1 aap ppublicationublubblblicaicicatioti non oofftf tthehehe NatNaNNationalata iononalal HiHigHighhhM MMagneticagnagagngneetttiic FFieldiieelelddL LLaboratoryaboababoboratraata oryoor SECTION In This IssueVOLUME 3: ISSUE 2
FEATURES
IT TAKES THREE A LITTLE TINKERING, A BIG RECORD EDITORS’ NOTE FLUX STAFF REPORT The lab’s varied research is made 14 Mag Lab staff rework a resistive magnet to break their own record. possible by its three campuses.
4 DRAWN TO SCIENCE BY DAVE BARFIELD 8 AND AMY MAST ON THE PULSE How elementary school kids see Mag Lab science versus the real thing. BY SUSAN RAY Our Los Alamos magnet lab packs a big punch. 12
MAGNET MAKEOVER BY STEPHEN MCGILL How the split coil magnet will change magnet science. 6
Flux is a twice-yearly publication dedicated to exploring the research, magnet technology, and science outreach conducted at the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory in Florida. Want to get some extra copies for a classroom or a favorite science buff ? Contact Amy Mast at [email protected]. ABOUT Subscribe to Flux at http://www.magnet.fsu.edu/mediacenter/publications/subscribe.aspx flux Explore the Magnet Lab flux NATIONAL HIGH MAGNETIC FIELD LABORATORY 1800 E. Paul Dirac Drive 30 Tallahassee , FL 32310-3706
The National High Magnetic Field Laboratory, or Magnet Lab, is a national user facility that provides state of the art research resources for magnet related research in all areas of science and engineering. The Magnet Lab is supported by the National Science Foundation and the State of Florida, and is operated by Florida REGULAR FEATURES State University, the University of Florida and Los Alamos National Laboratory. SCIENTIST MAG LAB DIRECTOR WHAT IS THIS? 16 SPOTLIGHT 20 Greg Boebinger Go ininsides our slim ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR FOR MANAGEMENT Meet UF chemist AND ADMINISTRATION superconductorsupe Brian Fairhurst Joanna Long BYB AMY MAST BY AMY MAST DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC AFFAIRS Susan Ray
FLUX EDITOR SCIENCE KITCHEN TABLE Amy Mast STARTS HERE SCIENCE WEBMASTER 22 24 Dave Barfi eld
ART DIRECTION AND PRODUCTION Undergrad made good Make your own circuit Stephanie Law Savoy Brown BY CARLOS R. VILLA BY AMY MAST 3D ILLUSTRATIONS Kevin John
Trying to reduce your carbon footprint? MAGNET FACT MAGNET 26 OR FICTION 28 MILESTONES Michael Faraday’s Is it safe to visit or work self-taught near high magnetic fi elds? Sign up for an online subscription at innovation http: //www.magnet.fsu.edu/mediacenter/ BY AMY MAST BY AMY MAST publications/subscribe.aspx SECTION
Three labs one research mission
"It might come as a surprise to many readers, but FSU, the University of Florida and Los Alamos National Laboratory jointly operate the Magnet Lab..."
flux volume 3 issue 2 4 EDITORS’ NOTE
ew things make the director of How did it get to be this way? The tale fi eld, the more power needed to operate the National High Magnetic Field begins in the late 1980s, when a small them. Los Alamos National Lab was home FLaboratory wince more than hearing group of leaders from diff erent corners to a 1.4-gigawatt generator, just the thing the lab described as, “FSU’s Magnet Lab.” of the country crafted a vision for a needed to build up a very high fi eld premier research facility that would build pulsed-magnet program. UF was home to It’s not that Greg Boebinger doesn’t and operate the world’s most powerful the Microkelvin Lab, a facility that coupled love and appreciate The Florida State magnets. Jack Crow of FSU, Don Parkin high magnetic fi elds with extremely low University. Of course he does; heck, he’s a of Los Alamos in New Mexico and Neil temperatures, and a fi rst-rate magnetic faculty member, as are many of the other Sullivan of the University of Florida co- resonance imaging research facility. And scientists who work at the lab. He just developed the proposal for this new FSU was aggressively building up its prefers to hear, “The Magnet Lab at FSU.” entity, to be operated collaboratively by materials science and condensed matter the three institutions and headquartered physics research programs, providing Why such apparent semantics? It near FSU. three new buildings and the means to might come as a surprise to many readers, hire the research scientists needed for but FSU, the University of Florida and They secured the backing of key Florida the Magnet Lab’s future headquarters. Los Alamos National Laboratory jointly offi cials and submitted their proposal to The three partners’ combined expertise operate the Magnet Lab for the National the National Science Foundation in 1989. and support from the state of Florida Science Foundation, with sites at each of In so doing, the team challenged the proved irresistible, and to this day, no those locations. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, other country in the world off ers this home to the Francis Bitter National combination of research capabilities in The FSU branch is the lab’s Magnet Laboratory, founded a quarter of one organization. headquarters, and at 370,000 square feet, a century earlier. it is by far the largest facility and home In this issue, you’ll learn about the to four of the lab’s seven user programs, This is the perfect spot to introduce unparalleled punch packed by the as well as the Applied Superconductivity one of the other things that makes pulsed magnets at Los Alamos and you’ll Center. FSU, as the signatory of the Boebinger wince: When people say (some meet Joanna Long, a UF biochemistry NSF agreement that established the quite proudly) that FSU “stole” the Magnet professor who assumed leadership of lab, is responsible for establishing and Lab from MIT. the Magnet Lab’s Advanced Magnetic maintaining administrative and fi nancial Resonance Imaging and Spectroscopy oversight of the lab, and ensuring that the No, FSU’s Crow and his partners did (AMRIS) program in 2009. Stephen McGill, operations are in line with the objectives not “steal” the Magnet Lab from MIT; they a physicist who specializes in optics outlined in the NSF agreement. earned it following a stringent peer-review research, will explain (don’t worry, in lay competition, following which the National terms) the lab’s new split coil magnet, Photo by David Barfi eld Science Board awarded the National which will be added to the lab’s research Though the lab’s three branches all make high fi eld High Magnetic Field Laboratory to the arsenal in 2011. These and other articles research possible, the magnets they utilize can be consortium that included FSU. track progress toward important Magnet very diff erent. This photo illustration shows the Lab goals: growing the user programs, diff erent kinds of magnet technology in place, from Still, why are there three sites? fostering collaboration among diverse pulsed magnet coils (far right) to cable-in-conduit disciplines, and pushing the envelope High fi eld magnets are very specialized conductor (lower left) to the traditional resistive of innovation, no matter the ZIP code in instruments with very specifi c research magnets coil (top rear). which the research takes place. capabilities. The higher the magnetic
5 a publication of the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory SECTIONFEATURE EXTREME MAKEOVER: MAGNET EDITION
BY STEPHEN MCGILL Assistant Scholar/Scientist re you ready to witness an extreme by shining light on them. Looking at which makeover? Well, ready or not, a kinds of light are absorbed or refl ected at Amakeover is coming to the Mag diff erent angles gives researchers insight Lab this year. Now don’t expect to see Ty into the fundamental electronic structure Pennington or his design team running of matter, and that’s the kind of stuff up and down the halls with a fi lm crew that over decades has led to smaller and from ABC, because that’s not the kind of faster computers, and other quality-of-life makeover we are talking about. enhancements.
