Flux, issue 8 (February 2012) by National MagLab

Woolly rhino Fossil Hunt pAGE 04 Hidden MagLab tour pAGE 20

Build a Scientist! From elementary school to the lab, how you can become a scientist pAGE 16

FLUX MAGAZINE Issue 8 editor’s note

On wishes, work and pioneering science Creating a life you love

varying interests

What do a saddle, a microscope and a worm have in common? They’re all part of researcher Art Edison’s colorful life.

Wishing on a star has received plenty of good press, but it’s not how the three researchers featured in this issue made their dreams come true. For them, it took hard work, determination and scientific expertise. We hope their stories will incite you to lay the groundwork you need to make your own dreams a reality. For years, MagLab engineer Tom Painter wanted to be his own boss and run his own business. Today, his engineering skills have allowed him to do that. He’s gotten in on the ground floor of an amazing international project and is helping to create a gigantic, sci-fi worthy machine that could potentially provide energy for much of the world. Read more on page 12. MagLab geochemist Yang Wang, on the other hand, prefers expeditions to exotic places and making new discoveries. She did both recently when she joined an international team of paleontologists and journeyed to a remote basin in Tibet. Dig into her science adventure on page 4. It might surprise you to know that some scientists, such as researcher Art Edison, start out as artists. Art’s a saddlemaker turned ranch manager turned worm biochemist — who still enjoys working with leather. You can read about his colorful career path on page 18. Since we’re hoping that that one or more of these stories will get you thinking about a career in science — for yourself or someone you know — we’ve provided a blueprint of sorts in “Build a Scientist!” on page 16. There, you’ll find a description of the key characteristics of a budding scientist, as well as some of the opportunities available at the MagLab for scientists-in-training — and for their teachers, too. For inventors of all ages, we also have a special treat: a close look at the mythical perpetual motion machine, a device that has teased the minds of many innovative pioneers. If you’ve ever thought of building one, check out this story on page 2. Enjoy!

Contents magLab research

cover feature

04 Journey to Tibet MagLab scientist Yang Wang joins an expedition to unearth the oldest woolly rhino fossils ever found.

16 Build a Scientist From elementary school to the laboratory, we review how you can attain a career in science.

photo essay

02 09 11 12

Magnet Fact or Fiction Are there such things as perpetual motion machines?

Tooth Sleuth Scientists study woolly rhino teeth to learn what it ate.

18 28

Magnet Assembly

Tom Painter’s path

Just how many parts go into building a research magnet? A MagLab scientist partners with an international project.

Scientist Spotlight Q + A with Art Edison, molecular biologist at UF.

20 The Hidden MagLab Five incredible places you wouldn’t see on a regular tour of the Lab.

Data Deconstructed

How scientists obtain data from magnets, step-by-step.

what is this?

Open House Tallahassee’s MagLab welcomes 5,000 visitors February 18.

Last Look: The 97.4 T The strongest nondestructive magnet in the world.

CONNECT WITH US Find us on Facebook, Twitter & YouTube or visit magnet.fsu.edu

15 Cloudy Clues Still confused? We reveal the answer.

FLUX MAGAZINE Issue 8 magnet fact or fiction FLUX MAGAZINE

Issue 8 / winter 2012 Magnet Lab Director Gregory S. Boebinger Associate Lab Director Brian Fairhurst Director of Public Affairs Amy W. Mast Flux Editor Kathleen Laufenberg Graphic Designers Lizette Vernon Dana Robinson Rebecca Sumerall Photographer Dave Barfield

About

Flux is a twice-yearly publication dedicated to exploring the research, magnet technology and science outreach conducted at the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory’s three campuses in Florida and New Mexico. The Magnet Lab is a national user facility that provides state of the art research resources for magnet-related research in all areas of science and engineering. The Magnet Lab is supported by the National Science Foundation and the state of Florida. It is operated by Florida State University, the University of Florida and Los Alamos National Laboratory.

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u Contact Amy Mast at:

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Contact

The Magnet Lab 1800 E. Paul Dirac Drive Tallahassee, FL 32310 (850) 644-0311 www.magnet.fsu.edu

Does the perfect machine exist? BY KATHLEEN LAUFENBERG Ahh, the mythical perpetual motion machine. It’s the mechanical version of a free lunch, with an allure that’s persisted for centuries. Many an inventor has labored into the wee hours determined to create one. Even at the Magnet Lab, scientists still get an occasional letter from an inventor who claims to have built one. “The fascination of it is really very simple: It’s about getting something for nothing,” says physicist and magnet engineer Huub Weijers. On the surface, a perpetual motion machine often appears to be made of wheels, levers, pulleys and other cool-looking stuff. But what exactly is a perpetual motion machine? “What most people mean when they say perpetual motion machine is something that runs forever and keeps producing something,” Weijers explains. “In other words, once you get the perpetual motion machine going, it keeps going and it keeps giving you stuff without you putting anything else into it.” The result: Something for nothing. Some possible examples: a car engine that, once it gets going, runs without any additional fuel; a heater that, once turned on and working, doesn’t require any additional power; an Energizer bunny with a battery that never runs down. Pretty neat, huh? There’s only one catch. Perpetual-motion machines don’t exist, except in strange videos on YouTube and on even stranger websites. “If someone really did create a perpetual motion machine, he (or she) wouldn’t be selling the plans for it on eBay,” says Weijers. “They’d be selling the energy the machine creates

“If someone really did create a perpetual motion machine, he (or she) wouldn’t be selling the plans for it on eBay. They’d be selling the energy the machine creates.” — Huub weijers, MagLab scientist

somehow, because they would make a lot more money that way if it actually worked.”

Officer, arrest that machine!

