-r3in^ Po+ I nT Kft *ltin the SLAC CommunityI II I sI Ine r at August 1999, Vol. 1,0 No. 8

Education Program Studies Cosmic RaysTO the SLACn you've seenector, but youactly why thewhat it does.he instrumentom teachercted over the:heorist Helense workshops,d and Donwith Crystal

John Venuti,hapiro, and,e teacher Ericed a compact:or that could.al cost for usehanks to their

enjoyment of

staff and visitors.This summer, Quinn, Langeveld and McShurley are working with Joan Fu, from Los Angeles Harbor

Community College, to move a step further in the use of the cosmic ray detector via a web camera. They are

developing classroom exercises on cosmic rays to be posted on web pages. Programmer Ken Lai is working on the

graphical interface for the pages. Once the pages are developed, teachers and students will be able to access the

SLAC detector and perform a variety of experiments.One simple experiment is recognizing that cosmic rays exist and they are only one of the ways that people

are exposed to background radiation. Another experiment has to do with how we conduct research. Students will

be asked to look at the reliability and accuracy of data, what can be trusted, what equipment effects there might

be, or what other factors might be influencing the data. A third exercise makes plausible that relativity theory

is needed to explain the results.

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Annual Soccer Match Ends in TieTHE ANNUAL SOCCER MATCH held July 12 between the SLACSoccer Club (green shirts) and the SLAC Summer Institute (whiteshirts) might not have been the World Cup, but there was stillplenty of drama as the two teams battled to a tie finish. There wasa large turn out for both teams - around 24 players per side, whichmeant lots of substitutions during the game. Fans for both sideswere on hand to cheer the teams on in a great soccer match.

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outcome was just as blurred as this photo. After a 3 - 1 lead by the SSIat halftime, the teams battled to a 5-5 tie by game's end.

Being MindfulA FREQUENT STRESS-REDUCINGtechnique taught by health professionals isto be "mindful" of what you are doing at themoment - eating, walking, breathing...inaddition to lifting, loading, or climbing. Thisreminder to slow down and be aware of youractions applies both at home and at work tomake you more safe and healthy in yourenvironment.

The next time you begin a differentactivity than what you have just been doing,stop for 10 seconds (that's not long) andthink to yourself: what am I about to do andwhat are the possible hazards? If it's walkingto the cafeteria, know where your feet are onthe uneven path. If it's climbing a ladder todo maintenance work, follow the three-pointrule (2 hands/i foot or 2 feet/i hand onladder at all times) and keep focused onyour goal.

As human databases, we process a hugeamount of information each day and canbecome distracted by our surroundings, to apoint where we are endangering ourselvesor others with no intention of doing so. Beingmindful doesn't have to mean being "onguard" in a muscle-tensing way, especially

you allow enough time for tasks at homer at work. Think of it as a partnership withour senses!

Suggestions on how to be safer at workan be passed on to your Operating Safetyommittee representative or to me directlyext. 3603 or dabney@slac.stanford.edu.) Theext TIP column will list any safety hintsrhich have been received, and we'll all ben our way toward better mindfulness!

-Janice DabneyChair, Operating Safety Committee

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Work Safe, Work Smart

There have been no injuries involvingdays away from work since the lastreported claim on 6/7/99 accordingto Sharon Haynes, Worker'sCompensation Coordinator. Thenumber of calendar days between thatincident and the date of 7/15/99 is 38days. SLAC's record number of daysbetween claims remains at 150 days.

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Cosmic Rays(Continued)

Cosmic rays are called cosmic because they come fromsomewhere out in the cosmos, not our own solar system andprobably not even our own galaxy. The "primary" cosmicrays - the ones arriving at the top of the atmosphere fromouter space are very high-energy particles, most oftenprotons. They have a range of energies that extends up tomany trillion electron volts (TeV).

These particles interact strongly so they scatter off thenuclei of atoms in the upper atmosphere. In these high-energy collisions many secondary particles are produced,including lots of high-energy pions which also interact andmake more pions. All the pions eventually decay making thehigh-energy muons. Only a small fraction of the muonsreach the earth's surface, because most decay in flight. Athigher altitudes there are more muons, because fewer havedecayed as they have had less travel time to the high altitudethan to sea level.

High-energy cosmic rays should not be confused withthe constant bombardment that the earth's atmospherereceives from low-energy radiation in the form of what iscalled the solar wind. Solar wind consists of protons andelectrons from the sun. It causes such phenomena as theAurora Borealis and may cause radio interference on earth,and can sometimes damage communications satellites. Solarwind doesn't reach the earth's surface because it is deflectedby the earth's magnetic field, and also because its energy istoo low to penetrate the atmosphere. Through the mechanismdescribed above, muons produced from high-energy cosmicrays do reach the earth's surface, but fortunately there arenot too many of them: about one goes through an area thesize of your fingernail each minute.

