Big Update
Here's what I've been up to!
SundayNot much happened Sunday. It was another relaxing day. I did a lot of IRC work, walked around campus a little (but no new pictures) and got Thai takeout for dinner (
sooooo tasty)
MondayThe first day of the experiment! The beam was supposed to come online at 4pm but it was delayed and so I waited for an e-mail from Dr. Chen to tell me when I should come in to "see the action". Unfortunately, the action was going to be well after midnight so I ended up just relaxing all day, again, because he felt sleep would be better for us than waiting for the beam.
I did get to go to the MSU Dairy though. It was
so delicious. The ice cream was
very very creamy!
TuesdayI slept in but then I spent the day in Data U-6 (where the computers controlling our experiment are). I figured I'd hang out and find out as much information as I could before my shift on Wednesday.
WednesdayMy first shift! I worked the 8am-4pm shift and it was anything but calm! We had the Germanium detecor fill during our shift. The detecors are filled automatically with liquid nitrogen to keep them at the temperature required to function, but while that is happening you have to do the CRDC Mask Callibration (two runs one with each CRDC in place). That was really interesting!
Then we noticed that the beam current was fairly low, and the operators were asking us if we wanted to retune. Since the event rate was still pretty high we decided to wait.
Then, at the end of one of the runs, our beam cut out. We got a phone call from some random person saying that a student had tried to enter the S3 vault (the vault where our experiment is) and it tripped the interlock system and cut out the beam. Then there was a resounding sound on the PA system "... call the operators at 305". They weren't too pleased with us
at all until we explained it wasn't us who tripped the system, it was some random student. So we went and secured the vault and were given back the beam.
The shift was fairly uneventful after that, other than that Benji and I got to go to the "Short meeting" and be the representations for the experiment. That was pretty cool. Then we had to give the beam back to the operators (around 2pm) because a VIP was taking a tour of the facility and they needed to replace a foil on the diamond detector.
The beam wasn't given back on our shift so we spent the rest of it just relaxing and surfing the net on our laptops =)
Labels: Michigan
Photo Update!
Today there was nothing to be done on the experiment so I just relaxed around MSU. I slept in, watched part of Rent, then when on a nice walk around campus with my camera and my ipod (playing a Clay Aiken playlist). Here's what I saw!
First I walked around the residences near Owen (where I'm staying) to see what they're like. They are huge. I didn't go inside, but it would be nice to see what they're like. After I walked on the path behind the residences for awhile and then into the Sanford Natural Area. It's a forest which goes from the residences to the river. It's gorgeous there and they have trails all over it. Here's a picture of the incredibly tall trees. It's incredibly green, and full of trees! I love trees!!!
After the forest I decided to walk on the other side of the river and check out the campus. On my way I found this hubcap! I know it's weird to take a picture of a hubcap on the sidewalk but it really reminded me of IRC and of MAC (think Committee of the Hole). Maybe it's a sign that things will go well IRC wise this year!
After seeing the hubcap I decided to sit down and just relax by the river. This was my view. It was absolutely gorgeous and a really good place to just sit and think about things. Man, I wish MAC had a river like this, although it wouldn't be as fun to sit here in the winter I bet the trees would still be gorgeous!
Just a little past my spot on the river bank was this gorgeous building. I don't know if it was a residence or a building with classrooms, but it really reminded me of Wallingford. It made me miss MAC and all my MAC friends. This building was much bigger than Wallingford, and I have to admit that the big green field around it was very nice!
While I was wandering around I saw something moving in the grass right in front of me. It was this baby bunny! I almost kicked it or stepped on it!!! It was so adorable I just wanted to pick it up! It was quite friendly too and just sat there and let me take pictures until a car came along and it went to hide in a bush. Hopefully it's with it's mommy now. It was such a small bunny!
I kept wandering and saw some gorgeous buildings (like this one) I don't really know what's
in the building, but it's pretty. I wandered around to behind the museum and tower that I visited yesterday. I took some more really pretty pictures and just sat there for awhile relaxing. It was really nice. There are
so many nice spots on this campus!
Then I decided to go to Cold Stone for ice cream again. This time I got a Watermelon Sherbet with gummy bears... Delicious. Once again they scooped out way too much ice cream. This time the girl actually had to put it in a bigger cup because it wouldn't fit in the small one! When I was eating my ice cream I saw this bench and so I decided to sit on it to finish my ice cream. The bench was tucked away in a little garden, it was really nice!