If someone did invent a real perpetual motion machine, it would rock the physics world. You’d hear about it on the TV news and read about it in banner headlines. That’s because a perpetual motion machine would break two fundamental rules of physics: the first two laws of thermodynamics. “Therm” comes from the Greek word for heat (think thermos bottle and thermal underwear), so as you can guess, both laws have a lot to do with heat. In order to understand them, you need to consider heat for a minute. Heat can do just about anything. It moves all by itself from one place to another — i.e. from warm spots to colder spots. Its mere presence excites atoms and gets them zinging around. It’s a powerful, fundamental form of energy (think of the sun), thermal energy. The first law of thermodynamics says that energy can’t be created nor destroyed, it only changes form. This law is also called the conservation of energy. Specifically, the first law of thermody-

FLUX MAGAZINE Issue 8

Harness the UNSTOPPABLE power of the

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namics explains what happens when you add thermal energy to a system: Some of the energy stays in the system and some leaves. For example, put a kettle of tepid water on to boil. Some of the heat transforms the tepid water into hot water. Some of the heat creates steam and leaves the system.

The second law says when energy changes from one form to another, some of the energy is lost (usually in the form of heat). For example, when you drive your car, some of the gas is transformed into heat and dissipates. Just touch your engine’s hood after a run to the store. Or put another way, the sec-

ond law of thermodynamics says that no reaction is 100-percent efficient.

simply irresistible

So a genuine perpetual motion machine would shatter one or both of these long-held laws. Such a device would have to create energy, rather than transform some type of energy into work, breaking the first law. Or it would have to be 100-percent efficient, breaking the second law. Although many have tried, no one has yet fabricated such a device. “Despite all the new discoveries that have happened in physics — quantum mechanics, particle physics, whatever — these laws of thermodynamics have never been proven to be wrong,” Weijers says. “But that is something different from saying that they cannot be wrong— and that is part of the fascination.” That fascination continues to spark people’s imagination, for inventors continue to attempt to construct these machines. When they claim to have succeeded, however, they have either overlooked something — or they’re just being tricksters. “There is either a source of energy going into the so-called perpetual motion machine that is not obvious — a temperature difference, some solar energy, some motion, something — or it is so efficient that the loss of energy is very low, and so doesn’t show up for a long time, but it will eventually show up as a loss,” Weijers says. If you like a brainteaser of a challenge, go ahead: Try to build a perpetual motion machine yourself. But please think twice before buying one on the internet! Thanks to Huub Weijers for answering this round of Magnet Fact or Fiction. To read more questions like these, search “fact or fiction” at magnet.fsu.edu.

FLUX MAGAZINE Issue 8 magLab research

ANCIENT DISCOVERIES

Tibetan expedition finds new species of woolly rhino

QAIDAN BASIN ZANDA BASIN LHASA

tibetan adventure

Trekking across China into higher altitudes, the expedition’s team members made their discovery in Tibet’s Zanda Basin.

by Kathleen Laufenberg

agnet Lab geochemist Yang Wang is known for doing complex research using highly technical equipment. Yet she’s also hiked the remote outback of Tibet and camped under the stars in the Himalayas — all in the name of scientific discovery. Because of her unique mix of skills, she was part of a team that uncovered the bones of the oldest prehistoric woolly rhino ever found. The expedition’s research received international attention in the fall of 2011 after it was published in the journal Science. “This is a significant find,” says nationally known vertebrate paleontologist Donald Prothero of Occidental College in Los Angeles, who studies the evolution of woolly rhinos and other mammals. The team’s Tibetan discovery suggests that the woolly rhino, and perhaps other great beasts, wandered and foraged across ancient earth in patterns not previously imagined. “Yang played a key role in our understanding of the paleoenvironments of the Tibetan Plateau,” says expedition leader Xiaoming Wang, the curator of vertebrate paleontology at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles (and no relation to Yang Wang). “Her field and lab work gave us insights into the paleotemperature and precipitation millions of years ago.”

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team work

In August 2010, the expedition team paused for a group shot after its final day of fieldwork in Tibetâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Zanda Basin. MagLab scientist Yang Wang is in the first person on the bottom row far left; standing behind her is Florida State University graduate Chunfu Zhang, now teaching at Fort Hays State University in Kansas. At the opposite end on the far right (in hat & sunglasses), is expedition leader Xiaoming Wang, the curator of vertebrate paleontology at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles. Others pictured are researchers from China, students and four of the teamâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Tibetan drivers.

FLUX MAGAZINE Issue 8

Traveling, Indiana Jones style Wang’s research adventure began in 2007, when she accompanied a group of paleontologists to explore one of the most isolated places on earth: the Zanda (ZAH-dah) Basin in Tibet, at the base of the Himalaya Mountains. The vivid blue sky and undulating mountain views stretch for miles, unhampered by trees or brush. Majestic and wild describe this isolated landscape, yet fail to capture its immense wonder. But the trip was demanding. The Zanda Basin (about the size of Connecticut) is nearly three miles high. To travel there, you must first acclimate to such heights or risk altitude sickness: difficulty breathing, confusion and other symptoms that require immediate medical attention. To avoid that, Yang, a professor in the Department of Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Science at Florida State Univer-

sity, and the paleontologists from L.A.’s Natural History Museum and the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing spent their first three weeks in a lower-altitude basin, the Qaidam (pronounced TIE-dong) Basin. They camped and searched for fossils at its 1.9-mile-high elevation. Even though it was summer, Wang often wore her long johns and warmest jackets, especially at night when temperatures can dip below freezing. During the day, the researchers covered their faces with scarves, bandit-style, to guard against the intense sun and wind. From the Qaidam Basin, they drove to a small town to catch a 15-hour train to Lhasa, the capital of the Tibetan Autonomous Region. But first they stopped to eat. “When you work at such high altitudes, you get very hungry and I was very, very hungry,” Wang, 48, says. She filled up on the café’s greasy food —

Scientists say the prehistoric beast used its long, 3-foot horn to sweep away snow and reveal tasty vegetation.

and was sick and nauseated for three days. In Lhasa, Wang’s stomach still churning, the team rented four-wheel-drive Land Cruisers to take them on the four-day climb up to the Zanda Basin. Along the way, there were six police and military checkpoints, where their permits and visas were scrutinized.

“This is the oldest, most primitive woolly rhino ever found.” — Yang wang, maglab scientist

Eventually, even their cars could take them no further. They hiked to the fossil digs — and were rewarded with their big find: a prehistoric creature’s intact skull and jaw. Later, the researchers would determine the age of the extinct animal using a dating method called magnetostratigraphy — a time scale for rock layers established by measuring the magnetic properties of the rocks. The data revealed that they had discovered a new species of ancient beast. “This is the oldest, most primitive woolly rhino ever found,” says Wang. “We were all very excited!”