There will be no large-scale demolition Engineering the near impossible This computer generated model shows the coil deformations in the Split Florida Helix or a new building going up in one week’s Most of the resistive magnets at the magnet. time. No, this makeover is one that has Mag Lab produce a magnetic fi eld by been years in the making, and it's being running current through a continuous If a measurement can be done by carried out by the designers and engineers metal strip shaped into a helix. (A helix attaching wires to the sample, then the in the lab’s Magnet Science & Technology is the curve formed when a material is sample accessibility down the bore might division. Soon their plans will take shape wrapped around a round cylinder.) By seem luxuriously roomy since wires are inside one of the magnet bays of the lab’s increasing the current or the number of small, fl exible, and can be routed to the DC Field Facility. The magnet they will loops in that helix, it is possible to make sample at the center of the magnet. build there throughout this year is unlike the magnetic fi eld stronger. Because However, what happens when optical any other resistive magnet at the Magnet of the engineering requirements of access to a sample is suddenly required? Lab, or even the rest of the world. We are generating large magnetic fi elds, these How does a person route electromagnetic about to experience an extreme magnet magnets typically only have openings at waves at optical frequencies from the far- makeover: the construction of the Split either end of a long, small-diameter tube, infrared to ultraviolet down to and then Florida Helix magnet. called the magnet bore, which runs along back from a sample placed at the center of the axis of the helix (the center). These two a long, narrow tube? This new magnet will open up entirely holes at either end of the bore provide the new areas of research by enabling never- only access for placing a sample inside In the case of visible-light optics, one before-possible optics experiments. the magnet, and in addition provide the answer has been to use optical fi bers. What’s so special about optics only access for instrumentation needed to Like a wire, an optical fi ber is somewhat experimentation? Scientists learn more make whatever measurements scientists fl exible and allows light to be similarly about the intrinsic properties of materials require for their experiments. routed. However, though optical fi bers do
flux volume 3 issue 2 6 simplify the problems of light delivery and lot of answers to that question. There will fi elds will mark the arrival of a new, versatile collection, they also severely limit the types be many diff erent users and experiments probe for studying fundamental states of of experiments possible. What one really planned for this magnet, not just optical matter that complements other existing wants to do is eliminate the optical fi bers ones. Obviously, however, this magnet techniques at the Mag Lab. altogether and instead drill a hole through will be revolutionary for magneto-optics the side of the magnet to get direct optical because it provides close and direct optical Signifi cantly, these new high- access to the sample. This would eliminate access to samples. Only with this magnet magnetic-fi eld capabilities will be unique the need for an optical fi ber since light is the door now open to allow optical to the Magnet Lab. With time, this new can now pass directly from a light source measurements that up to this point were magnet combined with cutting-edge through a window in the side of the either very diffi cult, limited in scope, or just instrumentation and a Free Electron Laser magnet and then directly onto the sample. impossible. could greatly expand the portfolio of research that can be done at high magnetic In fact, while we’re drilling, let’s just Last year, a number of highly respected fi elds. keep going straight through the bore and researchers specializing in various optical out the other side. Now, one can do an disciplines traveled to the Mag Lab to Hopefully you are beginning to see optical transmission measurement and outline science they would like to pursue that the extreme makeover happening collect light coming out through the hole once the Split Florida Helix magnet this year is not just limited to a new design and window behind the sample. Keep becomes operational. The topics presented of a magnet bay or a magnet itself. This that drill warmed up because now we’re at the workshop covered plans for research makeover is transformative not just because going to drill yet another hole through the in physics, chemistry and biology. The of the technological breakthrough, but side of the magnet except that this one techniques presented by the various also because it touches the science in a way is perpendicular to the fi rst. So, now we speakers were just as diverse. The success that opens the door to many new ideas and have optical access to the sample through of these new techniques at high magnetic research goals. four windows evenly spaced around the mid-plane of the magnet. Imagine next This early model of the Split Florida Helix magnet that these holes through the side are not coil shows the traditional magnet bore (in the center), as well as the placement of the four ports small but big — really big — and then that will be used to scatter light at the sample inside imagine that in addition, the entire magnet the magnet. can actually tip over so the fi eld axis is horizontal instead of vertical.
Now imagine doing this when the magnet itself is generating tremendous magnetic fi elds — so high the magnet wants to literally tear itself apart — in the very place the engineers carved out four holes. At this point, you should have a picture of what makes the Split Florida Helix magnet so unique.
So, who will use such a magnet and what will they use it for? Well there are a 7 a publication of the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory SECTIONFEATURE Draw a Scientist PHOTOS BY DAVE BARFIELD
Scientifi c Research Specialist Bob Goddard doesn’t build robots, but his super-powered microscopes give scientists and engineers insights into materials that may be used to construct the most innovative magnets and equipment possible. The glasses, however, are not a prop; he needs them to do his job. flux volume 3 issue 2 8 ducators with the lab’s Center for Integrating Research & Learning travel all Eover the region showing students how to make everyday connections with science. For older kids, there are experiments, hands- on activities and follow-up assignments that integrate scientifi c concepts and curriculum. For younger children, the educators focus on encouraging scientifi c thinking and presenting science as an accessible, viable world that any curious child can inhabit.
During his outreach work in classrooms, Carlos Villa often asks young children to draw pictures of what they think happens at the Magnet Lab. The purpose of the activity, “What is a Scientist?” is to introduce students to the subject, explain how scientists and engineers work day in and day out, and to get them thinking about the way they view science and scientists.
These pictures produce lots of smiles and keepsakes for Center staff … and many are too good not to share with fl u x readers. In a nod to our student artists, Magnet Lab scientists and technicians agreed to be photographed representing the scientists in some of our favorite drawings. All of the scientists are photographed in their real research or work environments (“natural habitat”), with some concessions to imagination (he’s a handy guy, but Research Specialist Bob Goddard does not generally use two wrenches at once).