I decided it was about time to walk back to my residence when I came upon this really friendly squirrel. I stood there for a few minutes and took pictures of it. I really like this picture because it also shows a bit of campus. The squirrel didn't seem to mind that I was taking pictures, he just seemed preoccupied with eating his nut. I also love how they have statues on their campus. We don't have that at MAC!
Then I continued back along the river where I took this really pretty reflection of the trees in the water. I like it at least. I hope you do too! I also passed this rock kind of like the Guelph Cannon. It's there for people to paint over and over. I took pictures, but they aren't particularly nice, and not that important. It's a neat idea though!
Finally, I made it back to Owen Hall where I am now, relaxing. I'm really enjoying relaxing because I know once I get back to Mac it's going to be go, go, go and I may not get some free time for awhile!!!
I'm looking forward to tomorrow too, because hopefully I'll do something similar. We might go exploring Lansing as a group, but there isn't much to do.
Labels: Michigan
Fantastic Friday
This morning we met for work like yesterday, only we were told we weren't needed until the calibration runs which were going to be later that afternoon. We were given the instructions to do whatever we wanted so long as we could check our e-mail every so often to know when to get back to work...
sweet!So the three of us, the undergrads, decided go explore the campus. Fortunately, I remembered to take my camera with me! Here is a photo tour of my morning!
Football Stadium
Our first stop was at the main football stadium. It was huge! It could definitely seat more people than Ivor Wynne because in some places it had another full section or layer of seating above the one you can see in this picture! The one thing I did notice, though, was that the field seemed a lot shorter. It practically ends after the post... odd. I have lots more pictures of the stadium but I won't post them here.
After that stadium we saw another stadium with a full track, with stands and a soccer field in the middle. It was quite impressive. We also saw the swimming pool. It was outdoors and only 25m long, so I'm assuming they also have one that they use for swim meets, and for swimming throughout the year... Michigan really isn't any more south than Southern Ontario... they definitely get snow!
Spartan StatueI'd heard that the Spartan Statue was something to see so we visited it. Here's the picture looking out from behind it. Yes, I took pictures from the front but there's people who wouldn't appreciate me putting their picture on the web in them :P
This also shows the scenery around MSU, there are trees
everywhere. It's quite incredible!
Botanical Garden
Next we visited the botanical garden. It was absolutely beautiful. The whole campus is gorgeous, there's tons of space between buildings and it's filled with grass and trees and wonderful scenery, but the garden was even more spectacular. They had so many different plants and flowers (with name plates). We sat there for awhile, it was so gorgeous.
Then we found this little pond in the middle of the garden. The reflection of the trees in the pond was mesmerizing. I definitely took pictures of it! There are many more pictures of the garden on my computer!
LibraryWe decided to head to the library to check our e-mail for when we had to work and we saw this amazing painting (or picture of a painting). If you can see the bigger version you can see all the really cool details in the picture.
The guy's shirt is actually signs, most of the picture is made up of people, his entire face, behind him... it's really cool, the picture I took doesn't do it justice.
We found out we didn't have to work so we continued touring the University.
Museum
Ok, well this isn't actually a picture of the museum but a picture of the tower
close to the museum. In the museum there were some really neat exhibits. There was an exhibit on quilts and textiles made about war. It was really shocking and moving. I don't have any pictures of them, but they were really amazing. There was also an exhibit about Aids and Art in South Africa. Again, everything was really moving. There were also the typical animal, dinosaur, and history of Michigan exhibits, but they weren't as interesting.
We then had lunch, met up with Dr. Chen and then when back to the lab and started the calibration runs. It was really neat! We got to set up the sources (several times) and start the runs. It really helped me to learn how to use the DAQ and other software so I think I'm better prepared for my shifts! I'm really looking forward to helping run the experiment!!!
After work we all went out to a Thai restaurant. I thought I'd never had Thai food, but it turns out it's actually some of my favourite stuff. I had Mongolian Beef...
so tasty. Alex, if you do learn how to make that you will never be able to get rid of me!
Well, we're done work until Sunday (maybe Monday). We're meeting tomorrow, and maybe we'll go exploring around Lansing Michigan. We asked one of the guys who works at NSCL and he couldn't really suggest much to do... so we'll see! I'll make sure to take lots of picures!
