Sanford Lab a packed house

The Sanford Lab has been a popular spot this past week.

Researchers in for the project called CUBED—the Center for Ultra-low Background Experiments in the Dakotas—were finishing their annual collaboration meeting here today. CUBED will provide important background radiation data for a range of experiments, including the Large Underground Xenon (LUX) dark matter detector and the Majorana Demonstrator experiment.

CUBED Principal Investigator Dongming Mei of the University of South Dakota said...

Summer interns bring energy, experience

Among this year’s eight summer interns, Sophia Elia has the most underground science experience—much of it earned here at the Sanford Lab.

Elia, who grew up in Rapid City, S.D., was an Education Department intern at the Sanford Lab the summer after her junior year in high school. Then, last summer, she was one of nine students chosen for the elite Davis-Bahcall Scholarship Program, sponsored by 3M. The nine scholars studied at the Sanford Lab and at Gran Sasso National Laboratory in Italy. (Gran Sasso is in...

Sanford Lab: the long view

Just as the Sanford Lab itself is evolving, so too is the project’s long-term future. Today’s graphic by Multimedia Specialist Matt Kapust updates the latest long view.

The lab spaces highlighted in violet represent existing facilities. The Large Underground Xenon (LUX) dark matter detector, for example, has been installed in the Davis Campus, and the Majorana Demonstrator experiment is currently under construction there. Kapust included in this category the next generation dark matter experiment, LUX ZEPLIN...

E&O blooming in spring

April was a big month for the Education and Outreach Department. More than 1,000 students, teachers and members of the general public participated in Sanford Lab programs, and participation in May is following suit.

“This time of year is always the high season for student field trips,” Education and Outreach Director Ben Sayler said. For example, 88 students and 10 teachers from Knollwood Elementary School in Rapid City, S.D., made the 50-mile trip to Lead for activities and hoist-room tours. And this month...

Ross steel team had a banner April

Steel replacement in the Ross Shaft has progressed from the top of the shaft to well below 560 feet, according to Underground Access Director Will McElroy. Crews replaced steel in 102 feet of the shaft last month alone. “We had a great month in April,” said McElroy, who is directing the project.

When all the steel is replaced in the 5,000-foot shaft—by September 2017—the Ross will meet engineering requirements for extracting rock and lowering equipment and materiel down the shaft in support of large...

Bigger, better Neutrino Day set for Saturday, July 13

June 1, 2013
Steve Rokusek of South Dakota Public Broadcasting assists a young scientist during Neutrino Day 2012. Rokusek returns this year.

Lead, S.D.—Neutrino Day, the Sanford Lab’s free annual science festival, is expanding to downtown Lead, with a full day of science talks and hands-on activities on Saturday, July 13, from 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Park at the Homestake Visitor Center on Main Street and catch free shuttles to all venues. Activities at the lab’s surface campus will include hoist room tours (wear sturdy shoes), live video chats with scientists a mile underground and wild science demonstrations for kids by Steve Rokusek of South Dakota Public Broadcasting. Events on Main Street will include:

  • An art show, “Into the Dark: Art Exploring Dark Matter, featuring 20 of South Dakota’s preeminent painters, sculptors and photographers, at the Lead Deadwood Art Center
  • A noon Science Café sponsored by South Dakota Public Broadcasting at Lead’s Own Bumpin’ Buffalo restaurant
  • Science talks at the Historic Homestake Opera House
  • Science and engineering displays and activities for all ages at the Black Hills Mining Museum, the Hearst Library in Lead, the Historic Homestake Opera House and the Homestake Visitor Center

"Science through Art and Music."

Emmy-nominated astronomer José Francisco Salgado of Chicago’s Adler planetarium will cap off Neutrino Day with this talk at 3 p.m. at the Historic Homestake Opera House. Salgado also is an experimental photographer and filmmaker, who has photographed more than 30 scientific sites around the world —from the South Pole in Antarctica to the Sanford Lab in Lead, where last year he shot special footage for an upcoming planetarium show on dark matter. Salgado’s films have been presented with live music in 90 concerts in 14 countries, with orchestras such as the Boston Pops, the Chicago Symphony and San Francisco Symphony. On Neutrino Day, Salgado will showcase his work, including never-before-seen footage from the Sanford Lab, and he’ll talk about the creative process he uses to blend art and science.

Other science talks include:

Current and future underground experiments

September 4, 2012
Click to expand graphic.

The graphic above illustrates current and proposed experiments at the Sanford Underground Research Facility. Here’s a rundown of three operating laboratories and four proposed sites, beginning on the left side of the graphic with the two experiments in the Davis Campus at the 4850 Level:

  • The Large Underground Xenon experiment has been installed in its protective water tank, which could be filled as early as this month.
  • Majorana Demonstrator researchers are machining the ultra-pure copper they’ll use to build their neutrinoless double-beta decay experiment.
  • The “multi-functional lab module” is a proposal, as is FAARM, which stands for the Facility for Acquisition and Assay of Radiopure Materials.
  • The Temporary Clean Room, opened last year, is where the Majorana collaboration has been electroforming their ultra-pure copper.
  • The low-background counting facility near the Ross Shaft is a proposal.
  • The proposed Long-Baseline Neutrino Experiment (LBNE) is shown in two locations. One option is a surface laboratory in Kirk Gulch; the other option is a lab on the 4850 Level.
  • DIANA, the Dual Ion Accelerator for Nuclear Astrophysics, is an experiment proposed for the 3950 Level.
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