A magnificent beast

Image courtesy of the National Science Foundation.

They christened their find the Tibetan woolly rhino (Coelodonta thibetana). Woolly rhinos are often mentioned in the same breath with giant sloths, sabertooth cats and woolly mammoths. And indeed, the Tibetan woolly rhino they discovered was an amazing beast. When alive, it stood perhaps 6-feet tall and 12- to 14-feet long. Its head bore two

FLUX MAGAZINE Issue 8

Yang Wang pauses for a picture in the Zanda Basin, just outside the 1,000-yearold Tholing Monastery. She stands beside one of several places where pilgrims often leave symbolic artifacts: antlers, stones and more.

FLUX MAGAZINE Issue 8

Much of the Zanda Basin cannot be explored by car. This photo, snapped by a team member, shows what the pristine Zanda Basin looks like when you’re traveling on foot.

great horns: One grew from the tip of its nose and was about 3 feet long; a much smaller horn arose from between its eyes. It was stocky like today’s rhino, but had long, thick hair. Prior to the team’s discovery, the oldest woolly rhino ever found was 2.6 million years old, making it an inhabitant of the Pleistocene era (2.6 million years ago to 11,700 years ago). The newly discovered Tibetan woolly rhino is 3.7 million years old, making it a member of the Pliocene epoch (5.3 million to 2.6 million years ago). “The new Tibetan specimens make a convincing case that some of the coldadapted animals of the Ice Age in Eurasia might have originated as cold-adapted animals up in the Tibetan Plateau first, then

Three members of the expedition team remove fossils from the Zanda Basin in August 2010. The team spent a week unearthing the ancient bones and teeth from this spot, a painstaking process because fossils can easily break.

migrated down when the entire northern part of Eurasia was glaciated,” paleontologist Prothero says. That suggests that the woolly rhino — and perhaps other great beasts — had adapted to cold weather before the Ice Age set in 2.8 million years ago.

Chemical clues To unlock the Tibetan woolly rhino’s lifestyle secrets, Wang examined the chemistry of the rhino’s fossilized teeth. To do that she uses a special tool called a mass spectrometer. (See sidebar: Secrets of a tooth sleuth.) “We look at the chemistry of the teeth and bones, to see what the animals ate and what kind of environment they lived in.”

Her detailed analysis reveals that the creature ate grasses that grew at high altitudes, which suggests that when the Ice Age arrived, the Tibetan woolly rhino lumbered down from the mountains into lower altitudes. The expedition team also found horse, elephant and deer fossils. Most of the bones and teeth are being kept at the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing, at its Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology. Wang and other members of the team plan to return to the basin again in 2012 — and they hope to make more breakthroughs. “Who knows what we might find when we return?” she says. “With fossils, you never know.”

FLUX MAGAZINE Issue 8

MagLab research

Step 1. hand Cleaning

Xu cleans the tooth until she sees its shiny enamel. To do this, she puts her hands inside a glove box and uses a special cleaning brush. When done, she uses pressurized air to blow off dirt and dust.

Secrets of a tooth sleuth How can a scientist tell what a woolly rhino ate millions of years ago just by examining its teeth? It takes patience and technical expertise. Here’s a snapshot look at how tooth detective Yingfeng Xu (Yang Wang’s assistant) uses the clues in fossilized teeth to uncover what prehistoric beasts ate.

Step 2. obtaining a sample

Using a fine, dental-like drill, she bores into the tooth enamel until she has about 3 to 10 milligrams — less than an eighth-teaspoon — of enamel powder. CONTINUED >

FLUX MAGAZINE Issue 8

Step 3. chemical cleaning

She pours the powder into a tiny microcentrifuge tube. Now the sample must be chemically cleaned to remove any preserved organic materials. First she uses a solution of sodium hypochlorite, then acetic acid. Then the sample (shown above) is put in a centrifuge machine to separate the powder enamel from the liquid cleaners. During this long process, the sample is shaken, left to settle, and freeze dried.

What is an isotope? Isotopes are atoms of the same element (e.g., carbon) that have the same number of protons but a different number of neutrons. The carbon isotopes 13C and 12C, for instance, share the same number of protons, but each has a different number of neutrons. Sort of like members of a family who share the same last name, but have different first names.

Step 4. spectrometer analysis

Finally, after five days, the samples are ready to be analyzed in a machine called a stable-isotope ratio mass spectrometer. The samples (in batches of 50 to 96) are loaded into a black heating box that keeps them at an even temperature. The machine uses flashes of helium gas to rid the sample of air, then adds phosphoric acid to create a carbon-dioxide (C02) gas. The C02 gas reveals the carbon and oxygen isotopes in the enamel, which in turn reveals data about the woolly rhinoâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s diet.

Step 5. reviewing the data

Xu and Wang examine the samples of tooth enamel for the amounts of 13C and 12 C isotopes, which are clues to what type of plants the animal ate. The C isotopes may reveal that the animal ate mostly cool-season grasses, trees and shrubs found in cold climates and high elevations. Or the C isotopes may show that the animal ate warm-season grasses, like the ones found today in Florida.

Carbon-12

Carbon-13

6 Protons

6 Neutrons

7 Neutrons

6 Electrons

99% of all naturally occuring carbon.

1% of all naturally occuring carbon.

FLUX MAGAZINE Issue 8 magLab research

What’s 7 feet tall, gray all over, and has 18,236 body parts? BY AMY MAST Though it appears, from its exterior, to be a squat steel barrel with a bunch of tubes coming out of it, the Magnet Lab’s 25 T Split Magnet is one of the most complicated magnet systems ever built. With five magnet coils, each made up of tightly stacked Bitter plates (pictured at far right), the magnet’s plates alone number over 5,000. Every one of the plates was hand-assembled into coils, with each plate individually checked for quality. (To learn more about what our user community studies with this amazing instrument, search “split magnet” at magnet.fsu.edu.)

bitter pLates

Bitter plates were invented by Francis Bitter in 1930.

