brookhaven

Brewing the World's Hottest Guinness

jeure — Mon, 25 Jun 2012 07:43:51 +0000

Brewing the World's Hottest Guinness

The positive and sometimes unexpected impact of particle physics is well documented, from physicists inventing the World Wide Web to engineering the technology underlying life-saving magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) devices. But sometimes the raw power of huge experiments and scientific ambition draw the recognition of those seeking only the most extreme and impractical achievements on Earth.

Brookhaven National Laboratory’s Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) smashes particles together to recreate the incredible conditions that only existed at the dawn of time. The 2.4-mile underground atomic “racetrack” at RHIC produces fundamental insights about the laws underlying all visible matter. But along the way, its particles also smashed a world record.

Guinness World Records, no longer encumbered by “book of,” recognized Brookhaven Lab for achieving the “Highest Man-Made Temperature.” When RHIC collides gold ions at nearly the speed of light, the impact energy becomes so intense that the neutrons and protons inside the gold nuclei “melt,” releasing fundamental quarks and gluons that then form a nearly friction-free primordial plasma that only existed in Nature about a millionth of one second after the Big Bang. RHIC discovered this primordial, liquid-like quark-gluon plasma and measured its temperature at around 4 trillion degrees Celsius – that’s 250,000 times hotter than the center of the sun.

“There are many cool things about this ultra-hot matter,” said physicist Steven Vigdor, who leads Brookhaven’s nuclear and particle physics program. “We expected to reach these temperatures – that is, after all, why RHIC was built – but we did not at all anticipate the nearly perfect liquid behavior.”

As it turns out, this surprising phenomenon occurs at both extremes of the temperature spectrum.

“Other physicists have now observed quite similar liquid behavior in trapped atom samples at temperatures near absolute zero, ten million trillion times colder than the quark-gluon plasma we create at RHIC,” Vigdor said. “This is just one among many unexpected connections we’ve found between RHIC physics and other scientific forefronts. The unity of physics is a beautiful thing!”

Speaking of unity in physics, a much larger collider is also probing quark-gluon plasma and generating sun-shaming temperatures. The 17-mile Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at Europe’s CERN laboratory smashes lead ions together in its own super-hot recreations of the Big Bang. And the LHC’s ALICE (A Large Ion Collider Experiment) may be positioned to trump RHIC’s record.

“The energy density at the LHC is a factor of three higher than at RHIC,” said CERN physicist Despina Hatzifotiadou. “This translates to a 30 percent increase in absolute temperature compared to the value achieved by RHIC. So I would say that ALICE has the record!”

But despite ALICE’s prowess, the collaboration has not published an official temperature measurement of its quark-gluon plasma, and the Guinness team is nothing if not official. For the time being, RHIC reigns, having driven physics forward by creating that revelatory multi-trillion degree matter many billions of times. But as with all records, RHIC’s Guinness is destined to be broken.

For a quick overview of the RHIC breakthrough, take a look at the video below:

jeure Mon, 06/25/2012 - 03:43

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Physics

RHIC

brookhaven

cern

Quantum Physics

Physics

Genetics Guard Against Alcohol-Induced Brain Damage

jeure — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 09:54:39 +0000

Genetics Guard Against Alcohol-Induced Brain Damage

No one credits heavy drinking with making people smarter - the mind-numbing effects are well documented. Odds are that if you haven't experienced this personally, you've witnessed it in the foolish antics of others. The clear correlation between rapidly diminishing intelligence and rising alcohol consumption is no secret.

But the long-term effects may go deeper than a morning headache or a need to wear sunglasses inside. A new study conducted at Brookhaven National Laboratory reveals that genetic factors can make some individuals more susceptible than others to lasting neurological damage from drinking - alcohol can actually shrink critical areas of the brain, at least in mice.

MRI data mapped onto an existing atlas of a mouse brain to compare the effects of drinking ethanol and water on brain volume.

The study, which explored how alcohol consumption affects brain volume in mice, showed that the brain's dopamine receptors, responsible for registering signals from this "reward" chemical, provide protection. The mice missing those receptors were more damaged by drinking.

