Category Archives: CHESS Lab Tour 5/10/16

Particle Accelerator!

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Last week I visited CHESS: Cornell High Energy Synchrotron Source. A woman who works there named Laura and GRF David gave us a tour of the operation. The synchrotron is basically a half mile long oval track that carries particles. I was fascinated to learn how the synchrotron works. The aim is to accelerate subatomic particles: specifically electrons and positrons, which are basically positive, antimatter versions of electrons. The synchrotron does this by sending the particles through a large potential difference (voltage drop) to accelerate them up to nearly the speed of light in a fraction of a second. The particles start by whizzing around the synchrotron’s inner ring, and are then transferred into the outer storage ring, CESR. The particles are kept up to speed by going through further potential differences around the track. Their path is curved by magnets to stay in the track, and every few meters they are focused by other magnetic apparatuses.

The synchrotron was initially used to study collisions between matter electrons and antimatter positrons, by accelerating them in opposite directions around the track and then colliding them in a special chamber, where the emitted radiation and particles could be quantitatively and qualitatively measured. This chamber is now being dismantled, as the physicists have determined everything they can about the collisions. Presently, the accelerated particles are being used to produce X-rays which are useful in experiments. Shooting specimens with these X-rays and looking at the resulting diffraction pattern is a way to determine the mechanical properties of the specimens on an atomic scale. I was fascinated by the differing applications. Everyone was there: from the air force testing metal alloys for planes to biological researchers looking at the structure of proteins. I’m interested to see what new advances come out of CHESS in the future!

Four-Years’ Time

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     The lab is out of the way, so upon arrival, I got a glimpse of campus I’ve never seen before. My first impression was that the lab seemed a bit intimidating, and as our “tour guides” confirmed, on the older side of things. Walking uphill, I expected that it would be more flashy, given the university, but as my group was later told, the department is very frugal with the limited amount of funding they receive. So I thought it was interesting that even this university “struggles” with funding at least to some extent. My other expectation was that the building would be less underground, and so that was a bit distracting and nerve-racking. However, nervousness aside, I thought it was interesting that we, and students at this university, had access at all. Given that I’m a year out of high school, realizing that in four years I, like GRF David, could have official access to this lab, felt a bit like a culture shock. I don’t necessarily think I will end up working in this building specifically, but the fact that the option is available, was a bit of a wake-up call. In other words, it was stressful. So my last impression is that I, as an undeclared major, still have plenty to consider in my next three years, and that’s still intimidating to me.

The Synchrotron

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The CHESS tour allowed me to see a part of Cornell University I would have never seen before—the Wilson Synchrotron Laboratory. In fact, this laboratory is such a big part of Cornell as it consumes the most electricity on campus and it remains open 24/7 except on Tuesday mornings when it is shut down for a couple of hours for repairs (it also conserves some energy). The building has a very funny structure and is hidden from the rest of campus. Finding the building was as challenging as trying to understand the science of what they do there!

I was overwhelmed with the science of how exactly the lab operates. It’s definitely a world-class research laboratory designed by physicists to study particles—of course they could only study electrons because the lab equipment was considered too small to study other particles. Granted I thought this was crazy. Their machine for particle analysis is 3 stories high, how can that be too small!? But in comparison with labs near Chicago and Geneva, Switzerland, the circumference of Cornell’s lab is significantly smaller. Though they don’t use the particle analysis machine anymore named CLEO (the machine hasn’t been functioning for years and is currently being taken apart and the iron is being recycled), the entire lab still operates.

The CHESS lab has been a part of so many research projects. It uses high energy particles to further develop x-ray technology and analyze materials as well as further research in physics, biology, and chemistry. The synchrotron lab could be used to analyze the structure of proteins in viruses so that drugs could be designed to fight the virus. I learned a lot about applications and how research could be conducted to make significant discoveries. I am so happy to have visited the CHESS lab and seen a big part of Cornell.