The split magnet’s not the only part-heavy behemoth enabling cutting-edge physics research. Just down the hallway is the lab’s crown jewel, the 45 tesla Hybrid magnet, the insert (or resistive magnet) portion of which boasts 16,979 parts of its own. The lab’s more traditional resistive magnets clock in at a relatively modest 11,500 parts, give or take a few hundred.

FLUX MAGAZINE Issue 8 ITER cable. And to secure such a spot, he would need to relocate some endangered turtles! He would also need to slash his time at the MagLab — from 40 to 10 hours — in order to get his fledgling company, High Performance Magnetics, off the ground. “There’s a whole lot of uncertainty in becoming an entrepreneur,” he allows. “My own money was at risk.” But the opportunity to become his own boss and work on ITER was just too compelling. He took the leap.

MagLab research

ITER: What is it?

Tom Painter’s path A magnet maker joins an international experiment that could change the world BY KATHLEEN LAUFENBERG It sounds like science fiction: a giant ball of star-energy suspended inside an enormous chamber, providing the world with clean power. But sci-fi it’s not. It’s an international science project based in France called ITER (pronounced I–ter), which in Latin means the way or path. Thousands of Americans now work on this futuristic energy experiment, including several Magnet Lab researchers. Engineer Tom Painter is one of them.

“Working on ITER is definitely exciting because it could be a world changer,” says Painter, 47. “I would love to be able to tell my grandchildren that I helped deliver even one small component to this project and made it successful.” To work on ITER, however, Painter first had to accomplish several big tasks. Perhaps the biggest: He had to start his own company — something he’d always wanted to do — so he could bid on an ITER contract. He also needed a place to house his new business: someplace where he could lay out a half-mile of expensive

ITER is an experiment to create fusion, a type of nuclear energy, on a scale never before attempted. The genesis for ITER came in 1985, but the chamber where the fusion reactions will take place — called a tokomak — won’t be operational until 2019. And while ITER began as an acronym for International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor, the words “thermonuclear” and “experimental” aligned side-by-side made many people uneasy; today the ITER community prefers to link its namesake with its Latin meaning. Fusion is literally star power: Our sun’s warmth and light are the result of fusion reactions. Fusion happens when the nucleus inside a hydrogen atom smashes into the nucleus of another hydrogen atom. This collision causes the two hydrogen nuclei to fuse into heavier helium atoms. When they fuse, they release tremendous energy. But fusion is not the type of energy produced in today’s nuclear plants. That’s fission. Fission (which in Latin means to split apart) is what happens when an atom’s nucleus is split open. Fission, when done slowly, can generate electricity. When released all at once, it’s an atom bomb.

FLUX MAGAZINE Issue 8

“Fusion recreates the power and the conditions inside the sun, and all that energy is very hot: 100 million degrees.”

The ITER project aims to create the world’s largest tokomak (pictured right). The doughnut-shaped inner chamber is where fusion energy will be generated.

“Fission and fusion are similar in that both get away from using oil and all the disadvantages of continuing to rely on oil,” Painter says. “The advantage of fusion over fission is that it’s cleaner and it’s safer.” Nuclear fission plants, such as the Fukushima facility in Japan, have had meltdowns that result in environmental and human disasters. But fusion is quite a different process.

Big technology, big bucks

“I liken fusion to trying to light a match on a cold, wet, windy night in the forest. It’s very hard to get the reaction to start and if anything happens, it just goes out,” Painter says. “And because it’s made from gases and not heavy metals, there’s

very little radioactive waste. For example, fission waste lasts for tens of thousands of years. But with fusion, the byproducts — the reactor and whatnot — become benign in about 40 years.” So why aren’t we using fusion to power our communities now? Well, it’s complicated. To contain and control such power is tremendously complex: The ITER tokomak alone will have more than a million parts. It’s also supremely expensive: The latest estimate puts the cost for ITER’s tokomak and other building at $21 billion. It took seven of the world’s most technologically savvy powers — the U.S., the European Union, Russia, Japan, China, India and South Korea, which in total represent 34 countries and half the world’s

population — to join together to create and pay for ITER. One of the biggest problems with a massive fusion reaction is that there’s no material that can contain it. “Fusion recreates the power and the conditions inside the sun, and all that energy is very hot: 100 million degrees,” Painter says. “It can’t be contained in any material.” So how do ITER’s top scientists plan to control such a big, hot mess? “They’re going to contain it with high magnetic fields. They’re going to levitate it in space and contain it” inside the tokomak (estimated to weigh 23,000 tons when finished — about the weight of three Eiffel Towers).

Coming in for a landing

This is where researchers such as Painter, who got his master’s degree in engineering from MIT, enter the picture. Painter’s an expert in high magnetic fields and magnets that use superconducting wire. (See “Superwire” on page 14.) And he’s using that expertise to tackle a unique task for ITER. He and his team at High Performance Magnetics intend to put a halfmile-long cable of superconducting wire inside a protective metal tube of conduit. That’s why on most days, you’ll find him out on a barren stretch of flat, sandy

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It’s Superwire! You can think of a superconductor (and superconducting wire) as a superhero. Like a superhero, Superwire is much stronger than regular wire. Superwire can transmit far more electricity than regular wire —10 to 100 times more! Yet superconducting wire is much thinner than regular wire: only about as thick as a strand of your hair. If kept cold enough, Superwire can also transmit electricity with no loss of power. Regular wire loses some current as heat because the atoms in the wire resist the flow of electricity. But current flows through Superwire with no resistance. There is a catch, though. Just like Superman loses his powers around kryptonite, Superwire loses its power unless it’s kept super cold. To keep Superwire cold, it’s often surrounded (or embedded) with liquid helium. And liquid helium is tricky and expensive to work with. “Helium is notorious for getting through any little tiny space,” says engineer Tom Painter, an expert in building magnets that use superconductors. “If you have even a teeny tiny crack, it will get through.” And a helium leak is always bad news. “The whole system is rendered less useful,” Painter says, “or even inoperable.”

terrain, not far from where airplanes take off and land. He found the perfect place to set up shop at the old Tallahassee airport, beside the city’s new airport and about six miles from the Mag Lab. “We have two buildings out there that are 800 meters (onehalf mile) apart, and between them there’s what looks like a long row of fence posts, but it’s actually steel posts and steel beams.” After they weld all the tubes of metal conduit together, they will place the one half-mile tube on the beams and pull a cable of superconducting wires through it. “When we pull the cable through, it’s best to have the tube as flat and straight as possible, so the cable doesn’t snag when we pull it.” Painter also had to work with the state to relocate some endangered gopher tortoises from the area, before construction could begin. That took several months. He’s done some traveling as well. He’s gone to the ITER site in south France twice, as well as to an ITER meeting in Japan. “In Japan, we went to the forge where they actually melt the metal, and we also went to the place where they actually make the tubes. It was pretty exciting.”

