Holifield will beam ‘magic numbers’

The Holifield Radioactive Ion Beam Facility promises to be a magnet for researchers pursuing nuclear and astrophysical studies, and an ion beam now being brought on-line is one of the reasons why.

The flourine-17 beam is of interest to astrophysicists because it is involved in producing the heavier-than-oxygen elements that occur in nature. “It will be very useful for studying the stellar explosions occurring in nova and X-ray bursters that produce these elements,” says Jerry Garrett, Holifield’s scientific director.

“Fluorine-17 has special properties for nuclear physics: a ‘magic number’ of neutrons and a ‘magic number’ of protons plus one. Oxygen-16 has eight protons and eight neutrons; as a double-closed-shell nucleus or doubly magic nucleus, it’s super stable.

“Fluorine-17 has one proton outside of that stable shell, which gives us nice properties for studying astrophysics and nuclear reactions,” Garrett says. “It’s easy to transfer that one proton.”

The only double-closed-shell nucleus with an extra proton that is stable is bismuth-209. Fluorine-17 is not stable, Garrett says, but has a lifetime of a little over one minute, which is long enough to produce a beam to work with.

Astrophysicists and experimentalists from Yale, the University of North Carolina, the Colorado School of Mines, Tennessee Tech and the National University of Mexico are working with ORNL scientists on projects that will use the fluorine-17 beam, which will be available to researchers only at the Holifield Facility.

Abstracts that aren’t so abstract

Vanderbilt University’s Rick Chappell, the most recent ORNL “Books and Beakers” speaker, described his experiences and views on why scientists and the media so often seem “worlds apart,” which is the name of a report he co-authored with former broadcaster Jim Hartz for the First Amendment Center.

While working for NASA as a commentator on space shuttle missions, he often noted that no matter how swimmingly the flight was going, the coverage always centered on what was going wrong. The reason, he says, is that “bad news sells.”

“One Associated Press reporter often controls the world’s viewpoint on a subject,” he says, “and that reporter is under pressure to be newsworthy.”

Chappell says that puts scientists in particular at a disadvantage, especially if they have trouble explaining their work to a public that often foots the bill for their research. But the science community often shares the blame, he says, for disparaging those who talk science at a public level. He cited as an example the National Academy of Sciences’ refusal to admit the late Carl Sagan, who popularized astronomy through his TV series and books.

Chappell suggested a few measures that could help scientists and journalists get more on the same wavelength. One would be for colleges to stress communications in science curricula and stress science in journalism courses.

On the other hand, scientists, he proposed, could help with measures like submitting two abstracts for journal articles: one of the conventional type and another written in layman language for the general public—“that your mother could read.”

The science-media gap can be closed, he said, noting surveys that show a healthy public interest in science and a majority of scientists who would like to take time to become better communicators.

Lab Director Al Trivelpiece (center right) and other Lab managers mingle with new employees. Photo by Curtis Boles Welcome the new Some of the fresh faces had been around for a while, but that’s because ORNL’s new employee reception on October 28 was the first that had been held in several years. ORNL Director Al Trivelpiece welcomed the new employees by explaining that, with frequent voluntary and involuntary reductions-in-force, such a reception might seem in poor taste. “But it also seems the reverse is true. You can go too long,” Trivelpiece said, recalling that he had once attended a similar event that Glenn Seaborg held at the University of California. “I still have contacts with the people I met in that room at Berkeley in 1958.” Lab managers then mingled with the new staff, which included new Wigner fellow Michael Lance, who is working in the Metals and Ceramics Division, and Carl Strawbridge, the Spallation Neutron Source project manager. Claudia Rawn, also working in M&C, gave an insight on impressions familiar Lab venues have on new folk. The ORNL Cafeteria, she said, is called “microsoft” because, as opposed to the subterranean 4500-South Canteen, it has “windows.”