Labels: Michigan
A Day at NSCL
7:20am - Get up and go for a showerThe showers are very weird in my residence. Two single rooms share one washroom. Last night I thought that the other person had locked me out of the washroom. This morning I found out that was impossible... apparently the doors
don't lock. They'll lock from the rooms, so you can keep your washroom-mate out of your room, but you can't prevent them from getting in the bathroom, even if you're using it. Fortunately the shower curtain is really opaque, and I'll just find other washrooms to go to. It's definitely an odd system!
8am - Breakfast!I went down to the cafeteria. It's really neat, and somewhat different from the ones at MAC. They have all different kinds of cereal (
in the boxes though), a place like sizzles, a salad bar, bagels, toast, english muffins, juice, etc. They have a lot of things that are really weird though. You can get just glasses of milk. It's kind of like a juice dispenser, but they have 3 different types of milk. I thought that was neat, since on campus you can only get milk in cartons. Another weird thing is that there's
squeezable and spray on margerine. I thought that was insane, and slightly gross. I tried the squeezable stuff, and it wasn't too bad, but margerine or butter just shouldn't be like that, it's not meant to be in a bottle.
9am - Safety TrainingThis was just basic, and somewhat boring. We did get a small tour of one of the vaults though. After training we got our NSCL Badges. I'll have to take a picture and upload it tonight. The picture on my pass actually looks decent! I'm impressed
10am - Tour of NSCLWe had an unofficial tour given by one of the grad students. Honestly, the place is huge and impressive. There's so much equipment and probably
millions of feet of cables (just think of how long it would take to coil all of that :P ). I don't understand how people could just invent this. It's so amazing to see. We're getting an official tour sometime early next week, so hopefully I'll be able to take some more pictures.
11am - Explanation of the Experiment
Finally, all the McMaster people sat down and Dr. Chen explained the purpose of the experiment to us. We'd all read the proposal, but it was very difficult to understand. What I know now is that we're looking at the properties of 26Si. We're looking to find what gamma rays are emmitted so that we can find the charge state, by comparing the decay pattern to that of the mirror nucleus 26Mg. Using this information the reaction rate for the production of 26Al from 26Si can be calculated. Since all of the other reaction rates leading to 26Al have been studied this is the last one. 26Al is important to Astrophysicists... I can't
really remember why, though. Hey, I know half of this is probably wrong (so definitely don't quote me), but I think I understand it more than I did before our meeting.
12pm - Lunch & Shopping
We headed to the International Marketplace (or something) for lunch. I had Chinese (tasty). Afterwards we went into the "Spartan Bookstore".
Oh my goodness, you can buy
so much Spartan stuff. Honestly, they have golf tees, chairs, inflatable pool toys, a Monopoly game, Cheerleader's outfits for children, dog bowls,
dog sweaters, mugs, flags, pennants, signs, posters, stuffed animals...
everything. I was going to buy something ridiculous for Alex, but my good judgement got the better of me, plus, they didn't really have what I was looking for :(. Oh well, I know MAC does. :D
2:30pm - Work... or Ice Cream
We thought we should head back to the lab so that we could be useful but when we got to "Dat U-6" (where our experiment's computers are) there was a note on the whiteboard: "AS, BW, JL: Ice Cream social". So instead of working we went into the Atrium for $1 bowls of ice cream. Then we were told we didn't have to be back until the calibration runs at 5pm. It was pouring, though, so I stayed in the Atrium, relaxed, and did some IRC work. The rain is really nice. It's definitely cooled down because of it. Hopefully, the rain will go away and the cool temperature will stay so that I can go around the campus and take some pictures. It really is a beautiful campus.
I really like these trips. The work is fun, you learn so much, you get to explore the campus, and everything's paid for. I think Benji was right when he said "I'm definitely going to be O.D.ing on ice cream this week". Between the "MSU Dairy" (on campus made ice cream), Cold Stone ice cream, and these "Ice Cream Socials" I'm going to be eating
tons of icecream. When I come back I may just be a ball with two stubby legs and two stubby arms attached I'll have gained so much weight from the icecream. I've had two
huge bowls of icecream in the past day... fortunately my stomach isn't hurting too much.
I'd also like to mention that I've been seeing more girls around NSCL. The ratio is probably still well over 5 males : 1 female, but that's much better than 15:1! Plus, I think there's another female on our experiment team (the name is Ana, so I'm assuming that's a girl).