Early lessons pay off

Setting up a super-specialized, hightech company hasn’t been easy. He credits the Economic Development Council of Tallahassee/Leon County, a private/public partnership, for helping make his business a reality. “If it weren’t for them, I probably would have never gotten started. They put in one of the initial proposals for us for a planning study when we were just a virtual company.” But Painter also learned a lot about overcoming obstacles as a kid. He grew up the youngest of eight children; his dad, a steel worker, died before Painter was one.

Painter shows off a finished superconducting wire.

His mom raised the family by herself. As the baby of the family, “I was spoiled by my mom and tormented by my brothers,” he recalls fondly. In addition to torment, one of his older brothers also inspired him to become an engineer. “He went to Penn State extension campus, and he was in the library every night until 11 o’clock, and he got straight A’s. I said, ‘Well, that’s what you’ve got to do.’ And if he could do it, I could do it.” Today he’s trés contente that he did. “I’d encourage any young people to consider getting into the engineering field, as an opportunity to contribute not only to their own lives but to the world in general.” When it comes to magnet science and technology, he adds, the best is yet to come. “I think we’re entering a golden age of magnets and materials here in Tallahassee. … This is where the future will be born.”

FLUX MAGAZINE Issue 8

oil-in-water

what is this?

Petroleomics samples

from the Magnet Lab in Tallahassee BY AMY MAST

eed a word with chemist Amy McKenna of the Ion Cyclotron Resonance group here at the MagLab? You’re likely to find a jumble of these small jars on her person. While you may suspect McKenna’s running a side business in shampoo or dubious bodily fluids, these are, in fact, legitimate accessories for a petroleomics expert. Petroleomics is the molecular-level study of crude oil. A single drop of crude oil contains more than 30,000 different molecules, and no two oil reserves are exactly the same (depends on the reservoir conditions, and how Mother Nature “cooks and squeezes” organic matter over millions of years). Fourier Transform Ion Cyclotron Resonance Mass Spectrometry, or FT-ICR MS, is the only technique in the world for analyzing such

monstrously compositionally diverse samples. The large, milky-looking jars in the photo above contain “produced water” from an offshore oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico. Produced water is oilladen water that’s a byproduct of getting crude oil out of the earth’s crust. Once oil mixes with water, a fraction of the molecules are water-soluble and can be introduced in the environment. The chemistry of oil and water is important, not only to more efficiently produce valuable petroleum, but also to protect the environment. Oil-in-water emulsions cost the oil industry billions of dollars a year, and preventing stable emulsion formation (the turning of valuable oil into mayonnaise-style goo) requires some pretty intense molecular detective work. The small, blackish jars on the left are lab-generated oil-inwater emulsions to study the chemistry that occurs at the “rag layer” (where oil and water meet). To prevent emulsion formation, the oil industry requires detailed knowledge of the types of molecules that stabilize emulsions and accumulate at the oil-water interface.

In the foreground are small jars of deposits that clog pipelines or various processing units; these represent the most complex samples. Samples like these are sent to the ICR team on a daily basis for characterization. By studying compositional changes in crude oil from “soup-to-nuts” (or geologic goo to your gas tank), the ICR team provides chemical information that facilitates more efficient use of the “oil that is left” and protects the environment from harmful petroleum compounds.

FLUX MAGAZINE Issue 8 cover feature

BUILD A SCIENTIST!

BY AMY MAST

t could be argued that scientists are born, not made (a little natural curiosity goes a long way), but exposing young students to creative problem solving, thinking scientifically, and the rush of independence when they solve a problem can be catalysts for a fruitful career in the sciences. Here, we oﬀer a recipe for budding experimentalists.

eleMeNtarY SChool

MIddle SChool

hIgh SChool

College

¨ Curiosity ¨ Observation ¨ Love of nature

¨ Experimentalism ¨ Critical thinking ¨ Math skills

¨ Creative problem solving ¨ Career ambition ¨ Narrower areas of interest

¨ Lab exper ¨ Thinking i ¨ Narrowin

It’s important, even for very young children, to be exposed to thinking scientifically. With your child or student, pay attention to the world around you: insects, phases of the moon, airplanes overhead. What do you see? What do you hear? How do the items inside your house work?

As kids progress to middle school, it’s important to expose them to higher-order critical thinking and an understanding of processes. Science fair projects, science-directed summer camps, tinkering with computers and mechanical assemblies, and even cooking help kids to understand experimentation and the processes that result in a whole.

High school is a great time for students to explore their interests and discover new ones. Advanced math and science courses, internships, summer programs, and even a part-time job can help them refine their interests. It’s important to keep variety in the mix: A 14-year-old aspiring physician could be tomorrow’s great software developer!

In college, in science dive ciples that pow est. Exposure t ronment and to derstanding of process and th are key during

But how do I build my own scientist? The Magnet Lab’s Center for Integrating Research and Learning (CIRL) offers opportunities for young people at all stages of their education to engage with science. Search any of the words in bold below to learn more on our website, magnet.fsu.edu.

For everyone Every February, the Magnet Lab throws open its doors to welcome the curious public to its Open House. The event offers dozens of mind-blowing demonstrations and the chance to interact directly with the physicists, chemists, biologists, and engineers who conduct research here. It’s great for ages 5 – 105.

Graduate School

rience independently ng field of study

¨ Meeting collaborators ¨ Mentorship ¨ Project ownership

, students interested e deep into the prinwer their field of interto a laboratory envio a higher-order unf both the experimental he concepts behind it these years.

In graduate school, students come into their own as researchers, pursuing independent projects with the supervision of an advisor. A good advisor, along with other mentors, can help a student find a research question he or she is passionate about and can help to guide the course of a student’s career.

