friend, well, now they’re the nuclear physicist’s greatest gift. They are unparalleled in their transmission of heat and light, and are virtually indestructible. Our friends down under at Australia’s Macquarie University found that their optical properties far surpassed anything else at the unique wavelengths required for high-powered laser technology. And red was best, because it allowed a pure beam without all of white light’s additional, fractious particles.’
Hands went up around the room — where was it found? Is it expensive? Is it here? Can we see it?
Harper waved the hands down. ‘For a start, we didn’t find it, we grew it. Took over a year to create this single, three-inch structure via chemical vapour deposition — the result, after cutting and polishing — a lens of perfect, consistent clarity. And, at US ten million dollars, it was a fraction of the cost of using a natural diamond. Not that you’d be lucky enough to ever find one like it.’
Harper looked at the image of the red diamond for a few seconds, the red glow reflecting on his shiny face as well as an expression that was a mix of pride and adoration. ‘Yes, we’ve come a long way.’
He lifted one arm theatrically to motion towards the screen. ‘To where we are today.’ Pictures of rolling green fields and forested countryside were displayed against a backing soundtrack of birdsong and soft music. It faded out, dream-like, to be replaced by images of the massive Tevatron collider.
The view shot into the sky, and panoramic pictures from miles overhead showed the size and scale of the gigantic Fermilab project. The physicist recited his lines with great enthusiasm — the world’s second most powerful proton-antiproton collider — four miles in diameter, but able to send particles around its gigantic ring at 99.999 per cent of the speed of light, completing the four-mile trip nearly 50,000 times per second. The objective was to smash those particles together at a rate of almost two million collisions each second.
Arn nodded in the dark, scribbling notes without looking down at the page. Cool, he thought. He turned his head to the left and saw the presentation screen reflected in Edward’s glasses — tiny copies of the Tevatron in each of the lenses. He smiled — his friend’s face was rapt with awe. Turning slowly to his right, he saw that the light made Becky look even prettier. Again, he wished he could think of something cool or funny to say, but gave up in case he sounded like a jerk… again.
He slowly eased back in his seat, and snuck a look over his shoulder to where Barkin and his friends were seated. Huddled together, their faces were also lit up, but by something Barkin was holding on his lap — a portable PC game, probably. Grades are gonna be looking good again this year, Stevo, Arn thought and chuckled softly.
Arn turned in his seat, happy that he wasn’t the focus of the dimwit’s attention for at least a few moments, just as a new image appeared up on the large screen, and Dr. Harper was moving into presentation wrap-up mode.
The new pictures were of the void of space and distant galaxies, and Harper was talking about the connection between physics and astrophysics, and how their project would assist in solving the mysteries of dark matter throughout the universe.
A crude drawing was attached to the lower corner of the image — a rough cartoon, but its point was clear. Darth Vader was holding up a lightsaber next to some crudely scrawled words: ‘The dark side controls the universe — dark matter holds it together — and dark energy determines your destiny.’
‘Dark energy determines your destiny’ — good quote, Arn thought, as the lights came up.
The student group was herded from the amphitheatre and down a long corridor, before being shown to a set of large steel doors. Behind them, heavy clanking and whirring could be heard until the giant doors slid back to reveal a grey service elevator large enough to fit ten elephants — or twenty boisterous teenage students — with ease.
Arn and Edward stayed near the front, and Becky stood to the side, chatting animatedly with her friends. As the doors slid shut, from the rear came the familiar voice of Steve Barkin: ‘Smells like a thousand butt cracks in here’ — followed by the nasal sniggering of his close friend, Otis Renshaw.
Arn tried to stop himself, but couldn’t resist. ‘Only you would know what that smelled like, Barkin.’
The lift erupted in laughter. Even Becky covered her mouth to hide a laugh and Beescomb scowled from under his brows, but didn’t say a word. Beside him, Edward rolled his eyes, before shooting Arn a clear you are really asking for it kind of expression.
The lift continued down for another few seconds, and Arn noticed that Becky had moved a little closer to him in the crowd. Hmm, he pondered — insults, the way to a girl’s heart.
Steve Barkin felt his face burn. He watched Becky smile and mouth something to Arn, which he bet was about him. The guy was making him look like an ass in front of his friends, his former girlfriend, and the entire freakin’ class.
He couldn’t believe it. If she ever dated Singer, Barkin would be a laughing stock. Becky Matthews and the redskin? That… was… not… going… to… happen.
Before this trip was over, he’d have to think of a way to take him down a peg or two.
Like the Pied Piper, Dr. Harper led them to the Tevatron control room. Beescomb was content to bring up the rear to ensure no solo explorations took place. After being ushered through another door, Arn’s expectations soared. He was amazed by the sheer number of screens and monitors that completely covered three of the four walls in the near freezing, barn-sized room.
The core of the Tevatron, the entire ring, the collision points, the magnetic resonance fields — everything was being scrutinised by both human and electronic eyes that missed nothing. Several technicians continued to tap away at recessed keyboards, or stared intently at graphs, calibrations and rows of numbers scrolling down their screens — but none turned, or even acknowledged the college party in any way. Just as Arn was thinking they were probably bored by the continual parade of tour groups, Harper spoke up softly from the back of the room.
‘Excuse the technicians. The new laser acceleration will be test-firing this morning, and as you would expect, it has created a lot of excitement and anticipation. Also, each firing has a considerable dollar cost associated with it, not to mention months of planning and preparation. So the teams are all pretty focused. Perhaps we can chat to them after the firing, and they can tell us about their results. Okay?’
A few shrugs and bored looks didn’t daunt the bookish scientist, and he continued to point out different areas of the room and their team members, and talk a little more about the role of each section.
Arn and Edward were at the front, and craned their necks when Harper described to the group where each of the collisions would take place. He finished by telling them that, though they would be observing the test-firing from here, he was also going to take them down to the lowest level where the collider ring was housed — to the actual collision ground zero. Arn heard his friend breathe the word awesommme as they were escorted from the control room.
They went down in the enormous lift once again. This time when the giant elevator doors slid back they revealed a cavernous room the size of an aircraft hangar, complete with high roof, fortified concrete walls, and little else except for a set of steel doors at the end. They reminded Arn of the type you see on a submarine.
Harper looked briefly at his watch and then called everyone together. He leaned towards Beescomb and said something softly that caused the teacher to nod and fall in behind the group, perhaps to ensure that no stragglers wandered off. For his part, Beescomb was beaming. The most enthusiastic kid in the group, thought Arn.
While he talked, Harper led everyone towards one of the submarine doors at the far end of the cavernous chamber. Once Beescomb had corralled everyone in a huddle behind Harper, the Fermilab physicist entered some codes into a small silver keypad, waited until a row of red lights turned green, spun the wheel on the door, and then pushed it inwards.
The strange smell was the first impression Arn had of the shaft — metallic, sharp… reminding him of a short circuit or a smell he encountered once during a plasma discharge display at a science fair. Ozone, sprang to his mind.
Arn looked one way, then the other — the tunnel stretched away in both directions. Lit to a surgical brightness, it only disappeared as it bent into the start of its four-mile loop, hundreds of feet further away.
Harper stood like a showman, with his hands on his hips and a proud smile on his face. ‘The Tevatron’s particle collision track…’ He opened his arms wide, flat hands pointed in each direction of the tunnel. ‘… Runs like this, nearly uninterrupted for miles. I say nearly because the only stop is the collision point where we monitor what happens when we smash the particles together.’