9 a publication of the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory SECTIONFEATURE -- continuedcontinued
Ryan Rodgers is an associate scholar/scientist in the lab’s Ion Cyclotron Resonance group. He made these “samples” for us with food coloring, but Rodgers, a chemist, does work with a type of crude oil that comes out of the ground blue!
Probe engineer Jason Kitchen with the lab’s Nuclear Magnetic Resonance group, builds custom magnet probes for staff and users in this lab. While he does on occasion work with chemicals, Kitchen has never caused an explosion (boom) in his lab.
flux volume 3 issue 2 10 Nicholas Bembridge is a research assistant with the lab’s Magnet Science and Technology division. While his workspace does contain many magnet parts, you won’t fi nd any giant horseshoe magnets there (or anywhere else inside our 370,000-square-foot facility).
Amy McKenna is a recent Ph.D. graduate and an assistant scholar/scientist in the Ion Cyclotron Resonance group. We appreciate the attention to detail in the photo illustration — notice the green-fl uid-fi lled fl ask! McKenna, a chemist, may have the purrrrrrrrfect job, but sadly, her lab doesn’t come with its own cat.
11 a publication of the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory SECTIONFEATURE - continued Partners in pulse: The Magnet Lab at Los Alamos BY SUSAN RAY
uring tours of the Mag Lab’s headquarters in Tallahassee, we sometimes brag about having our own utility substation; you Dneed a dedicated substation when your facility’s capacity is 56 megawatts. To put that number into perspective, one megawatt is equal to one million watts — enough electricity to power about 600 homes!
We may follow that up with details about our astonishing electric bill ($6.4 million a year) and energy consumption (7 percent of the city’s total power capacity when the magnets are running at full fi eld).
All that power is needed to run our resistive magnets (see sidebar). Impressive as those statistics sound, though, they are dwarfed by the lab’s Pulsed Field Facility in Los Alamos, New Mexico, which boasts a 1.4 gigawatt generator and a 2.6 megajoule capacitor bank, which stores electrical energy. (A joule is a unit of energy.)
In fact, that generator and capacitor-bank setup used to run the lab’s large magnet program is the reason the lab’s Pulsed Field User Program is located at the Los Alamos National Lab.
“Our large magnet program is second to none and it includes the 100-tesla magnet program, which currently is enabling us to deliver 85-tesla pulses to users,” said John Betts, director of the Pulsed Field User Program at Los Alamos. “And, as time goes on, we will bring this up to 100 tesla. We could not do this without the support of Los Alamos National Lab.”
Tesla is a unit of magnetic fi eld, and 85 tesla is a lot when you consider that a junkyard magnet capable of picking up huge cars is a mere 2 tesla. When turned on, the 85-tesla magnet contains the energy of more than 100 sticks of dynamite.
Like so many things in life, there are tradeoff s in creating high magnetic fi elds. The highest continuous fi eld strength is 45 tesla, a world record held by the Mag-Lab built 45-tesla hybrid magnet (we have the Guinness certifi cate to prove it). Researchers love this magnet, but a lot Jon Betts makes an adjustment on the 60 tesla long-pulse magnet at Los Alamos. flux volume 3 issue 2 12
MAGNETS of the coolest physics happens at fi elds much All that energy creates incredible stresses higher than that. This is where pulsed magnets and heat inside the magnet, which is AT A GLANCE — and the tradeoff — come in. essentially trying to tear itself apart during operation. The tremendous magnetic forces ➤ HYBRID magnets combine resistive “A pulsed magnet is designed to produce produce enormous pressure: around 200,000 and superconducting technology, magnetic fi elds so large that the magnet pounds per square inch. Now you understand taking advantage of the strengths can’t be energized for more than a very short why pulse magnets operate so briefl y. Left to of each. Resistive coils are nested period of time without destroying itself,” run any longer, the magnet would either rip inside the superconducting coils, explains Al Migliori, a scientist in the lab’s itself apart or melt from the heat generated the latter of which account for Pulsed Field program. “Instead of hooking up by the power. But for researchers, exchanging most of the magnet’s weight and the magnet to power supply terminals as we time for higher fi eld is worth it. volume. Hybrid magnets produce do in Tallahassee, we hook it up to an energy the highest sustained magnetic storage device, either a capacitor bank or a “Many physics phenomena depend on the fields possible. generator, and we dump all the energy into square of the magnetic fi eld,” said Migliori. “So ➤ PULSED magnets produce much the magnet in the course of a short period of even a little boost in the magnetic fi eld buys higher fields (up to 85 tesla) than time, from microseconds through milliseconds you a lot of physics.” the other magnet technologies, to a fraction of a second.” but the high field lasts only fractions of a second. ➤ RESISTIVE magnets (also called Bitter magnets or electromagnets) require lots of electricity and cooled water. Resistive magnets can reach and sustain high fields over many hours, but they are costly to operate and use is limited by the amount of power available. ➤ SUPERCONDUCTING magnets require little or no electrical power to run once they are brought up to full field because they are made with superconducting materials that conduct electricity without resistance as long as they are kept extremely cold (as low as one degree above absolute zero temperature). While they are Darrell Roybal, Alan Paris and Mike Gordon (l-r) keep this power cheaper to operate, the strength generator — capable of dumping massive, instant bursts of energy of field is limited by the properties into pulsed magnets — operating at peak performance. of superconducting materials.
13 a publication of the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory SECTIONFEATURE New 36-tesla wonder is the world's strongest resistive magnet FLUX STAFF REPORT alk about an upgrade: First, you need to understand that Engineers and technicians engineers at the Magnet Lab never stop T at the Magnet Lab are now fi ne-tuning, tinkering and rethinking the sole holders of the record their magnet designs. This explains for the world’s strongest why the laboratory holds numerous “resistive” magnet — a type records – 13 at last count – for strength of electromagnet that uses of fi eld and other key measures of high- electricity to generate high magnetic-fi eld research. magnetic fi elds. Resistive magnets are designed and The team bested its previous assembled in-house using so-called record to produce a resistive Florida Bitter technology pioneered at magnet with a fi eld of 36 tesla, the Mag Lab. Circular plates of copper squeaking by the 35-tesla sheet metal are stamped with cooling record the lab briefl y shared holes; insulators with the same pattern with the Grenoble High Field are placed between the plates and Laboratory in France. stacked to make a coil. Voltage is then run across the coil and current fl ows Rather than building a to make a magnetic fi eld in the center. pricey new magnet, the team Because of the limits of available reengineered one of the lab’s materials (both to conduct current existing 35-tesla magnets. and to minimize stress on the coils), Higher fi eld usually requires engineers were stuck at 35 tesla for higher power, but this about four years. upgrade resulted in greater research power for the lab’s Engineers don’t like being stuck, users without an increase in the and limits exist to be worked around. electric bill. More on how they did So Magnet Lab engineers adjusted the it in a minute. stacking pattern of the bitter plates,
DID YOU KNOW?