For elementary-schoolers

Doing Science Together, a program held at the Tallahassee Barnes and Noble on the third Thursday of each month, offers kids a chance to conduct handson scientific investigation in a relaxed environment. MagLab staff can visit your school for elementary school classroom outreach, focusing on teaching kids to think scientifically, and tours for students are available here at the Magnet Lab.

For middle-schoolers

SciGirls is a jointly operated, two-week summer camp pro-

MAGAZINEmiddleIssue 8 gram aimedFLUX at inspiring school girls to explore science. MagLab Summer Camp, also for middle-schoolers, is a oneweek program for both boys and girls. Middle-school mentorship pairs young students from the School of Arts and Sciences with working scientists for a semester-long project. Classroom outreach and lab tours are also available for this age group.

For high-schoolers

High-school internships offer the opportunity to participate directly in lab research with working scientists. The Summer Energy Program, hosted jointly by the Magnet Lab and the Center for Advanced Power Systems, offers middle- and high-school students an opportunity to explore power grids, environmentally responsible power systems and renewable energy projects.

For college students

The Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) program offers opportunities for undergraduates from around the country to spend their summer conducting meaningful, eightweek research in physics, chemistry, biology, engineering, geochemistry and materials science.

For teachers Are you responsible for introducing young minds to thinking scientifically about their world? The Magnet Lab’s Research Experiences for Teachers (RET) program is a six-week residential program designed to provide real-world lab experience to educators.

FLUX MAGAZINE Issue 8

Arther Edison on the world’s most successful animal (it’s not us)

Scientist spotlight

BY AMY MAST

ART’S JOBS Professor, University of Florida Biochemistry & Molecular Biology Magnet Lab Director of Chemistry & Biology Leatherworker and small business owner

rt Edison studies the world’s most-studied worm. C. elegans, a type of worm called a nematode, is such a well-mapped little creature that scientists know the number of cells in its body: 959 in a mature animal. Nematodes are everywhere— in the dirt, in saltwater, in Arctic ice, in plants, animals, and the bodies of one out of every four people on earth. Four out of five living creatures on the planet are nematodes. To the layperson, they’re simple, generic, wormlike animals we don’t think about much. To a biologist, they’re fascinating, astonishingly diverse, and, as Edison puts it, “the most successful animal on earth.” Edison’s group is interested in the chemicals c. elegans use to communicate with one another and with their environment, specifically in the context of development and reproduction. Research magnets help his team understand precisely the chemical compounds that c. elegans produce and respond to. You’re examining a very wellstudied animal model. What’s beneficial about going down what’s in some ways a well-traveled research road? If you want to learn about something new — and my group studies chemical communication — it’s really helpful to start from a known quantity. In c. elegans, the

fate of every single cell has been mapped out from fertilization to the adult animal. Next to maybe the double helix, that mapping is one of the significant achievements in biology in the last century. Through that, not only did we learn more about the development of a relatively complex multicellular animal, but also fundamental, widely applicable things like programmed cell death (apoptosis) in that study. Eventually scientists realized that cell death was an important part of development, and that when that goes wrong, it’s important in cancer. C. elegans are some remarkably adaptable animals; they can sense and respond to their environment with an astonishing level of sophistication. If there’s abundant food available, they develop in about three and a half days; they go through their larval stages, they become adults and they reproduce. They live for another week. In the absence of food, in harsh conditions, or when they become too populous, they can sense the population and the amount of food. They can then choose an alternate pathway where they can live for months, and survive with no food at all. Both their behavior and their anatomy change accordingly. As soon as they’re put in the presence of bacteria, they go on developing and become reproducing adults. It’s really neat. It’s been known for about 25 years that a chemical caused that, but it was only more recently

identified in detail. That chemical, and another that controls mating behavior, have been really interesting places to explore. For me, I like to stay just at the side of an exciting field, and play with the things nobody’s picking out yet and see how they work. Folks in my field are starting to look much more at interactions with bacteria and pathogens. There’s just this incredibly complex world of below-the-ground worms interacting with bacteria and fungi, and some of the bacteria are trying to kill the worms, and worms are trying to eat other bacteria and they’re all interacting with plants and plant roots and larval insects. It’s incredibly complicated stuff. How does one become a biochemist doing “incredibly complicated stuff?” Honestly, I didn’t think that I liked science, and growing up I had only the vaguest idea as to what a lab environment could be. What I liked in high school was ice hockey — and girls. I wasn’t a good student, and I had no motivation to do anything too interesting academically. Afterward, I took a year off and I did a lot of fun things. I was a river-runner, I rode my bike across the country, and I did a bunch of odd jobs. Then I went to a school called St. John’s College (in Santa Fe, New Mexico) where you just start by reading Euclid and Plato and Aristotle and reading ancient Greek. I liked it, but nothing was really grabbing me yet. I didn’t know what I was doing there, so I decided to take another year off. During that year, I became a shoe repairman, because I used to repair my ice hockey pads — I had been a goalie — and I loved repairing leather. I loved repairing shoes, and I could have stayed doing it except I guess I just realized I should go back to school. My girlfriend, who became my wife — we moved down to New Mexico so that I could go back to St. John’s for another year, but I got especially distracted because I went to work in this boot-making shop, and I made some boots, and then I discovered that there was a saddlemaker who took apprentices. And I thought: Why am I even thinking about school when there’s this guy who could teach me about saddles? I quit school again and we built a cabin in