5pm (now) - Done for the day
The calibration runs are being postponed since someone else wants to use the DAQ so the Mac group is done for the day :) We're just hanging out in the WiFi zone checking e-mail, and we'll head out to dinner at 6 (hopefully we'll be hungry by then... the ice cream was pretty filling).
Labels: Michigan
Michigan: Day One
Day one on my trip to Michigan State University, and NSCL (the National Superconductor Cyclotron Laboratory).
Today we met at 7:30 to drive to East Lansing, where MSU is. It took us 2 hours to get to Sarnia, then another hour to cross the border waiting in the customs line. Fortunately the very nice 2007 Toyota Camry we were driving had wonderful air conditioning. After getting to the United States we missed our turn and instead of heading towards Lansing we headed to Detroit. Fortunately, we realised this part way down the road. It all worked out, we drove just around the edge of Detroit and then back up to Lansing, and we were on time for our 2pm meeting (which we then found was bumped back to 4pm). The car ride was really nice as I drifted in and out of sleep the entire time.
Since our meeting was pushed back we decided to check into our rooms. Andrew and I are in Owen Hall, and Benji and Jun are in McDowell. These residences are
huge and the weirdest shapes I've ever seen. They look like space ships when you look at them on the map. I guess the size should surprise me because this university is
huge. There are apparently 80,000 students attending MSU, and the campus is gianormous. There are 4 lane roads (2 lanes each direction) running throughout it, and stop lights and crosswalks. My home town has a population of just over 7000 so this is well over 11 times bigger! Here's a
link to a map of the University if you're interested.
Once we were moved in Benji, Andrew, and I went for a walk. It was incredibly hot and we were melting, but the campus was so beautiful. We walked behind our residences and into the forested area on campus. It really is wonderful! I thought MAC was pretty, and it is, but MAC just can't compare to the size of MSU.
After recovering from our walk we went to the experiment meeting, where they went over a brief purpose of the experiment, and what we were doing. This made
absolutely no sense to me. The physics and terminology was way over my head. Then we went over duties on a shift, and we signed up for shifts. I'm working next Wednesday 8am-4pm, and next Friday midnight-8am. Yeah, I know... two shifts. I feel so useful, especially since I can't really
do anything on these shifts because I don't understand all the physics, or the technology. Oh well, I'm not complaining, this is a great learning experience not to mention an all expense paid trip to Michigan State. We also found out that we get $48 (USD) a day for food... sounds good to me!
After the meeting we were given a tour of the programs used to collect the data, and were briefly shown what we should be doing on a shift. Again, this made almomst no sense to me. I was soooo confused. But I don't think that
really matters because Dr. Chen looked confused too, and he told the guy that he'd need to explain it to him again. *Whew* I'm not the only person who finds all of this confusing!
Finally, it was dinner time! We decided to go to this nice restaurant called the "Beggar's Banquet". It was really neat. It consisted of three rooms. One was a bar, and very casual. The second was a dining room, yet still casual, and the third was a more formal dining room. The food was delicious! After dinner we went to "Cold Stone" ice cream shop. It's a really neat idea where you take delicious ice cream and then they will mix it with whatever toppings you want on this cold stone tablet.
Oh my goodness I have never eaten so much icecream. Dr. Chen warned us we should get the smallest size, so I did, but I was seriously wondering why. I mean, the cup was tiny. Little did I know there would be more ice cream piled over the cup edge than could fit in it. I was full by the time the ice cream was level with the top edge of the cup, but I managed to finish it (and surprisingly my stomach isn't killing me too much). I can't believe
that was a small... Americans have
very weird portion sizes.
Now I'm just relaxing. I'm in the lobby of the residence which has wireless internet access. There's an internet connection in my room, but it requires an MSU ID, which I don't have. It's also a million and two degrees in my room. Fortunately, we were able to locate a fan, so I should be able to cool down a little. Plus, it just rained (and is still rainign a bit) so hopefully it will cool down outside. That would be nice for everyone.
I should mention that there's one thing I've definitely noticed: there aren't many girls in physics. Coming from MAC where half my class is girls I found myself in a meeting with 15 people where I'm the only girl. Honestly, walking through NSCL I only saw 1 female who seemed to be doing research related work. There were secretaries, etc. but very few women involved in the physics. It's also odd because out of the 7 McMaster people dropping in to help with the experiment, I'm the only girl... odd. I'm definitely not used to it, but I'd better adjust, there's over a week more at "Oktoberfest".
Labels: Michigan
