Electron Gun

This afternoon was the final opportunity for me to be won over to a highly lucrative career in accelerator physics and ditch the chemistry nonsense. I was watching Matt and Mathias experiments with the electron gun, which can shoot out the electrons required for generating synchrotron radiation. I think I was most excited by the special blue booties we had to wear - I suppose that means that I'm not cut out for accelerator physics.

Mickey

Meet Mickey, my new best friend.

The Goose Island Brewhouse

There is nothing more Chicagoan than a locally brewed Goose Island ale. The Goose Island brewhouse was a perfect venue to sample the product, complete with goose head tap handles dressed in mini santa hats.

Monkey Socks

The day after Thanksgiving is a crazy shopping day in the USA. In keeping with my goal of experiencing an authentic American holiday I was forced to participate in a little retail activity.

Happy Thanksgiving

I have just experienced my first Thanksgiving (that actually I remember). Here's what came out of Sandra's kitchen: cream of artichoke soup; roast turkey with homemade gravy and cranberry sauce; stuffing; pumkin ravioli; asparagus spears with Hollondaise sauce; roasted sweet potatoes with bacon and chestnuts; baked ham; pumpkin pie; pecan pie; ... I think that's everything.
Bernt came over with his supervisor Mark Ridgway and a postdoc, Patrick, who are out for experiments. We also had 2 West Australians, Nigel and Karsten, who are also in the middle of beam time.

First Snow

We had the first snow fall of the season on the busiest travel day of the year, Thanksgiving eve. There were huge flakes falling and blanketing Argonne in ~5cm of the white stuff. Lots of postcard material. I love snow!

Silver Anniversary

Today is the 25th parental anniversary. Go Mum and Dad. Keep up the good work.

Happy B'day Ben

Its my little brother Ben's 20th birthday today - that means that in one year's time I'll be sharing any embarassing stories from his childhood with all his friends.
Happy Birthday Ben!
Your present is available at www.naxos.com (try my email/password)

Internet Telephone

I've just discovered a nice little program, Skype, that allows you to make free phone calls over the internet, including calls to the opposite side of the world - Australia for example. This afternoon I picked up a microphone/headset from the Microcenter and I can now be seen wandering around the ring talking to myself.
Sign up and give me a call.

Under Surveillance

The observation deck for the APS ring, which school groups regularly visit, is directly above Sector 1 where we are working. Wave kiddies.

APS Tricycles

The APS is just like a light globe, only a little bigger. It's more than 1 km circumference. Hence it's often more convenient to take one of the tricycles parked around the ring. They are also useful for killing time in between sample changes.

Before & After

Dave is our high pressure whiz from Stonybrook, Long Island. As the sole person with diamond anvel cell experience, he has the privilege of adjusting ALL the sample pressures - every 30-120 min for 6 days. Luck boy!

American Dining Experiences

Starbucks' gingerbread latte. All you can eat buffet.

Now all Starbucks needs to work on is their coffee flavoured latte.

Under Pressure

I've decided that high pressure diffraction experiments with diamond anvil cells (DACs) are very fiddly (which is apparently a word only used by the English and Aussies). Tiny diamonds, with tiny faces, holding a thin foil, with a smaller hole and 2 grains of sample in the hole. Fiddly.
We have 4 DACs in use. The are called Bass, Leffe, Stella and Emmett. Bass is named in honour of our beverage for the evening.

Dinner at Bobak's

Apparently dinner at Bobak's is a standard for any synchrotron experiment. Its Polish food just like Pete's (left) grandma used to make. Sytle and Mark are PhD students from John Parise's group at Stonybrook, Long Island.

Control Room

The average synchrotron user rarely considers the efforts required to deliver their beautiful stable x-ray beam - until it breaks. Yesterday evening we were able to witness first hand the birth of the synchrotron beam from behind the driver's seat in the main control room. Stephen (Milton) showed us the complex series of magnets and gizmos that take electrons from a cathode, like the one in a television, and accelerates them up to close to the speed of light.

Meeting the Consul-General

This morning the Australian Consul-General, David Glass, and Deputy Consul-General, Melissa Stenfors, came to visit our little gathering of Aussie scientists at the APS. Dave (Cookson) did a fantastic job of conveying synchrotron science to the non-scientists - the x-ray 'white' beam is a death-ray and we collect data with x-ray cameras. After the tour we all smiled on cue for the camera in front of some highly complex experimental equipment so hopefully I can add some pics of the occasion.