The study compared brain volumes overall and region-by-region in normal mice and a strain that lacked the gene for dopamine D2 receptors after six months of drinking a 20 percent ethanol solution. The results demonstrated the powerful defensive role of D2.

Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans revealed that mice without those dopamine receptors experienced brain atrophy overall and shrinkage of the cerebral cortex and thalamus. The mice with D2, however, drank the same amount of alcohol without the resulting brain damage. The corresponding regions of the human brain are critical to processing speech, sensory information, and forming long-term memories.

"This study clearly demonstrates the interplay of genetic and environmental factors in determining the damaging effects of alcohol on the brain," said study author Foteini Delis, a neuroanatomist with the Behavioral Neuropharmacology and Neuroimaging Lab at Brookhaven.

And there's more bad news for mice with a drinking problem. Previous studies indicated that the absence of dopamine D2 receptors also increases the odds of alcohol addiction - meaning that without D2, alcoholism is both more likely and more dangerous.

Maybe in the future a simple genetic test will diagnose susceptibility to alcoholism and other conditions, and we'll have mice (and neuroscientists) to thank for it. Drinking still won't make people smarter, but this research may help keep its effects on the brain temporary.

Read the original press release from Brookhaven National Laboratory here.
The study was published in the May 2012 issue of Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research.

This post was written by Brookhaven Lab science writer Justin Eure.

jeure Fri, 02/17/2012 - 04:54

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RHICrolled: Get Low

ksnyder — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 08:00:14 +0000

RHICrolled: Get Low

This is the first in an occassional series about Brookhaven's Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider, or, as it's affectionately called, RHIC.

Lil John has a theme song for RHIC's latest experimental run.

Sorry, sorry! I couldn't resist. RHIC's actual ditty of the moment goes more like this. (Clean version, of course, RHIC doesn't want any soap in its linac).

RHIC, which has a maximum potential energy of 200 billion electron volts (GeV), collided gold ions at energies as low as 7.7 GeV this spring -- the lowest ever achieved in the machine. But why go so low?

Even at low energies, the gold-gold collisions at RHIC create a super hot, super dense environment that melts the bonds that hold normal nuclear matter together. The result is a new state of matter known as quark-gluon plasma (QGP).

At high energies, this transition from normal matter to QGP is smooth, like slowly melting butter sitting out in the sun. But at lower energies, physicists believe that there's something called the "critical point," below which QGP is formed in a much more violent process -- think about throwing that piece of butter in the microwave for a minute or two. Physicists are searching for this landmark by scanning as many energies as possible. The low-energy run is a key part of that process.

You can read more here.

ksnyder Thu, 07/22/2010 - 04:00

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Fall into the (pseudo)gap

ksnyder — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 13:07:21 +0000

Fall into the (pseudo)gap

Despite their name, "high-temperature" superconductors require pretty darn cold conditions -- all far below freezing temperatures, some near absolute zero (-273 degrees Celsius) -- to operate without energy loss. As a result, they're not practical for everyday uses like more efficient power transmission -- that is, unless you have a stockpile of liquid helium or nitrogen dewars just hanging around your house.

So why can't we create room-temperature superconductors? That's a question that scientists are still trying to answer.

In research released today in the journal Nature, a team of U.S. and Japanese researchers has made a breakthrough in understanding an alleged killer of room-temperature superconductivity -- an electronic phase called the "pseudogap."

Using copper-oxide superconductors, the group found a fundamental difference in how electrons behave at the two distinct oxygen sites within the material while in the pseudogap phase. This could be a significant step in figuring out exactly what the pseudogap is and how it affects superconductivity.

This pattern shows the tunneling potential of electrons on oxygen atoms "north" and "east" of each copper atom (shown embedded in the pattern) in the copper-oxide layer of a superconductor in the pseudogap phase. On oxygen atoms north of each copper, the tunneling potential is strong, as indicated by the brightness of the yellow patches forming lines in the north-south direction. On oxygen atoms east of each copper, the tunneling potential is weaker, indicated by less intense yellow lines in the east-west direction. This apparent broken symmetry may help scientists understand the pseudogap phase of copper-oxide superconductors.

You can read more here.

ksnyder Wed, 07/14/2010 - 09:07

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Nanomaterials Revealed

ksnyder — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 09:58:31 +0000

Nanomaterials Revealed

Thanks to the smart nano detectives out there who took a stab at solving yesterday's picture puzzle.