the woods with no water or electricity. And then I learned how to make saddles, and I actually got a job working at a saddle shop for three or four years. Then I ended up being a ranch manager, and we had a house with water and electricity — so my job was to take care of things, but then the main part was to fence 200 acres. I built some fencing, and it was one of the hardest jobs I’ve ever done. I dragged railroad ties with my horse, and it was really a pretty big job in some rocky and steep country. During this whole time I was a volunteer firefighter, partly just to have the radio. Once I started doing it, I really liked the emergency medicine aspect of it though, and I became an EMT, which I thought was really fun. Then our first daughter was born, and I think for the first time I really asked myself if I wanted to be working on a ranch for the rest of my life. I quit the job at the ranch and became an art major at the university of Utah, with the idea of also taking a bunch of science classes and then going to med school. We’d grown up in Salt Lake City and we wanted to be close to family. I chose art because of saddlemaking and frankly, I didn’t think I could deal with science. I took all the science classes I’d need for the medical part and kind of packed them together while I was taking drawing and painting. I found two professors at the University of Utah, chemistry professors, whom I just fell in love with: Dave Grant, who turns out to be one of the great NMR scientists in the world and Bill Epstein, who did natural products chemical communication in plants. I traveled to Southern Utah with Epstein to collect chemicals, and then we analyzed them with Grant and I realized: This is so much fun. I just hadn’t realized that that kind of job was out there, and you could do this. I went through sort of a difficult six months figuring out what I wanted to do. I was taking chemistry, and I was drawing (gestures to a drawing of graphene’s structure on the wall) and that turned out to be kind of the transitional piece where I realized that I was thinking about science even as I was thinking about art. So I realized I wanted to go into science and do some artistic things on the side, and I got very straight and narrow, finished up, went to grad school, got a postdoc and got a job. It’s been a really fun job, too.

What is nuclear magnetic resonance? Many people are familiar with MRI, where the soft tissue of a leg or a brain is imaged. NMR spectroscopy provides an image of a different sort — one of a molecular structure. NMR techniques are used for biological applications, like Art Edison’s, and for materials science applications as well.

FLUX MAGAZINE Issue 8 photo essay

Take an alternative tour PHOTOS BY DAVE BARFIELD / STORY BY AMY MAST

COOLING TOWERS CICC WINDING AREA ROCK LAB CHILL ROOM

The Magnet Lab is full of beautiful scientific equipment, valuable infrastructure and a few nooks and crannies that are just plain weird. Many of the lab’s most interesting and impressive sights, however, can’t be seen on a tour — some areas are too dangerous, too out-of-the-way, or too hard for our enterprising tour guides to explain in the time allotted. Here’s a peek at a few.

EPITAXY MACHINE LAB

WATER COOLING TOWERS This waterfallâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s not for show. To keep them cool, resistive magnets must be pumped with 45-degree, deionized water. The water heats up to about 100 degrees during its brief sojourn in the magnet system; then itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s pumped back to this cooling tower (where air and time do their magic) before being used again.

The DC Field Bldg.

CICC winding area When youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re building worldunique magnets, having a magnet factory on hand is a pretty good idea. This area, walled off from normal tours, is where cable-in-conduit coils (CICC) are wound. Cable-in-conduit contains superconducting wire, which conducts electricity without resistance when supercooled.

FLUX MAGAZINE Issue 8

C Wing, 3rd Floor

rock Lab

To discover how our planet and its creatures evolved, geochemists analyze the trace elements found in rocks and fossils using high-tech machines such as the inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometer seen here. Included on the desktop full of beautiful and unusual rocks in the MagLabâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Geochemistry Department is a rare black-andgreen sample of peridotite from San Carlos, New Mexico (far right) that was ejected deep from the earthâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s interior.

The DC Field Bldg.

chiLL room

The Magnet Lab relies on four chillers for the big job of keeping the biggest magnets cool. Though they use freon, the stuff you may have heard of from your fridge at home, these machines cool a lot more than cucumbers. Four hunded times more powerful than the A/C unit in the average home, the chillers have enough cooling energy to produce two billion ice cubes a day. (We also use this system to air-condition the entire Magnet Lab.)

FLUX MAGAZINE Issue 8

C Wing, 3rd Floor

epitaXy machine Lab What, you don’t have one of these in your house? This Oxide Molecular Beam Epitaxy machine is capable of producing samples of scientiﬁcally interesting materials (you know, things like lanthanum oxide or cuprate superconductors, the usual) in single atomic layers — that is, one atom thick. Single atomic layers of these interesting substances can be joined to see how they interact with each other, and to manufacture experimental samples.

FLUX MAGAZINE Issue 8

FLUX MAGAZINE Issue 8 MagLab research

Data /Deconstructed How researchers use powerful magnets to learn about materials BY KATHLEEN LAUFENBERG Every year, more than 1,000 scientists use the lab’s magnets to explore new, exotic materials — and what they discover could just change the way we live. One of the most promising materials MagLab scientists are studying is graphene, a substance found right in the flakes of your lead pencil. Some say graphene might one day be used to make everything from computer screens to airplanes. Scientists want to know how graphene — a one-atom thick, honeycomb array of carbon atoms so thin it’s virtually see-through — reacts to light and different magnetic fields. To find out, they put a sample of graphene inside a powerful magnet. Then they observe what happens when the graphene is subjected to different forces: electric currents, magnetic-field strengths and wavelengths of light. Chun Ning “Jeanie” Lau, an associate

physics professor at the University of California at Riverside, travels more than 2,000 miles to do graphene research at the Magnet Lab. “Graphene is such a beautiful and unique material,” Lau says. “It’s stronger than steel yet softer than silk. It’s transparent like plastic, but conducts heat and electricity better than copper. It’s the thinnest single-atomic-layer elastic membrane that’s also a conductor and in which electrons ‘lose’ their mass. It’s a Nobel-winning material but is produced by every school kid every day.” Other MagLab scientists are fascinated with graphene, too, including condensedmatter physicists Dimitry Smirnov and Zhiqianq “Jason” Li, and postdoctoral associate Jean-Marie Poumirol. “A lot of companies are trying to do research to make graphene commercial,” Li

says. “One of the first applications could be a large area display … television, computer, maybe billboard.” That’s one reason scientists want to know how this material interacts with different kinds of light. One way to discover that is to shoot laser beams at a graphene sample. Researchers also want to find out how the electrons in graphene behave in the presence of magnetic fields. To generate a magnetic field, scientists send an electric current through a wire coil, then observe the variations of the graphene’s resistance. Curious to see what a graphene experiment at the lab actually looks like? Here’s a photo tour of an experiment that was carried out in Lab 3 of the Resistive Magnet Wing. Lab 3 has a special magnet that allows scientists to shoot laser beams at their sample.