➤ A 36-tesla magnet is more than 1,200 times stronger than a typical refrigerator magnet.
A model of the new 36-tesla insert. flux volume 3 issue 2 14 and in so doing found they could increase the magnetic fi eld without First, a few quick defi nitions: increasing stress on the coils. This ➤ Dalton: Unit of molecular mass. A hydrogen atom weighs about 1 Dalton (Da). cost-neutral modifi cation means a ➤ higher magnetic fi eld can be created Kelvin: A temperature scale used by scientists. Zero Kelvin (0 K) is known as absolure zero, and is the using the same amount of power, 20 equivalent of -273 degrees Celsius and -460 degrees Fahrenheit. Absolute zero is as cold as cold megawatts. By comparison, the magnet can get. at the Grenoble High Magnetic Field ➤ Tesla: Measure of magnetic fi eld strength. The Earth’s magnetic fi eld is one twenty thousandth (.00005) Laboratory achieves its 35 tesla using of a tesla (T). 22.5 megawatts of power.
The 36-tesla magnet, which has a 32-millimeter (1.25-inch) experimental space, will be used primarily for physics Mag Lab World Records and materials science research. Highest magnetic fi eld for a continuous fi eld magnet 45 tesla Jingping Chen, manager of the (Guinness World Record) resistive magnet program at the Magnet Lab, said the upgrade of the magnet is Highest fi eld for a resistive magnet 36.2 tesla just a start. Using the new stacking Highest fi eld for a long-pulse magnet 60 tesla pattern, major upgrades are planned for many of the resistive magnets at the Highest fi eld for a non-destructive magnet 90 tesla1 laboratory, starting with the lab’s other 35-tesla magnet. World’s largest bore size for a 900 MHz NMR magnet 105 mm (about 4 inches)
Always pushing the scientifi c Highest mass sensitivity of any probe at any frequency 600 MHz, triple- resonance probe envelope, the Magnet Lab holds Smallest resolved mass diff erence between two molecules (achieved 0.000452 Dalton numerous records for high magnetic with our 9.4 tesla FT-ICR instrument) fi elds and other key measures of the power and utility of the instruments at Highest observed nuclear resonance Larmor frequency 1.9 GHz Proton NMR at 44.7 tesla our facility. Most of the records we have Highest frequency spectrometer for pulsed Electron Paramagnetic 336 GHz / 12 tesla established since the lab opened have Resonance (EPR) been short-lived, as we are constantly surpassing them. As you can see in the Highest fi eld for an MRI study of a living animal 21.1 tesla (900 MHz) table, where some of our current records Highest B/T (magnetic fi eld / temperature) ratio for studies of electron 16.5 tesla / are featured, there’s a very good reason systems in an applied fi eld B with electronic temperature T 0.001 Kelvin why hundreds of researchers a year travel 1Mag Lab scientists and engineers are currently working on increasing this fi eld to 100 tesla. to our unique lab to use these awesome tools.
15 a publication of the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory SECTIONSCIENTIST SPOTLIGHT From Kansas to MIT: Long’s long road to a career in chemistry BY AMY MAST
Long inspects a probe in front of the 750 MHz superconducting magnet at AMRIS. xperimental science can be a and books that’s nothing like the space Magnet Lab’s two user programs based messy business, but you’d never outside it. at the University of Florida (the other Eknow it coming through the user program, the High B/T facility, will front doors of the University of Florida’s Long is at the helm of AMRIS, be featured in a future issue of fl u x ). McKnight Brain Institute. White walls which stands for Advanced Magnetic lead down white halls into white rooms, Resonance Imaging and Spectroscopy. AMRIS houses a variety of state-of- each door neatly labeled. Behind one AMRIS is a thriving, highly collaborative the-art magnet systems and instruments of these doors is Joanna Long’s offi ce, and interdisciplinary research group that biologists and biochemists use an unpretentious jumble of papers — and it’s also the home of one of the to take extremely high-resolution flux volume 3 issue 2 16 images of everything from humans to until high school. My dad’s a doctor, and and middle school. Even at a young age single cells. For example, scientists can we come from a family that has many you do experience that. In my freshman image the brain to study the eff ects of scientists, and I had a chance to see it as year of college, I took the Honors science epilepsy, strokes, spinal cord injuries, a working profession. I also got National and math courses, and I was the only tumors, Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s Geographic World as a kid. That and female in the physics courses. In most of disease. The program works closely and Discover magazine are great when you’re my upper level chemistry courses, there collaboratively with the lab’s Nuclear in middle school and high school and were only two or three of us — and I Magnetic Resonance (NMR) user you’re getting interested in how things went to a major state university. program in Tallahassee, and together work. One of the best things my parents they comprise the Magnet Lab NMR did was get me those subscriptions My sons are doing these math Spectroscopy and Imaging Program. because it cemented that curiosity contests. When I picked them up the for me. other day I noticed that on their team Each day at work, Long, an it’s fi ve boys and one girl. You learn even And when did science and associate professor of chemistry and as a teenager how to navigate that as a biochemistry, tackles the twin duties school come together for you? female or you don’t make it. of providing administrative leadership My high school chemistry teacher for a program that’s intent on growing realized where my interests laid and A really eye-opening experience for its user community, and her own team’s he took a lot of time out to make sure me was how my husband, who is the scientifi c research. But we’ll let Long tell I knew what my options were and same age as me, was mentored. We us a little bit more about that herself. to steer me in diff erent directions. went through the same undergraduate You grew up in a small town Probably my uncles, who were chemists, program, and on paper, if we didn’t write our names down we looked identical, in Kansas. How did you end up and my high school chemistry teacher were the reason I ended up in chemistry same grade point average, standardized a biochemist? specifi cally. I always knew growing up exam scores, etc. We started dating in that I was going to go into science or my sophomore year of college and I just Probably the thing that really stands engineering, because that’s what I liked. remember my junior and senior year out is that even as a young kid I was I cut my English classes, but I went to my being fl abbergasted at the diff erences always really interested in math and science classes. in the quality of mentoring we were patterns, and how things fi t together. getting. I’ll confess, I took a lot of the I came more from the “how do things What was the male/ female advice my husband got and used it. I work” engineering standpoint than dynamic like for you? think to this day that if I hadn’t been the “let’s blow up things” chemistry dating someone in the same major it standpoint. I think in science and I think because I come from a small might have turned out diff erently. particularly the science we do here at town where there weren’t magnet the Magnet Lab, there’s a lot of room for programs, a lot of the interest in What appeals to you both kinds of scientists. science and math from girls dropped about academia? off really early. I don’t think there was I grew up in a small town where there ever conscious discrimination. It was It’s the space you have to solve wasn’t much of a science curriculum in all about expectations. The teachers problems, to fi gure things out. I think the early grades, and school had very certainly focused more on the boys in nothing of pursuing a problem to fi gure little to do with my interest in science up math and science classes in elementary out why something doesn’t work or
17 a publication of the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory SECTIONSCIENTIST - continuedSPOTLIGHT - continued
make sense, backtracking for fi ve years if I Research focuses on structure, function of proteins have to. I actually enjoy it.