Blue Man Group

The Blue Man Group performance was an eclectic mixture of percussive music and performance theater - 5 stars.

Sigh...

"In a parallel universe near ours, everyone reads books, scientists are treated and paid as we do sport and rock stars and beer is not sold on thirty can value packs."
- above the bar at the Maple Tree Inn

Nano-Lego

Found this while trying not to write a research proposal.
And here is an old favourite in the same theme.

Russians Play Russians

Last night I went to the Chicago Symphony to see the St Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra with Matt who is also a classical music fan. They played the Prokofiev 'Classical' Symphony, the first Shostakovich Cello Concerto and Tchaikovsky's Pathetique which premiered days before his lethal encounter with a glass of water (cholera infested). The orchestra hall was nice and intimate, but the acoustics could have been better at high altitudes where they seat students and other undesirables.
NB. To anyone who knows that I really should have been working on a research proposal instead of going to concerts - please disregard this post.

Beam alignment for Beginners

I'd better learn fast - they want me to be beamline support for the next Australian user in 2 weeks. Watch out Nigel!

Someone else published my PhD

Qantas Loyalty Pays Dividends

All my years as a loyal frequent flyer have finally paid off. This just landed in my email inbox.

"As a valued Qantas Frequent Flyer, I have great pleasure in inviting you and a guest to the Australian Chamber Orchestra's Baroque Master's tour, on Saturday 20 November 2004, at the City Recital Hall, Angel Place."

This is just my cup of tea, but of course I won't get home until mid-December - flying Qantas.

American Gothic

Iowa Matt at the Art Institute of Chicago

Cruisin' Chicago

This sunny Saturday, Mathias and I took the 90 min river tour run by the Chicago Architectural Foundation. Chicago is an architectural Mecca and the birthplace of the skyscraper, which evolved as the city was being rebuilt after being virtually destroyed in the Great Fire of 1871. I now understand the finer points of contextualism, neoclassicalism and the art deco style.


We ended up in Millenium park where they have "The Bean", a reflective sculpture shaped like a red blood cell.

LIVESTRONG

These yellow rubber bands are the huge craze in the US and are part of a fundraising effort for cancer research by multiple Tour de France winner Lance Armstrong. He survived testicular cancer after being treated with a cis-platinin compound. Cis-platinin is the only drug which during initial testing on terminal/end stage patients actually produced a full recovery. Anyway, join Lance's peleton and wear yellow.

Lurking in the Basement

I'm escaping Argonne again this weekend to stay with Sandra and Stephen.

Friday night was the neighbourhood wine tasting when everyone stocks up for the upcoming holiday season. We managed to sample a fair portion of the 70 wines on offer, starting from the most expensive French (and Australian) imports and working backwards from there. Not a bad way to spend an evening! Of course, this neighbourhood is supposed to be 'dry', so our drinking had to be confined to the basement of the local Catholic church.

The Inner APS

I've just returned from the heart of the APS and my tour of the RF (radio frequency) systems. The RF cavities are like the Gatorade stations of the synchrotron ring. The little electrons are wizzing around at close to the speed of light and are continually being drained of energy (ie. the x-rays we like to use in experiments). The RF cavity gives the electrons the little boost they need to keep going.

Sondre Lerche@Double Doors

Last night's adventure involved a concert in downtown Wicker Park with Mathias and Matt (PhD accelerator physicist from the Iowa cornfields). Sondre Lerche, a Norweigian singer/songwriter, was performing. I didn't know him from a bar of soap, but I think Bernt had heard of him (judging from his facial expression when invited to join us).

Jack O' Lanterns

In the true Halloween spirit, Mathias (a beam physicist from Sweden) and I got elbow deep in pumpkin guts, and tried our hands at carving Jack O'Lanterns. Mathias carved the dragon-cat combo and mine is the one that looks like it was electrocuted. The buck toothed pumpkin belongs to Stephen, Sandra's husband. Nothing was wasted with pumpkin innards turned into roasted pumpkin seeds and soup.

After distributing candy to the hoards of trick-or-treaters we went to dinner to celebrate Stephen's birthday, then on to the Map room for a quick pint.

Looping the loop in the Diamond Star

The wind died down for just long enough on Sunday for Stephen and Sandra to take Mathias and I flying in the Diamond Star. Starting at Schaumburg airfield (which is almost as far west as Alaska), we headed east and circled the APS before going up the lakefront. From 2000 feet you can recognise a lot of things like the elephants in Lincoln Park Zoo and tourists on Segway tours.