Today was an above-ground day at the surface labs. The first bit of the morning was more on the importance of Chemists to the physics experiments.
Then we were off to see what Ken Clarke was doing for the day. Ken works on the PICO experiment and we were able to watch him, Tony, Karston and a grad student work on their prototype. They worked on the construction for a long time -- but today, they were taking the whole thing apart. The reason for this is that after this disassembly, they will re-assemble everything while recording the best step by step procedure to build the real thing. I was told that they will do this a number of times, until they feel they have it perfected enough to proceed with the real experimental structure. This apparatus is going to be a bubble chamber used to detect dark matter.
Notice how they plan, discuss and argue over the best way to do things. So much actual science is the brainstorming, creative thinking and problem solving. Also note the fancy outfits and gloves. Even though this is on the surface, it is a clean assembly room. And by clean, we mean super super clean!!
This is the cover and the base that will eventually go over the glass structure:
The afternoon was spent at Science North -- one of the biggest Science Centers in Canada. I had fun on the biology side of things as well. This great big insect has some of the greatest evolutionary adaptations of camouflage I have ever seen. (I was a little freaked out by him, but then got a bit more comfortable -- us northern climate people are not too used to BIG BUGS!!)
Close-up of a fly through a super cool microscope.
This is a rhinoceros beetle. It was HUGE!!
Did you know that 80% of the world's population eats insects as a source of protein? Here I am joining the rest of the world, eating a chili-lime cricket for the first time.
It was actually so GOOD that I had a second one!! Super snack time!!
The coolest thing was the butterfly dwelling. A couple of them landed on me for a few seconds here and there. We need one of these in our school -- it was amazingly peaceful and relaxing.
Other things that I saw included a very large snail, a real skeleton of a whale and a porcupine in a tree.
At the Physics display -- I risked my life on a bed of nails:
On the way out of Science North, I was sure to take some pictures of how the building is built right into the rock of the Canadian Shield.
Overall it was another incredible day. I'm looking forward to going sub-surface tomorrow and Thursday!
People we spoke to that day:
Dr. Ken Clark, CPARC Research Scientist
Dr. Tony Noble, Queen's University, CPARC Director
Dr. Carsten Krauss, University of Alberta
Dr. Usman Chowdhury, Post Doc at Queens University
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