Security tight, not to mention hungry

Sanford Lab director Dr. Jose Alonso was greeted by this squad of guards Sunday at the Yates admin building. The Thursday-Friday blizzard had dumped up to 50 inches of snow in the nothern Black Hills, so any patch of green looked yummy to these guys. They did move, after Dr. Alonso snapped this camera-phone photo, but only reluctantly.

The heavy, wet snowstorm knocked out power throughout the Northern Hills and northwestern South Dakota. The Yates admin building was briefly without power Thursday. However, it’s worth noting that power was never interrupted to either the Yates or the Ross hoists, each of which has its own substation. Either substation can run both hoists. Power to the Homestake mine — and now to the Sanford Underground Lab at Homestake — is redundant and robust.

And the lawn is delicious.

Astrophysicist Dr. Hitoshi Murayama of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
gets a surprise gift from Dr. Jose Alonso, director of the Sanford Underground
Laboratory at Homestake, after Dr. Murayam’s talk in Rapid City.

By Bill Harlan
Sanford Underground Lab public information officer

Public outreach already has begun for the NSF’s proposed Deep Underground Science and Engineering Laboratory at Homestake. More than 600 people attended the “Deep science for everyone” public lecture series held in three Black Hills communities in conjunction with the DUSEL Workshop April 21-26 here in Lead, S.D. The hour-long talks were followed by question-and-answer sessions, and each time we had to gently pull the speakers away. Deep science is a popular topic in the Black Hills.

Some attendance figures for the 7 p.m. talks:

• Lead-Deadwood High School in Lead, Tuesday, April 22: 225
• Black Hills State University; Thursday, April 24: 175
• S.D. School of Mines & Technology; Friday, April 25: 270

An aside: We think the Friday night lecture in Rapid City out drew the 7 p.m. showing of “National Treasure II,” which was filmed here in the Black Hills. (Dr. Hitoshi Murayama, call your agent.)

Dr. Tullis Onstott of Princeton University wonders what Sanford Lab
director Dr. Jose Alonso has just given him.

Geoscientists Dr. Tullis Onstott of Princeton University spoke at Lead High School Auditorium about finding life in extreme environments, such as deep underground. Dr. Onstott suggested that scientists working 8,000 feet underground at Homestake — at the bottom of the mine — could drill down to 16,000 feet to look for exotic but hardy life forms.

Dr. Bob Svoboda admires a Homestake gold mine core sample presented
by Dave Snyder, executive director of the South Dakota Science
and Technology Authority.

At Black Hills State University, Dr. Bob Svoboda, a physicist at the University of California at Davis, talked about using deep labs to search for exotic substances such as dark matter. Dr. Svoboda and his colleagues in the LUX dark matter experiment hope to use the Ray Davis Cavern 4,850 feet underground at Homestake to do just that. After his presentation, BHSU student Mallory Wilde buttonholed Dr. Svoboda to thank him for inspiring her. Later she called the Sanford Lab to ask, “How can I get involved in one of these experiments.”

Dr. Hitoshi Murayama, a physicist from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, spoke to a full house in a large lecture hall at the South Dakota School of Mines & Technology in Rapid City. He explained how a deep lab such as a DUSEL at Homestake could push the frontiers of astrophysics. After his formal Q&A session he continued the discussion with science fans ranging in age from middle school to Medicare-ready.

Dr. Gaetan Borgonie of Ghent University in Belgium was among
scientists who hiked the 300 level of the Sanford Underground
Laboratory at Homestake during the DUSEL Workshop.

By Bill Harlan
Public Information Officer
The Sanford Underground Laboratory at Homestake

Last week’s workshop here in Lead, S.D.,  exceeded expectations. The purpose was to plan the “initial suite of experiments” for the National Science Foundation’s proposed Deep Underground Science and Engineering Laboratory at Homestake. Organizers of the Homestake DUSEL Collaboration expected about 200 scientists, engineers, educators and administrators. More than 350 participants registered for the DUSEL Workshop, which was April 21-26.

Participants also were briefed on progress at the Sanford Lab at Homestake — a sort of interim DUSEL that is paving the way for the big NSF project. Click on “more” for more photos, observations and snippets.

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