On the other side of it, teaching helps to keep me honest. I can get so caught up in solving a particular problem, and there always needs to be an element of relevance to the question you’re pursuing. Students will ask you outright, “What are you going to do with that? What problem are you going to solve once you fi nd this out?” And I think students really keep you on top of that.
What are some of your most important goals for AMRIS?
One of our major goals has been to expand our external user program, partly because we’ve had a lot of developmental projects that have really turned out well. We are trying to bring in people who have never thought about magnetic resonance and show them how it could illuminate their
work. It’s a real challenge in terms of how This helical wheel plot is a tool used by you do that — how much technical info do Long and her team for mapping the they need? How many resources do orientation of amino acids. you dedicate? etween running an international the AMRIS facility with those housed in the As our magnet systems improve, our user program and teaching, Joanna NMR program in Tallahassee. Interactions current users take less time to get their data, BLong manages to fi nd time for among the radio frequency, imaging and so we have room for more, new users. Now her own research. Long, who received spectroscopy groups at the two facilities it’s time for us to move to prime time and her Ph.D. in physical chemistry from the have led to the development of cutting let people who don’t normally use magnetic Massachusetts Institute of Technology, edge equipment and technologies for high resonance know that it’s relevant to their uses nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) fi eld measurements. research. techniques to study proteins. Her research, and that of many of the lab’s biochemists, Let’s talk about your takes advantage of the scientifi c strengths own research. of both the AMRIS user program and the I study proteins and how they work NMR User Program in Tallahassee. One of within an environment to change its Long’s top goals since taking leadership of physical properties. In particular my group AMRIS in 2009 is to continue integrating works on proteins that are involved in how the imaging and spectroscopy systems at bones and teeth are formed, proteins that flux volume 3 issue 2 18 are important to how bacteria bind to How do magnetic fi elds tie in to pick out the signals that we’re interested in surfaces and form colonies, and proteins that kind of work? because we isotopically label atoms and that are important in allowing us to For the magnets, what we take further fi lter the signals using some tricks of breathe. For example, our lungs are like advantage of is that some of the atoms quantum mechanics. Most of the work we large groups of tiny balloons that under a we’re looking at in the protein have specifi c do is with proteins we make synthetically normal amount of atmospheric pressure magnetic moments to them. We also or by using bacterial cells to express would never be able to blow up. We have introduce NMR-active atoms at particular them. We also use lung surfactant extract these special proteins that combine with points where we’re interested in studying that is taken from cows and compare its lipids lining the lungs that enable them interactions in detail. So we’ll introduce, properties to our synthetic surfactant to — in some ways magically — infl ate say, carbon 13, which is a stable isotope, made with lipids and the isotopically when a baby is born and then allow us to and we use that carbon 13 label so that labeled protein. Sometimes with bacterial keep breathing our whole lives. So we’re we can look at a specifi c atom in a very proteins we study, we’ll look at them in the interested in how the protein molecules complicated background, and we can fi lter context of an intact bacterium. allow us to end up with these neat structures out the signals we want to look at. A lot of that we see as well as their unique physical time we’re studying what one protein does, properties. but it’s acting in the context of a cell or in the context of a lung surfactant and we can LEARN MORE
Long's group uses bovine lung surfactant to explore the proteins and lipids that guide ➤ lung function. AMRIS isn’t the only Mag Lab affiliate at the University of Florida. The High B/T Facility serves scientists who want to study in an environment that combines high magnetic fields with ultra- low temperatures. To learn about low temperature physics, visit the Mag Lab website and search for "low temperature physics."
19 a publication of the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory SECTIONWHAT IS THIS? Copper coating conceals nine layers of engineering intrigue BY AMY MAST t’s as slim as a piece of copy paper — family of magnets could eventually hundred.) That one-micron strip needs just a tenth of a millimeter — but this surpass strengths of 50 tesla —stronger both strength and stability to function Iwisp of coppery ribbon has a secret. than the lab’s world-record 45-T hybrid properly inside a research magnet, It’s actually made from nine super-thin magnet. and that’s where the other 99 percent layers that come together to form an comes in. innovative superconductor for the lab’s “This is a new form of conductor; newest magnet design. it’s diffi cult to work with, and we are “To prevent the superconductor learning all over again how to make from burning out, you always need What’s in our nine-layer-dip of magnets with this stuff ,” explained Mag some normal conductors in the mix to ribbon that makes it so revolutionary? Lab engineer Denis Markiewicz, who’s at go along with it,” Markiewicz said. For YBCO (short for yttrium barium copper the helm of the YBCO magnet project. starters, there’s copper, which coats oxide), an ingeniously engineered high- The fi rst operational magnet using this the entire outside and gives the coil its temperature superconductor, is the star technology is scheduled to debut in penny color. Nickel alloy, for strength, of the show. 2012. At 32 tesla, it will be 45 percent makes up about half of the coil’s more powerful than the strongest thickness. Several very thin buff er layers YBCO is manufactured by New York superconducting magnets now in use. act to align the individual grains of YBCO company SuperPower Inc. and is the key and to protect it chemically. compound inside the lab’s powerful, YBCO itself makes up only one high-temperature all-superconducting percent of the thickness of this coil — a magnet, which is being built right now single micron. (Look at this single page by lab engineers and technicians. This sideways and imagine it divided by one
YBCO coil pictured against standard graph paper.
flux volume 3 issue 2 20
DID YOU KNOW?
