Argonne National Laboratory Open House 2009

[ZapperZ]

Argonne National Laboratory, the first US National Laboratory, will be having its Open House on Saturday, August 29, 2009. The hours will be from 9:00 am to 4:30 pm. Practically all the divisions within the lab will be opening its doors for the public not only to view and see some of the research work being done, but also to talk to scientists and engineers that are involved in these projects. There will also be many interactive exhibits and other fun activities for the entire family.

More info can be found at this website:

http://www.anl.gov/Community_and_Environment/Open_House.html

This is only the 2nd Open House held since 9/11. The last Open House was in 2006 and was attended by close to 20,000 people. This one promises to be even bigger and better.

Zz.

 

[Topher925]

Wow, I didn't know NLs did this. Isn't there a bit of an issue with security?

 

[ZapperZ]

Wow, I didn't know NLs did this. Isn't there a bit of an issue with security?

Not all NL do this. Do you hear Los Alamos or Sandia doing an Open House? :)

There are security measures being instituted, so don't you worry.

Zz.

 

[junglebeast]

Keep a look out for the albino deer and glow in the dark tree :)

 

[Born2bwire]

I know this is old news, but I am interested if anyone here went. I worked a summer at APS myself and at CMT a previous summer. I have been to open houses at Fermi Lab and thoroughly enjoyed them so I would like to know people's impressions of the ANL Open House.

 

[ZapperZ]

We had record turnout. The official count was 22,000, which broke the "almost 20,000" from 2006.

It is safe to say that practically every facility that was opened was overwhelmed by the huge number of visitors. We heard many visitors telling us that we should do this over the weekend, since one day alone would not be enough to see everything.

It was a tremendous success. But I'm not sure if any PF'ers got go to.

Zz.

 

[waht]

It was a tremendous success. But I'm not sure if any PF'ers got go to.

I wanted to go there, but had to go to work. I live like 45 min from the lab. Is there any possibility it will be open next year? or in two years again?

 

[ZapperZ]

I wanted to go there, but had to go to work. I live like 45 min from the lab. Is there any possibility it will be open next year? or in two years again?

We don't know. So far, there has been no commitment one way or the other about the Open House next year.

Here is the Voice of America coverage of the Open House. Towards the end of the video, you'll see the lab's resident glass blower showing a demo of some of the amazing glass vessels that he had to make for various research group. His demo was scheduled to be done 3 times that day at three different times. But with the huge crowds and such high demands, he had to add 2 more demonstration session.

35a8T_aa-Fw[/youtube] Zz.

 

[Sorry!]

I assume you work there Zap?

That's pretty awesome though, I've always wanted to go through a lab like that to see how things happen if it's like the movies. But I'm all the way up in Canada and idk if they have these types of things around where I live.

 

[ZapperZ]

I assume you work there Zap?

That's pretty awesome though, I've always wanted to go through a lab like that to see how things happen if it's like the movies. But I'm all the way up in Canada and idk if they have these types of things around where I live.

It is usually NOTHING like the movies. It tends to be more mundane than that! :)

What is more useful about such opportunities is that for the general public, it is one of the few chances that someone can talk directly to a scientist, or a specialist in a particular field of study, rather than rely on 2nd hand news, or learning about something through popular media. For scientists, it is our opportunity not only to try and impart to the public why what we do is important, but also to answer many of the questions, often misconceptions, that they have about a particular topic.

During this last open house, we got A LOT of questions about the LHC, since the High Energy Physics Division here is intimately involved with the ATLAS detector at the LHC. This includes, you guessed it, the question about the catastrophic black hole formation. Many physicists here welcome the chance to clearly explain the situation, and I would think, the public also welcomes getting it straight for the horses mouth, so to speak.

To me, that kind of opportunity is what is the most important, for both sides.

Zz.

 

[Astronuc]

Not all NL do this. Do you hear Los Alamos or Sandia doing an Open House? :)

They have meetings/conferences/tours by invitation only - and the numbers are quite limited - and access is very restricted as one might imagine.

 

[Topher925]

They have meetings/conferences/tours by invitation only - and the numbers are quite limited - and access is very restricted as one might imagine.

I recently attended a short course at LANL. It was rather small (a dozen or so people) and unless you were a US citizen there was a 3 month background check.

If I had the time and the money I definitely would have attended this open house.

 

[ZapperZ]

Argonne has produced their own video of the Open House. It has a wider coverage of the various exhibits than the earlier VoA video.



Zz.