There's a lot of energy inside Fermi Lab

You wanted to know

"What is Fermilab?" asked a young patron from Vernon Area Library who attended the library's "Write Away!" program.

Your teachers may have told you that atoms are the building blocks of all things. Even smaller than atoms are quarks and leptons.

Particle physicists want to know what's even smaller and how we can use those very, very tiny parts to construct, or reconstruct, tools to improve our environment and health and gain a better understanding of our planet and universe.

Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, named for Nobel Prize-winner and particle physicist Enrico Fermi, is a U.S. Department of Energy-sponsored science center in Batavia that is home to a double-stacked, 2-mile-long particle accelerator and dozens of science labs used by researchers and scientists from around the world.

This state-of-the-art science facility offers innovators and top scientists the tools they need to stay perched at the leading edge of particle physics and astrophysics.

The entire 6,800-acre campus is situated on an authentic prairie with bison and other wildlife. Visitors are welcome to enjoy the country setting and to take part in the ecology education opportunities.

What goes on inside the labs and particle accelerators is primarily particle physics ­­- the study of the tiniest things in the universe, deep space and dark energy. The goals are to provide the best environment for research and also to educate the next generation of inventors and scientists through outreach to area universities, colleges and high schools.

For almost 30 years, scientists at Fermilab have been smashing particles in the 10 accelerators buried 30 feet below the property so they can peer even deeper into the tiniest parts of the atom.

So far, Fermilab research has led to these subatomic discoveries: six leptons, six quarks, four force carriers and a Higgs boson.

Innovators used the data and discoveries to formulate diagnostic tools such as the MRI, the PET scan and proton therapy for cancer treatment; the discovery of new materials used in manufacturing, environmental cleanup, security and energy.

Particles are propelled to higher energies in the below-ground accelerator, the main structure on the campus, below the prairie. Shaped like a double-decker NASCAR course are the main injector and recycler rings.

Branching off are an 11-foot accelerator, a 1,500-foot booster ring, a 500-foot linear accelerator and other experimental tracks. A second accelerator uses Superconducting Radio Frequency technology, which incorporates superconducting magnets to produce scientific results.

Fermilab offers budding scientists opportunities for summer classes and weekend programs at its Lederman Science Center. Called Science Adventures, programs are available for kids in kindergarten through grade 12. There are programs for educators, Fermilab tours for the general public Wednesdays at 10:30 a.m. and "Ask-A-Scientist" the first Sunday of each month.

For more information see the Fermilab website, www.fnal.gov.

Check it out

The Vernon Area Library in Lincolnshire suggests these titles on particle physics and Enrico Fermi's work with the atomic bomb:

• "Enrico Fermi: Trailblazer in Nuclear Physics" by Erica Stux

• "Splitting the Atom" by Alan Morton

• "The Making of the Atomic Bomb" by Richard Rhoades

• "Bomb: The Race to Build - and Steal - the World's Most Dangerous Weapon" by Steve Sheinkin