The National Synchrotron Light Source

Brookhaven’s National Synchrotron Light Source, we would discover, is just that — a light source. And despite the differences in scale and the methods of production, it isn’t so different from the studio lights used by photographers. In each case, the way to get the best image is to shine a really bright light on the subject and take a picture of it. Indeed, the only respect in which the light source’s name can be misleading is that it does not confine itself to the visible light spectrum, but uses everything between infrared and x-rays.

A view of the workspaces surrounding the smaller ring at Brookhaven's National Synchrotron Light Source

Welcome!

Hello, World!

We’re Lizzie Wade and Nick Russell. This summer, we will be taking a road trip across the United States before Lizzie starts a Fulbright in Mexico City. On the way, we will visit some of the sites and laboratories that have contributed (and continue to contribute) to the history of high energy physics. We aim to document a particular moment in science and history: as the Large Hadron Collider slowly rumbles to life in Europe, it promises to change not only our understanding of the universe at its most fundamental level, but also the manner in which high energy physics is conducted around the world.

Our itinerary takes us to seven National Laboratories and to the site of the abandoned Superconducing Super Collider (and hopefully to the Very Large Array, just for fun):

•Brookhaven National Laboratory (Brookhaven, Long Island, New York)
•Oak Ridge National Laboratory (Oak Ridge, Tennessee)
•Fermilab National Laboratory (Batavia, Illinois)
•Argonne National Laboratory (Argonne, Illinois)
•The former planned site of the Superconducting Super Collider (Waxahachie, Texas)
•Los Alamos National Laboratory (Los Alamos, New Mexico)
•The Very Large Array (Sorroco, New Mexico)
•The Jet Propulsion Laboratory (Pasadena, California)
•Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley, CA)
•Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (Livermore, CA)
•SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory (Stanford, CA)

In addition to this blog, we will be working with Symmetry Magazine, the joint Fermilab/SLAC publication about particle physics, to produce a multimedia piece. We hope you enjoy what we come up with!

-Lizzie and Nick