version.)

Late last week, the heads of communication from 12 international physics labs and organizations met at SLAC to discuss current and future communication goals. This Interactions Collaboration meeting focused how to coordinate the start up of the Large Hadron Collider between the many labs involved. On the first day of the meeting, participants also presented Jonathan Dorfan with special plaque thanking him for his extraordinary contribution to worldwide particle physics communication.

Blood Drive Tomorrow

(Logo)SLAC will host a blood drive in the Panofsky Auditorium Breezeway tomorrow from 8:00 a.m. until 3:00 p.m. Learn more...

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