The small and the large

Named after Enrico Fermi,

Italian physicist

My nephew is thrilled to have a summer internship at Fermilab.

The summer has almost ended, and he will be leaving soon to continue his studies in physics.

This very thoughtful young man invited his grandparents and me to a tour of Fermilab yesterday. Did you know tours are open to the public? And free? And you can take all the photos you want? And Fermilab maintains a small herd of buffalo?

Snapshot of a photon collision

Apparently Fermilab is about protons and anti-protons shooting around a four-mile circular vacuum in opposite directions and colliding at nearly the speed of light. The physicists are excited about seeing what kind of particles form as a result of these collisions.

Don’t take the movie “Angels and Demons” too seriously, these scientists say. They haven’t found a way to contain a microscopic speck of anti-matter without its self-destructing, much less gather a whole gram of it for nefarious purposes.

Fermilab is also about international good-will and communication and sharing among world scientists.

Flags of nations represented

at Fermilab

It’s also where they discover more about the very small (atoms and quarks) by looking at the very large (galaxies and the universe).

One of the Psalmists who spent a lot of time studying the night sky, maybe David, mused,

“I look up at your macro-skies,

dark and enormous,
your handmade sky-jewelry,
Moon and stars mounted in their settings.

Then I look at my micro-self and wonder,
Why do you bother with us?
Why do you take a second look?
(The Message)