FLUX MAGAZINE Issue 8

1. THE SAMPLE This graphene sample is so tiny, it’s invisible to the eye. It’s been mounted on a computer chip — that’s the long triangular part. The chip is carefully attached to the probe. 2. THE PROBE A probe is a long, stick-like device with a test sample (in this case, graphene) mounted on it. The probe must be slowly lowered into the center of the magnet. In this picture, the graphene chip is attached at the right end of the probe.

FLUX MAGAZINE Issue 8 3. READYING THE EXPERIMENT Scientist Jean-Marie Poumirol is now ready to insert the probe (with the graphene sample attached to it) into the magnet’s bore (the space inside the magnet where the experiment takes place). The bore is at the very center of the magnet, where the magnetic field strength is strongest. In this photo, Poumirol is about to begin to insert the probe into the magnet, which is actually on the floor below him. He’s opening a valve that will allow him to very slowly lower the probe into the magnet.

4. THE MAGNET This is where all the action takes place: inside the magnet. This magnet rises through an opening cut through the first-floor ceiling, which allows scientists to access it. The magnet is inside the shiny barrel-shaped container, so you can’t actually see it. Directly below the magnet, polarizers — optical devices that cause light to vibrate in a particular direction — have been lined up. Scientists shoot a laser beam through the polarizers, which direct the light into the sample of graphene inside the magnet.

FLUX MAGAZINE Issue 8 5. OPTICAL CLOSE-UP This is a close-up of the polarizers lined up under the magnet. Three of the polarizing devices are vertically aligned; below them, a silver mirror, tilted at a 45 degree angle, redirects the laser beam through the three polarizers and into the sample of graphene inside the magnet’s bore. The cement blocks (to the left of the polarizers) are there to prevent accidental injuries. Laser beams can burn your skin and permanently injure your eyesight. The blocks absorb any miscalculated laser beams; you can see the burn marks left behind from some slightly misdirected laser beams.

6. WATCHING THE DATA COMPILE Putting the probe into the magnet’s experimental space and making sure everything is in place can take a half-day — sometimes longer. The experiment itself can last a week or more. But once everything is ready and the experiment is running, Poumirol checks the data being collected using a computer and other equipment. When the experiment is finally completed, researchers may spend months analyzing their findings before determining what to tackle next.

FLUX MAGAZINE Issue 8 education + outreach

this issue’s featured program is...

2012 Open House 17 years and running

M AGNET L A B

www.magnet.fsu.edu/openhouse

At the Magnet Lab’s Open House, we pull out all the stops and let visitors explore our world-class facility, participate in dozens of hands-on demos, and talk one-on-one with working scientists. This year’s event is on Saturday, February 18 from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. This free event features something for visitors of every age: hands-on demonstrations, self-guided tours, activities from our Community Classroom Consortium partners, food, and the chance to meet and chat with our scientists and other MagLab staff. It’s also a chance to do good for the community: The canned goods we collect as the unofficial price of admission go to America’s Second Harvest Food Bank of the Big Bend.

above

Photos from last year’s Open House. There were more than 75 attractions, including: a potato launcher, the Kids Zone, the MagLev train, the shrinking quarter machine and free “Einstein” ice cream, made with liquid nitrogen.

Other Magnet Lab Events There are many ways to experience the Magnet Lab in 2012; here are a few suggestions: science cafÉ

A bar basement might seem like a strange place to learn about bees or alternative energy or oil spills, but the lab’s popular Science Café series has proved that beer and science make for some pretty good conversation. Science Café is held on the first Tuesday of almost every month at Ray’s Steel City Sa-

loon, with the goal of providing local residents with direct access to working scientists. Tallahassee’s next event — on March 6, 2012 — will feature Yang Wang, an expert in fossil analysis from Florida State University, where she is a professor in geochemistry. Wang, who is featured in this issue, will speak about her expedition to Tibet. Questions are welcome!

monthLy pubLic tours

Take a lunchtime spin around the Magnet Lab on the third Wednesday of every month at 11:30 a.m. Tours are informal, no reservations are required, and they typically last 35 to 45 minutes. Visit our website to learn more about these and other events held throughout the year: www.magnet.fsu.edu

FLUX MAGAZINE Issue 8

last look

At left

The 100 T multishot magnet program achieved a 97.4 tesla magnetic field on August 19. The magnet is powered by a 1.43 gigawatt motor generator.

above right

RECORD BREAKER In a three-second span on August 19, 2011, researchers and engineers at the Magnet Lab’s Los Alamos facility created a 97.4 tesla magnetic field — the highest nondestructive magnetic field in the world. The previous record, 91.4 tesla, was set in June 2011 by the Dresden High Magnetic Field Laboratory in Germany. “Tesla” is a measurement of the strength of a magnetic field; 1 tesla is equal to 20,000 times the Earth’s magnetic field. “Years of effort by the best technical staff, engineers and scientists have gone into this achievement. This capability marks a significant milestone in the ability of U.S. science to unravel the complex nature of materials that our future may depend on,” said Los Alamos Pulsed Field Facility Director Chuck Mielke. This record marks important progress toward the lab’s goal of reaching 100 tesla, an effort that

awaits further materials innovation to make possible. The project is funded by the 100 Tesla Multi-Shot Program, a joint initiative of the National Science Foundation and the Department of Energy’s Office of Basic Energy Sciences. The record-breaking field was created by upgrading the lab’s existing 85 T pulsed magnet system, previously tested to just over 89 tesla. Pulsed magnets, designed for condensed matter physics research, require a combination of a very large power supply and extremely high-strength materials. Visiting scientists — dubbed users — travel from institutions around the world to conduct research at the Pulsed Field Facility. High magnetic fields are an important resource for physicists interested in studying fundamental properties of materials, from metals and superconductors to semiconductors and insulators, and extremely high fields enable insight into ever subtler phenomena. This magnet will be available for user research at 92 tesla.

A side view of the magnet system.

Issue 8 1800 E. Paul Dirac Drive Tallahassee, FL 32310-3706 (850) 644-0311 (850) 644-8350

magnet.fsu.edu

on the cover

Using construction paper, artists on the Flux team created a miniature display of scientific objects to go along with the â&#x20AC;&#x153;Build a Scientistâ&#x20AC;? feature on page 16.

Flux is supported by the National Science Foundation and the state of Florida

Non-Profit Organization U.S. Postage PAID Tallahassee, FL Permit No. 55