July 15, 2007

Over 700 Visitors Drawn to NSLS Summer Sunday for Demos, Tours

More than 700 community members flocked to the NSLS Summer Sunday on July 15, 2007, to learn about everything from spectroscopy to space dust.

For seven consecutive Sundays each summer, the Brookhaven National Laboratory Summer Sunday program invites the public to see the popular Whiz-Bang Science Show and showcases a different BNL facility every week.

Summer Sunday visitors explore the hands-on displays set up in the NSLS lobby

Visitors who came to the NSLS-designated event began their tours in Berkner Hall, where NSLS staff members Andrew Ackerman, Nick Gmur, Steve Kramer, and Gary Weiner explained the concept of a light source and gave more detailed information about the facility and its research goals. Visitors then took a quick bus ride to the NSLS, where they filled the lobby, seminar room, and front patio to investigate 14 hands-on displays about the inner workings of the light source and the science performed there. Learning about science topics ranging from diffraction to crystallography, the NSLS guests floated from display to display, asking questions and collecting some goodies along the way.

At the newest Summer Sunday display, "Hear the Light," visitors learned from Jeff Keister (SFA, Inc.) that by changing the intensity of light at audio frequencies, they can generate a light signal that contains sound information. Following the sound of high-pitched garbles, low hums, and melodic scales, guests were drawn to this table in the lobby where record-sized spinning patterns were used to change the intensity of light from a laser pointer.

In the Seminar Room, at the crowd’s long-time favorite display, "Sounds of Silence," participants discovered the power of vacuum by watching it silence a ringing bell, expand a deflated balloon, and shrivel chicken- and bunny-shaped Marshmallow Peeps. The children also discovered that, thankfully, the experiment didn’t change the treat’s taste.

Outside, visitors watched the effect of liquid nitrogen on magnets, balloons, and a spinning sprinkler, tested miniature cars that run on solar and fuel cells, and looked up at the sky for a water-rocket launch held two times per hour.

For the first time in recent years, a series of general science lectures also were offered to guests on topics ranging from "Drug Discovery with Synchrotron Light" to "Extraterrestrials at the NSLS: Using Synchrotrons to Study Space Rocks." Lecturers included Marc Allaire, Abdel Isakovic, Tony Lanzirotti, Lisa Miller, and Vivian Stojanoff. NSLS staff members Steve Bennett, John Dabrowski, Larry Fareira, Susila Ramamoorthy, and Ray Raynis also pointed out various components of the light source to visitors from the lobby viewing windows, using large neon numbers as reference points.

Upon entering the building, each guest received a quiz with questions that could be answered by visiting each display, such as "When you put a balloon in liquid nitrogen, what happens?" and "What is the function of a grating in a monochromator?" Every finished quiz was handed in and redeemed for an NSLS three-sided highlighter. In addition, two people were selected raffle-style every half hour to receive one of two prizes – a BNL T-shirt or a tour of the experimental floor for themselves and their accompanying family or group. Because of last year’s large demand, the number of tours was expanded to 20 for this year’s event, providing almost 200 visitors with an up-close look at the facility’s control room, beamlines, hutches, and researchers.

The rest of the more than 65 NSLS volunteers that made the event possible included: Derrek Anderson, Imke Bodendiek, Al Borrelli, Gabriella Carini, Shu Cheung, Alain Domingo, Angelo Dragone, Steve Ehrlich, Matt Engel, Erica Palma, Ingo Flege, Jamel Gray, Madeline Hughes, Steve Hulbert, Terrell Johnson, Teresa Kao, Syed Khalid, Bob Kiss, Tony Kuczewski, Andreana Leskovjan, George Mahler, Sean McCorkle, Haiding Mo, Kathy Nasta, Femi Otelaja, Kumi Pandya, Simone Park, Kathy Robinson, Meghan Ruppel, Cecilia Sanchez-Hanke, Pete Siddons, Randy Smith, Kendra Snyder, Adele Wang, Glenn Werneburg, Marty Woodle, Nancye Wright, Zhong Zhong, and numerous NSLS family members and friends.

RELATED LINKS: Additional Photos

ARTICLE BY: Kendra Snyder