Mystery image #1, aka the "Nano Vortex," shows the different magnetization directions of an arrangement of nickel and nickel oxide. Captured by Center for Functional Nanomaterials (CFN) scientist Yimei Zhu, this photo reveals the local distribution of electromagnetic potential. The ability to directly observe electromagnetic properties at the nanoscale may help scientists engineer new materials that rely on magnetic spin - rather than just electric charge - to control electric current. Such "spintronic" materials could be used for a range of smaller, faster electronic devices for applications including data storage and energy conversion.

Mystery image # 2 is named "Nano Leaves" by its photographer, CFN scientist Weiqiang Han. But these "leaves," which are actually called nanobelts, make your average household plant look like a sequoia. Made of gallium nitride and zinc oxide, these structures are just 5 microns long and 10 nanometers thick. There's a reason for their plant-like appearance, though. The flat shape of nanobelts, which might be used as a water-splitting catalyst to produce hydrogen for fuel cells, enhances their ability to absorb light, facilitating this photocatalytic reaction.

And the winner is...no one. Although, Adam_Y was sooooo close. It's close enough for me, really, so I'm going to go ahead and hand over all 10 of those BNL Nerd Points to him. Congrats and thanks for playing!

ksnyder Wed, 07/14/2010 - 05:58

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A Clarification

ksnyder — Thu, 08 Jul 2010 08:19:22 +0000

A Clarification

Based on some of the (many) comments spurred by the appearance of PepsiCo on ScienceBlogs, we want to clarify Brookhaven's involvement on this site.

In April, Brookhaven was invited by ScienceBlogs editors to join the community as an institutional blogger, along with the Weizmann Institute of Science and the SETI Institute (and later, CERN and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute).

There's no money being exchanged between Brookhaven and ScienceBlogs.

Of course, we see this as a good public relations opportunity. But that doesn't mean that this space will only be used to redistribute press releases (and I hope our first posts have shown that).

We want to be an active and valuable member of this community, but we'll leave that to you to judge.

ksnyder Thu, 07/08/2010 - 04:19

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Science from the Sky

ksnyder — Fri, 02 Jul 2010 06:45:10 +0000

Science from the Sky

If you're American, chances are you'll be looking up this weekend for a spectacle of physics. But you also can look down from above -- way, way above -- to see the homes of some of the greatest physics experiments on Earth.

Brookhaven's Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) is probably one of the most visible particle accelerators from space.

Check out this satellite shot from 1982, when construction was underway for RHIC's predecessor, ISABELLE:

And this more recent aerial shot, taken in May:

RHIC is the first machine in the world capable of colliding heavy ions, which are atoms that have had their outer cloud of electrons removed. RHIC primarily uses ions of gold, one of the heaviest common elements, because its nucleus is densely packed with particles.

The massive machine collides two beams of gold ions head-on when they're traveling at nearly the speed of light (what physicists call relativistic speeds). The beams zip in opposite directions around RHIC's 2.4-mile, two-lane ring. At six intersections, the lanes cross, leading to a collision.

If conditions are right, the collision "melts" the protons and neutrons and, for a brief instant, liberates their constituent quarks and gluons. Just after the collision, thousands more particles form as the area cools off. Each of these particles provides a clue as to what occurred inside the collision zone. Physicists sift through those clues for information about the most fundamental forces and properties of matter and the early universe.

But RHIC isn't the only particle accelerator you can spy from an omnipotent perch; take a look at these other famous atom smashers (thanks to Google Maps).

Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory's Tevatron, a protron-antiproton collider only second in energy to the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN

The Linac Coherent Light Source at SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory. Prior to its use as a free electron laser, this linac was used to collide electrons and positrons.

Of course, many accelerators are kept hundreds of feet underground, and, thus, out of view. But some clever Google Mappers still found a way to mark the position of the world's largest and most powerful collider, the LHC.

Happy 4th!