➤ Superconductors are materials that conduct electricity with no resistance. Electricity comes from electrons traveling through wire conductors, often something like copper. Those electrons bumping into each other generate an enormous amount of heat. With superconductors, however, there is no jostling, therefore no heat. ➤ “High-temperature” (a very relative term) superconductors only operate when they are cooled to liquid nitrogen temperatures, between -346° Fahrenheit and -320.44°F. Traditional superconducting magnetsmagnets are made from “low- temperature”temperat superconductors, Copper coating (This coating goes all the way around the layers, not just on the top which mmust be cooled to about and bottom) -450° F wwith (very expensive) Silver liquidliquid hhelium.e YBCO (1 micron) Buff er layers
Nickel alloy 0.1 mm
Copper coating
21 a publication of the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory SECTIONSCIENCE STARTS HERE ‘Old hand’ learns something new during summer undergraduate research program BY AMY MAST
he Magnet Lab’s Research Experience for Undergraduates, “Stephanie was a wonderful student, was a natural in the or REU, program attracts many students who’ve never lab and just a generally well-rounded person,” said Canfi eld, a T worked in a lab before. That wasn’t the case for Stephanie distinguished professor at Iowa State’s Department of Physics Law, who was already an old hand thanks to her undergraduate and Astronomy and a senior scientist at Ames Laboratory. “The work in Iowa State’s Honors program. Law was paired with Magnet Lab’s REU program gave her a chance to see what longtime Magnet Lab user Paul Canfi eld, with whom she’d also working in a large, diverse user facility would be like.” worked at Iowa State. We asked Law, now a graduate student at the University of In the Magnet Lab’s REU program, Canfi eld saw an Illinois, how her Magnet Lab experience helped to infl uence her opportunity for a promising young scientist to expand the career goals. scope of her experience.
Law in her lab at the University of Illinois.
flux volume 3 issue 2 22 How did you become You already had some How is the Magnet Lab interested in physics in the undergraduate research diff erent from other fi rst place? experience. Did that make research environments your time as an REU more you’ve worked in? I was actually originally interested in or less valuable? astronomy. I always liked looking at the Since the Magnet Lab is a national stars and thought it would be fun to study I think it made the REU valuable in lab, it was somewhat diff erent than the them. While I was in high school, I took an a diff erent way. Since I already knew academic environments I have been astronomy class at a local college, which some basic lab procedures (soldering, in since. I felt like at the Magnet Lab, was not to my liking. I had always been transferring cryogens, etc.), I was able people were more focused on their a very curious person and interested in to jump in and do some slightly more own work and less interested in other science, so I decided to study physics complex things than I wouldn’t have people’s work. At Illinois, for example, in college. As a freshman, I was in the been able to do if I had had to start from we are always bringing in speakers to University Honors program, which paired scratch. In a sense, the learning curve was discuss their work and professors are me with a physicist to do some research. not quite so steep so I feel like I was able generally well-informed about what their I enjoyed the experience and decided to to accomplish a little more. colleagues are doing. At the Magnet Lab, continue pursuing physics. it seemed that people were very focused on their research and on getting useful How has the work you results right away. There was much more What about the Mag Lab’s completed as an REU output from the Magnet Lab in terms of REU program informed the decisions papers. appealed to you? you’ve made since?
I had always wondered what it would Although I found my REU project be like working at a national lab, since interesting, I determined that it was not I had only had experience in a more the type of work I would want to do long- traditional academic setting. At the term. It helped me to realize that I really Magnet Lab I worked with superfl uid enjoy working with materials physics, helium, which was very diff erent than which is similar to what I do now. the research I was doing as an undergrad. The ability to learn and do something completely diff erent was very appealing to me.
23 a publication of the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory SECTIONKITCHEN TABLE SCIENCE Electricity and magnetism together make a circuit BY CARLOS VILLA Center for Integrating Research and Learning
lectricity and magnetism are best buddies. Magnets can be used to make electricity, and electricity can be used to What you’ll need: magnetize objects. Essentially everything that operates E ➊ One battery (D or C) via electricity gives off its own small magnetic fi eld, and when the object is unplugged, the magnetic fi eld stops. ➋ One small piece of aluminum foil (about 12 inches by four inches Voltage is the muscle behind a current, pushing electrons should be enough) along a circuit so that we can use electricity. If the circuit is broken, the electrons cannot travel and poof— no more ➌ One fl ashlight bulb (available for electricity. about a dollar at most hardware In this exercise, you’ll combine the three items below to form stores) an electric current and light the light bulb.
Try to use these items to create a circuit. Try to fi gure it out yourself fi rst! Go away, and come back in a few minutes (stop reading!)
Squish your aluminum foil to form a thick cable. Continue to try to fi gure it out yourself.
what scientists do! scientists what just is This observe. you
ip the battery? Try it, and then write down what what down write then and it, Try battery? the ip fl you if happens What
the light bulb should then be placed on the positive end of the battery. battery. the of end positive the on placed be then should bulb light the
negative end of the battery (the end with the minus sign). The bottom of of bottom The sign). minus the with end (the battery the of end negative
screws in) on the light bulb. The other end should be connected to the the to connected be should end other The bulb. light the on in) screws
One end of the foil should be connected to the thread (the part that that part (the thread the to connected be should foil the of end One
Were you successful? Yay! Unsuccessful? Here’s how you do it: do you how Here’s Unsuccessful? Yay! successful? you Were
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H N E O
I S T O U L
flux volume 3 issue 2 24 NEWS Chemical analysis goes high-def $17 million grant will enable researchers to see molecular world in unprecedented detail DID YOU KNOW?
