Effect on SLAC of a Federal Shutdown

If Congress does not take action before midnight tonight, there will be a government shutdown. A shutdown would not immediately affect SLAC operations. If there is a shutdown, the lab will continue operations until further notice.

Accelerator Applications: Clean, Green Containers for Food and Drink

(Photo: Cindy Arnold, Fermilab.)

by Elizabeth Clements, Symmetry magazine

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimate that 48 million people in the United States get sick each year and 3000 die from food-borne illness. A report published in 2010 by the Produce Safety Project estimates that food poisoning costs the US $152 billion a year.

Reducing this toll requires effective sterilization of food and beverage packaging. When choosing technologies to do this, industry is increasingly taking into account the environmental impacts.

A package must protect food quality as well as guard against contamination, so the compositions of both food and packaging material have to be taken into consideration when choosing a sterilization technology, says Susan Duncan, a scientist in the Food Science and Technology Department at Virginia Tech and spokesperson for the Institute of Food Technology. "These choices also have an environmental influence, and the industry is starting to have conversations about reducing its carbon footprint," she says.

Traditional methods for sterilizing empty packaging are simple and effective, but have environmental drawbacks. Steam and heat sterilization consume energy and water, and heat can damage materials. Sterilizing with chemicals such as hydrogen peroxide is energy efficient but can leave residues that seep into the food.

Low-energy electron beams from particle accelerators provide an environmentally friendly alternative.

"Electron beams are more efficient and chemical free," says Josh Epstein, the director of marketing at Advanced Electron Beams, a company based in Wilmington, Massachusetts that specializes in accelerator technology.

Word of the Week: Harmonic

by Lori Ann White

The word "harmonic" and its relations are usually associated with music, but harmonics can exist in all waves, not just sound waves generated by four-part harmony or wailing harmonicas. The wave traveling through a plucked string, the oscillations of a recoiling spring, electromagnetic waves—all can have harmonics.

A harmonic is essentially a second wave that is precisely half as long, or one-third as long, or one-quarter as long, and so on, compared to the original wave. For example, if the frequency of the first wave (how many times it oscillates each second) is 10 Hz, the frequencies of the harmonics are 20 Hz, 30 Hz, 40 Hz, and so on.

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Obama and GOP Scramble to Halt Shutdown Associated Press
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Star-Eating Black Hole May Be Producing Universe's Biggest Blast ScienceNOW

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View online at http://today.slac.stanford.edu/.

Effect on SLAC of a Federal Shutdown If Congress does not take action before midnight tonight, there will be a government shutdown. A shutdown would not immediately affect SLAC operations. If there is a shutdown, the lab will continue operations until further notice. Accelerator Applications: Clean, Green Containers for Food and Drink (Photo: Cindy Arnold, Fermilab.) by Elizabeth Clements, Symmetry magazine The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimate that 48 million people in the United States get sick each year and 3000 die from food-borne illness. A report published in 2010 by the Produce Safety Project estimates that food poisoning costs the US $152 billion a year. Reducing this toll requires effective sterilization of food and beverage packaging. When choosing technologies to do this, industry is increasingly taking into account the environmental impacts. A package must protect food quality as well as guard against contamination, so the compositions of both food and packaging material have to be taken into consideration when choosing a sterilization technology, says Susan Duncan, a scientist in the Food Science and Technology Department at Virginia Tech and spokesperson for the Institute of Food Technology. "These choices also have an environmental influence, and the industry is starting to have conversations about reducing its carbon footprint," she says. Traditional methods for sterilizing empty packaging are simple and effective, but have environmental drawbacks. Steam and heat sterilization consume energy and water, and heat can damage materials. Sterilizing with chemicals such as hydrogen peroxide is energy efficient but can leave residues that seep into the food. Low-energy electron beams from particle accelerators provide an environmentally friendly alternative. "Electron beams are more efficient and chemical free," says Josh Epstein, the director of marketing at Advanced Electron Beams, a company based in Wilmington, Massachusetts that specializes in accelerator technology. Read more in Symmetry magazine... (Image: public domain, from Wikimedia Commons.) Word of the Week: Harmonic by Lori Ann White The word "harmonic" and its relations are usually associated with music, but harmonics can exist in all waves, not just sound waves generated by four-part harmony or wailing harmonicas. The wave traveling through a plucked string, the oscillations of a recoiling spring, electromagnetic waves—all can have harmonics. A harmonic is essentially a second wave that is precisely half as long, or one-third as long, or one-quarter as long, and so on, compared to the original wave. For example, if the frequency of the first wave (how many times it oscillates each second) is 10 Hz, the frequencies of the harmonics are 20 Hz, 30 Hz, 40 Hz, and so on.	Events Apr 11 (11:00 a.m.) Materials at Extreme Conditions: Phase, EOS and Emerging Dynamic Studies Access Walkway Closure, Bldgs. 23, 40 Target Road Construction Bldg. 28 Driveway Access Bldg. 28 Renovation RSB Project Info and Updates Announcements Lab Announcements Scientific Computing Outage This Weekend PeopleSoft Financials Downtime Apr 7-11 AD Conduct of Engineering Program Rollout Community Bulletin Board Nominations Invited: Stanford Student Awards (PDF, 0.2MB) Training Lab Training Calendar Registration Today (1:00 p.m.) AD Conduct of Engineering Program: MFD/MET News Obama and GOP Scramble to Halt Shutdown Associated Press US Science Agencies Brace for Government Shutdown Nature News Pioneer Puzzle Pinned on Thermodynamics Science News Star-Eating Black Hole May Be Producing Universe's Biggest Blast ScienceNOW
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