(Fermilab, SLAC, and LHC map images are Copyright Google)

ksnyder Fri, 07/02/2010 - 02:45

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particle accelerators

SLAC

Physics

What is the real story behind these machines they cant only be used to find out what created stars an the big bang an things like that

One Ring to Bring Them All and in the Science Bind Them

ksnyder — Wed, 23 Jun 2010 07:59:21 +0000

One Ring to Bring Them All and in the Science Bind Them

A little more than one year ago, on the day of its groundbreaking ceremony, the National Synchrotron Light Source II (NSLS-II) construction site was nothing more than a whole lot of dirt. Today, it's...well, take a look for yourself.

The NSLS-II construction site on the day of the groundbreaking ceremony, June 15, 2009, and...

...exactly one year later

Construction is quickly progressing on the $912 million facility, which will be the world's most brilliant light source. Eh, what's a "light source?" Basically, it's a particle accelerator that, in a controlled manner, sheds light of wavelengths and intensities useful to numerous scientific studies. (Details on NSLS-II's Superman-like abilities later).

At any rate, the giant ring -- a half-mile racetrack where electrons will zip around at close to the speed of light -- is now taking shape, and overall, 30 percent of the construction work is complete. By next spring, the number of construction workers on site will double to 400. At this rate, the project will be ready for beam by February 2014 - 16 months ahead of schedule.

NSLS-II will be the successor to Brookhaven's currently operating light source -- bet you can guess the name -- the National Synchrotron Light Source (NSLS). About 2,200 researchers from around the world visit NSLS each year to use its bright beams of x-ray, ultraviolet, and infrared light (produced by the circulating beam of electrons and tuned by specialized magnets, instrumentation, and optics) to study a wide range of materials.

The electronic properties of fuel cell catalysts, the atomic structure of a ribosome, the elemental composition of soil and water samples -- even painted-over portraits first put on canvas hundreds of years ago -- you name it, there's a good chance it's been studied here.

But as the NSLS enters its late 20s, researchers want to take their experiments to the next level. To probe even smaller, subtler details of their samples, scientists need more intense, better-focused light. NSLS-II will deliver world-leading intensity and brightness, producing x-rays 10,000 times brighter than the current NSLS. In fact, its x-ray brightness and resolution will exceed all other light sources, existing and under construction.

One of the most attractive capabilities of NSLS-II is the ability to image materials down to a nanometer, one billionth of a meter -- a capability not available at any other light source in the world. These properties will allow scientists to delve deeper into the mysteries of high-temperature superconductors, the self-assembly of nanomaterials, molecular electronics, and numerous other aspects of physics, chemistry, and biology.

Can't wait until 2014? You can watch NSLS-II take shape live (or through time lapse) from one of four webcams positioned around the site.

ksnyder Wed, 06/23/2010 - 03:59

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Welcome to Brookhaven Bits & Bytes

ksnyder — Tue, 22 Jun 2010 11:38:04 +0000

Welcome to Brookhaven Bits & Bytes

Where can scientists collide gold ions at close to the speed of light; take photos of some of the smallest materials known to humans; decipher the structure of proteins vital to everyday life; illuminate the brains of drug and food addicts; and test materials developed for fuel cells and other clean energy technologies - all on one campus?

These things happen every day at Brookhaven National Laboratory, a (very) multidisciplinary, government-funded institution located on Long Island, about 60 miles east of New York City.

Every year, more than 5,000 researchers from around the world join the scientific staff at Brookhaven's unique, state-of-the-art facilities for studies that take anywhere from a few hours to a few months - and can lead (and have led) to Nobel Prize-worthy advances.

This blog is here to tell you about as much of that as possible. We also hope to give you a look at Brookhaven itself, where some of the world's brightest scientists collaborate, socialize (yes, we have a bar on site), swim (and a pool), dance (and a ballroom-dancing club), interact with wildlife (groundhogs, and turkeys, and deer, oh my!), and basically live like normal human beings - well, outside of that colliding gold ions stuff.

Our posts will come from members of Brookhaven's Media & Communications staff, primarily yours truly, Kendra Snyder (science writer and public affairs representative), and Pete Genzer (manager). We're both eager to join this amazing blogging community, and we can't wait to share the latest and greatest - or just really cool - stories, videos, and other goodies about our science-filled world with you.

Welcome to Brookhaven Bits & Bytes!

ksnyder Tue, 06/22/2010 - 07:38

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