BY SUSAN RAY The 21-tesla magnet system will There are so many superlatives associated with raise research at the magnet lab the Magnet Lab — biggest, highest powered, etc. to new heights. Areas of research — that sometimes the lab’s accomplishments include: are easy to overlook. Here’s a suggestion: do not overlook the recent $17.5 million grant from the ➤ Petroleomics — analysis of the National Science Foundation. world’s most complex mixture, petroleum. More precise analysis This award will be used to purchase a state- Alan Marshall of crude oil samples can lead to of-the-art magnet system that will transform the 45-percent increase in fi eld — will increase the better, faster and more efficient study of complex environmental and biological accuracy of mass measurements by a factor of at drilling, refining and delivery. samples. Such studies are likely to help scientists least 2, raising it to an astonishing 50 parts per ➤ Proteomics — the analysis better understand fossil and biological fuels — billion. and cataloging of proteins. knowledge that could lead to applications for To understand biological reducing carbon emissions and developing new, “This grant will give us the opportunity processes, scientists need to sustainable fuels. to see the chemical and molecular world in learn how proteins function in unprecedented detail — sort of like HDTV cells. Proteins, which compose The 21-tesla superconducting magnet, compared to ordinary TV,” said Alan Marshall, much of the machinery of living combined with a small cyclotron spectrometer (a director of the Magnet Lab’s ICR user program cells, will be analyzed intact machine that measures the mass of molecules), and the Robert O. Lawton professor of chemistry (top-down) rather than in pieces is made possible by the National Science and biochemistry at Florida State. Marshall, who (bottom-up) as at present, a Foundation’s Division of Chemistry. Fifteen co-invented the FTICR technique and continues particularly promising direction million of the $17.5 million grant comes from to develop it, is the principal investigator on the for discovery of new drugs and funds made available through the American grant. their mechanism of action. Recovery And Reinvestment Act of 2009. ➤ Biofuels — analysis of the The ICR user program facility serves more chemical composition of The magnet system will be housed in the than 100 external researchers per year and biofuels. Although ethanol is Mag Lab’s Ion Cyclotron Resonance (ICR) facility leads the world in instrument and applications the first widely used biofuel, and will be used for Fourier transform ICR mass development for the technique. Since the other sources, including algae spectrometry — a powerful analytical technique technique’s inception, more than 775 FTICR and pine trees, offer potentially capable of resolving and identifying thousands of instruments have been installed in laboratories better performance and less diff erent chemical components simultaneously worldwide. In addition, the ICR program at environmental impact. The new in complex mixtures. Florida State has trained 32 undergraduates and instrument will provide detailed 42 postdoctoral fellows, and generated fi ve M.S. insight into biofuels at every The addition of a 21-tesla magnet is expected and 21 Ph.D. graduates, for careers in industry, stage of their production and to yield major innovations in the fi eld of chemical government and academia. use. analysis. Going from 14.5 to 21 tesla — a
25 a publication of the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory MAGNET FACT OR FICTION Pregnancy to pacemakers: safety around high magnetic fi elds BY AMY MAST ne thing we stress to visitors First things fi rst: touring the magnet Sweating the small stuff when they take tours of the lab is not dangerous, or we would Lots of us have metal inside us, Olab is the power of our world- not do it. We always err on the side of whether it’s a rod inserted to support a unique magnets. High magnetic fi elds caution, and visitors are required to bone or fi llings from your Pop Rocks days. can twist metal, create explosions, send stay inside clearly marked lines. Around Do research magnets pose a threat to wrenches fl ying, and in the experiments each magnet, taped off circles marked those bits of metal? we conduct, test the limits of the the magnet’s gauss lines. When the laws of matter. magnets are running, visitors are not Most pins, fi llings and other small allowed inside the gauss lines. metal items you’ve collected over time It’s not surprising, then, that a aren’t going to respond to our magnetic casual visitor would wonder about how But what about the researchers and fi elds. The items are small, the fi elds are magnetic fi elds aff ect the things they’re Magnet Lab staff who walk past that line relatively weak, and a tour participant carrying with them, such as cameras, every day? Here’s what those gauss lines with a pin in his knee won’t feel a thing. or credit cards, or the thin inside them, marked on the fl oor mean — for you A Mag Lab employee working inside the such as pins, pacemakers and off spring. and for the folks allowed inside them. gauss lines with the same pin may feel a
Gauss lines outside a magnet are marked on the fl oor with yellow tape.
flux volume 3 issue 2 26 twinge, but his knee is defi nitely not going Electromagnetic technology is also to be drawn to the magnet. present in digital and video cameras, and while our visitors are welcome to take all the Visitors with pacemakers are asked pictures they like, journalists who venture DID YOU KNOW? not to step inside the magnet cells at all. beyond the gauss lines when a magnet Pacemakers, which regulate the rhythm of is running must take extra precautions to the heartbeat using electrical signals, can make sure they don’t erase all the pictures be vulnerable to fringe fi elds — rogue bits they just took. Get too close to a magnet, ➤ There are 10,000 gauss in of weak magnetic fi eld occurring outside and you’ll actually feel the magnet tugging one tesla. the gauss lines. While it’s too small to bother the camera from your hands. anyone else, it could disrupt the operation of ➤ A hospital-grade, 3-tesla such a delicate device. For that reason, wrenches and other MRI scanner has a higher common tools you’d expect around a big, magnetic field than a person The lab’s resident expert in all complicated magnet are conspicuously standing one foot from a things safety, Angela Sutton, says that absent when its fi eld is fi red up. You’d have high-field resistive magnet. workers who’ve been in a machine shop to be pretty close to the magnet to see environment for a long time should stay tools fl ying, but Magnet Lab employees use away from operational high-fi eld magnets. extreme caution nonetheless — safety and Many machinists unknowingly collect very very expensive equipment are at stake. Scholar Scientist Amy McKenna and small particles of metal in their eyes over graduate student Brandi Ermann, both time. Because the eye is so porous and the Baby on board? chemists. They worked repeatedly and in slivers of metal are so small, a high magnetic One question I used to get over and over close proximity to high magnetic fi elds fi eld could cause the metal to suddenly, um, during tours, as I waddled, pregnant, in front during their pregnancies, though, like dislodge. of guests, was “Aren’t you scared for your all the lab’s researchers, they took steps baby in the high magnetic fi elds?” to minimize frequency and duration of Debit-card danger? exposure. Both women have borne perfectly Aside from being extra cautious about our It hadn’t occurred to me to be scared. healthy children. visitors’ health, another reason we don’t like After all, the fringe fi elds created by our our visitors to step too close to the magnets magnets are clearly marked with tape on the “I never came across a study that dealt is because we care about your wallet. That fl oor, and I wasn’t climbing on top of them with the magnitude of the magnetic fi elds little strip on the back of your credit card — to eat my lunch or anything. But in the name that we see here,” said Ermann. “One of the the one that connects you with groceries of caution, I took the question to my doctor, things that makes you not as concerned and gas — is a magnetic strip, and it stores who said she’d research the answer and give is the shielding that most of the magnets information that makes your purchases me a call. are under. Even though you have a high possible. High magnetic fi elds can wipe magnetic fi eld, the amount of exposure that out that information. Some lab employees, She called back a week later, off ering, “I’ve you’re coming into is as minimal as it can get.” neglecting to remove their wallets from back got no idea.” pockets on a busy day, are on their second, third or even fourth debit card. Fortunately, the lab has in-house expertise available in the form of Assistant
27 a publication of the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory SECTIONSMAGNETE C T I O N MILESTONES he Magnet Lab’s resistive magnets, a type of electromagnet that uses conventional electricity to generate high magnetic fi elds, T owe a debt of innovation to Michael Faraday. While such magnets weren’t invented until long after his death, his fi eld of study mined many of the principles and invented some of the techniques that make the lab’s research possible.
Faraday, an Englishman born into a blacksmithing family in 1791, had very little education as we think of it today, and he discovered an interest in science by chance. While an apprentice at a printing press, he began to read the scientifi c texts that were passing under his hands; he was particularly interested in magnetism and chemistry.
Impressed with 300 pages of notes the 21-year-old Faraday sent him after a lecture, a prominent chemist at The Royal Institution of Great Britain hired Faraday on as a secretary. Faraday went on to hold the senior chemist’s post, receiving several important scientifi c honors and making several discoveries in chemistry.