-Helen Quinn and Willy Langeveld

The Good SamaritanIT WAS A DARK and stormy night ...... no, wait-that'sanother story. But, it was dark when EFD's Wanda Elliottfound herself stranded on the side of Hwy 101 at 4:45 AM inthat cold, lonely stretch between Salinas and Gilroy (nearthe Red Barn between Prunedale and Aromas, but not neara phone). Thank goodness BSD's Joan Hennes, who alsolives in the hinterlands of Salinas, glanced at the strandedmotorist on her way to the train station at around 6:30AM.After convincing herself it really was Wanda, she went backto give assistance, which meant driving to a phone andwaiting until the tow truck showed up. Just a flat tire, but ifnot for Joan's act of kindness, it could easily have been amuch bigger problem for Wanda. It's nice to know thatSLACers look out for each other, even when not at work!And, yes, Wanda now has a cell phone.

-Perry Anthony

New Tech Pubs Head

LATE IN JUNE, PATTIE Myers joined the ResearchDivision's Technical Information Services as thenew head of Technical Publications. Myers bringsto SLAC a strong publishing and managerialbackground encompassing over 20 years withnotable textbook and trade houses, includingHarcourt, Brace Jovanovich, Random House,McGraw-Hill, Addison-Wesley Longman andSierra Magazine. At these publishing houses,Myers managed the technical publications processaimed at the advanced researcher, including booksin the fields of biology, engineering and foreignlanguages. Myers has also been active in theprofessional organizations of Bookbuilders Westand the California Academy of Sciences.

Myers spent her first few weeks at SLACbecoming familiar with the strengths and skills ofthe Technical Publications staff and the needs ofSLAC authors. Myers is delighted with the highstandards of the team. She knows that animportant task is to effectively position the groupto continue meeting the needs of the SLACauthoring community, in the face of the rapidlychanging publishing environment. That meanskeeping pace with advances in software, authoringneeds, and appropriate delivery systems. "TechPubs must remain a resource and informationconduit supporting flexible, new approaches todisseminating information to the intendedaudiences," says Myers. One of her initialpriorities here at SLAC will be researching thedelivery of pristine math to the Web. "Thetechnology is here and is successfully beingimplemented." Drop by her office (Room G200,second floor, Central Lab building) to introduceyourself.

-Ann Redfield

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Arsella Raman Retires

SERIALS LIBRARIAN,ARSELLA RAMAN, a28-year veteran ofSLAC, retired at theend of July. We will allmiss her serene,competent and uniquepresence. There is abittersweet feeling ofsadness for us (buthappiness for her) asArsella will now have

the leisure to spend more time with her family andconcentrate on all of her many outside interests.

Arsella is a native of Norway, where she got herdegree at the National Library School of Norway.She's been at the Library since 1970 and has beenSerials Librarian since 1975. Arsella was responsiblefor the acquisition and monitoring of over 600 journaltitles. During her tenure at SLAC, Arsella designedthe Serials online database, was an expert in SPIRES,wrote articles for the SLAC Beamline, and quietlybecame an indispensable member of the library staff,all while working part-time. Arsella was also backupReference Librarian and helped many patrons find

their way to HEP preprints, decipher obscure journalcitations, locate just the right IEEE Standard andnavigate Stanford University's online databases. Herfluency in Norwegian, Danish, Swedish, German andFrench was invaluable in processing internationalmaterials.

Arsella is also widely known for her devotion tothe local Wildlife Rescue Chapter, her specialty caringfor orphaned baby mourning doves. These tiny birdshave to be fed every two hours, so the rest of the staffwere used to hearing them cheep and peep whenhungry-in fact, when the Library first started usingthe barcode reader in Circulation, we all thoughtArsella had the baby mourning doves in again! Sheand her husband have also taken several weeks out oftheir normal lives and helped build houses for Habitatfor Humanity in Oklahoma and Texas.

We expect the Ramans will enjoy retirementwith plenty of time to travel--from visiting their fourchildren and seven grandchildren in California,Washington and Oklahoma to more exotic trips. Inthe past, Arsella has traveled to the Galapagos Islands,India, and various destinations in Europe-includinga bicycle tour of Holland. We wish her the very bestin the next chapter of her life.

-Ann Redfield

The Interaction Point© 1999, is published by Stanford Linear Accelerator Center. Editor-in-chief, P.A. Moore; Production Editor, Vickee Flynn. Deadline forarticles is the first of every month. Items are published on a space-available basis and are subject to edit. Submissions may be sent electronically totip@slac.stanford.edu or by SLAC ID mail to TIP, MS 20. Phone 926-4208.

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SLAC Welccome Page and NetscapeAs th "'It-s f eat y ourt if NAs they say, "It's a feature, not a bug," but if you are using Netscape and you resize the welcome page

(www. islac. stanfobrd. edu) you may end up with a blank page. The cause of this "feature" is the fixedwidthitable structure used to format the page. If you experience this problem, just select "reload" on yourbrowser :a:eirnd the page :will reappear. The design of the top level SLAC pages will soon be changing, andI promise this problem will be fixed.

InterLab 99 Conference at SLACMark your calendars! The InterLab '99 Workshop will be held on November 3-5 at SLAC. The

workshop :focuses on technical and management issues relating to developing and applying Internetresources in the epartment of Energy National Laboratories and related facilities, as well as on thecooperatiae development and sharing of these resources. This year a special XML tutorial will be offeredon the afternoon of November 2. The themes this year will be "Searching and Knowledge Management"and "Tools for Site Management, Authoring, and Collaboration." Keep an eye on the website for moreinformation (www-proj ect . s lac . stanf ord. edu/ interlab 9 /).

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