He’s most famous, however, for his investigation into the relationship between magnetism and electricity. Expounding on the ideas of his contemporary Hans Christian Oersted, whose discovery of electromagnetism made waves across Europe, Faraday constructed a simple motor. It became the structural basis for much of today’s electromagnetic technology. Michael Faraday: Self-Made Magnet Pioneer
BY AMY MAST A few years later Faraday discovered electromagnetic induction, the principle that allowed for the invention of important everyday products such as standard electric motors and power transformers. This discovery led to the construction of a device called the electric dynamo, which was “Nothing is too wonderful to be true if it improved upon and refi ned to become today’s power generator. be consistent with the laws of nature.” -Michael Faraday Since Faraday was self-educated, he never received any training in complex math, though his mastery of the concepts explored was never in doubt. Theorists and mathematicians later outlined more concretely the principles that made his inventions and ideas work.
Faraday died at home in 1867, with countless accumulated honors and the respect of the worldwide scientifi c community. flux volume 3 issue 2 28 Resistive magnets, made of many stacked Bitter plates, are made by teams of skilled workers How Bitter plates here at the Mag Lab. (There’s more info on how resistive magnets work on pages 13, 14, and 15.) measure up The 45-tesla hybrid magnet (so named because it’s part resistive magnet, part superconducting magnet) is the most complex powered magnet maintained by our Magnet Science & Technology team. It’s also the magnet most in demand by visiting researchers who use the lab’s magnets.
We asked Resistive Magnet Shop technician Jim O’Reilly, who knows the hybrid perhaps better than anyone because he put it together, to provide some interesting details about the hybrid magnet’s construction.
• In total, the hybrid is made of 3631 stacked plates and 285 insulators.
• Those plates and insulators have a total of 880,000 holes.
• There are 10,000 parts in the hybrid resistive coils.
• Each coil takes about one week to stack, and there are fi ve coils in the hybrid magnet.
• Once the coils are stacked it takes only two days to assemble them, one inside the other, like Russian dolls.
• Bitter plates range from 0.29 mm to 1 mm thick. Insulators are 0.15 mm thick.
• To move the water necessary for cooling through the Bitter plates, resistive magnets utilize two pumps, each packing a whopping 500 horsepower.
29 a publication of the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory SECTIONCOMMUNITY BRIEFS
Mag Lab educator Jose Sanchez shows a tour group around the lab.
Cool off this summer with a Tallahassee to conduct research using Mag Lab tour custom-made, multimillion dollar magnets. The tours, which last about an hour, WHAT: Looking for an air-conditioned and off beat include a general overview of the lab Public tours of the Magnet Lab way to spend your lunch hour? Maybe and the research conducted, as well as you’ve got family visiting this summer and an explanation of the diff erent types of WHEN: you want to take them someplace they magnets. Visitors don’t even have to skip The third Wednesday of each month haven’t been before. The Magnet Lab’s lunch to take the tour. Soup, sandwiches, monthly public tours have you covered. salads and more are available at the TIME: Starbucks in the lab’s atrium lobby. Tours are held on the third Wednesday Tour starts promptly at 11:35 a.m. and lasts of each month at 11:30 a.m. No reservations If you have a big group (eight or more about an hour. Because of the size of the are required; just check in at the front desk people), you can schedule your own building and for other reasons, we cannot when you arrive. private tour. This, however, must be done in allow visitors to be unescorted in the advance. To arrange a group tour, call Felicia building. Latecomers may not be able to Once inside the Magnet Lab, visitors Hancock at 645-0034 or e-mail hancock@ catch up with tours once begun. will understand what attracts hundreds magnet.fsu.edu. of scientists from around the world to
flux volume 3 issue 2 30 2010-11 Magnet Mystery Hour lineup features Barnes & Noble, Mag Lab bird brains and energy issues ‘Doing Science Together’
Did you know that some Mag Lab research is focused on energy and The Tallahassee Mall Barnes & Noble transforms into a science haven the basic science necessary to help solve global energy problems? the third Thursday of each month when educators from the Mag Lab’s Chances are, you did not. Raising awareness and familiarizing the Center for Integrating Research & Learning roll in their carts packed community with Magnet Lab science and technology is the goal of the with fun science doodads. Doing Science Together is an opportunity lab’s Magnet Mystery Hour lecture series. These free, quarterly talks for kids and their grown-ups to experience science in unexpected (and illuminate and explain science in an engaging, layperson-friendly way. classroom-free) ways. Stop by each month at 6:30 p.m. to check it out; most programs last about an hour. The talks are always on a Tuesday and start at 7 p.m. and last about an hour. Short tours are available before the talks at 6:30 p.m. Doing Science Together features hand-on activities that help participants: 2010-2011 Magnet Mystery Hour Schedule: • Make connections between science and their world September 21: Center for Integrating Research and Learning educators will get students back in the swing of learning this fall with their very • Ask and answer questions popular “Doing Science Together” series, in which kids and their parents and/or guardians are investigating science independently through • Think scientifi cally guided, hands-on exercises. This program is extremely popular, so watch the Web site (magnet.fsu.edu) for information about how to • Gain a sense of adventure and curiosity reserve your spot as the date grows near. • Learn simple, inventive science activities that can be done at home October 19: FSU Assistant Professor Susanne Cappendijk uses the with basic materials Magnet Lab’s 21.1-tesla magnet (the strongest MRI scanner in the world!) to explore the process of song development, storage of song Want more info? information, and identifi cation of underlying neural signaling pathways Contact Carlos Villa ([email protected], [850]-644-7191) or Pat in the zebra fi nch brain. Learn how this research helps scientists better Dixon ([email protected], [850] 644-4707). understand the human brain and its mysterious inner workings. This summer, Magnet Lab educators also will share news and January 18: Lab Director Gregory Boebinger will explore the information about Magnet Lab research and technology with relationship between basic research and global energy issues, touching Tallahassee area seniors as part of the Senior Center’s Senior Days. on the problems, the promise, and the challenges faced by the scientifi c Schedule dates are Aug. 11, and Sept. 2, with exact locations to community as they work to address ever-growing energy demands. be announced. All presentations will be at 11:30 a.m. For more information, contact Villa or Martha Coppins (Martha.coppins@talgov. com, [850] 891-4033).
31 a publication of the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory FLUX - VOLUME 3: ISSUE 2 1800 EAST PAUL DIRAC DRIVE Non-Profit Organization TALLAHASSEE, FL 323103706 U.S. Postage PAID TEL: 850 6440311 Tallahassee, FL FAX: 850 6448350 Permit No. 55 www.magnet.fsu.edu
SUMMER 2010
FLUX is supported by the National Science Foundation and the state of Florida