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Andrew “Drew” Weisenberger, head of the Experimental Nuclear Physics Division’s Radiation Detector and Imaging Group, recently accepted the additional role of Chief Technology Officer (CTO) for Jefferson Lab. As part of the detector group, Weisenberger has spent years advancing research to improve particle detector technology and seeking ways that discoveries in his field can be applied outside of the lab’s basic research program. He is part of the team that worked on the components and technology that brought to life a breast-cancer diagnostic device – a molecular-imaging camera – now commercially produced and sold by Dilon Technologies that can detect the tiniest of breast cancer tumors. Today that camera is used in hospitals and medical diagnostic centers around the world.

In roughly six years, Jefferson Lab’s YouTube channel has attracted 100,000 subscribers and has been viewed more than 30 million times. To celebrate this milestone, achieved on Feb. 8, Science Education posted an episode of Frostbite Theater, titled 100,000 Subscribers! (And some liquid nitrogen!). To mark the event, Frostbite Theater hosts Steve Gagnon, Science Education administrator, and Joanna Griffin, Public Affairs graphic artist, froze a 100 Grand® candy bar.

Jefferson Lab Offers Science Enrichment Program for 5th, 6th & 8th Grade Teachers; Registration Deadline is Sept. 12

Fifteen minutes seems like a lifetime to Paul Brindza. It's the average lifetime of a neutron, one of the many subatomic particles that scientists study at Jefferson Lab. While that may seem like a fleeting existence to us, the Hall C engineer says that it's more than enough time for the subatomic particles to do some real damage as they travel inside the hall. Now, Brindza and his colleague Bert Metzger have devised a system of products to stop neutrons and other particles before they can inflict harm on sensitive scientific equipment and computers. Their patented and patent-pending products are currently being installed in Hall C.

Ordinarily, physicists generally think of protons and neutrons as each containing three “valence” quarks, i.e. quarks that determine the charge of the proton or neutron. When they visualize the structure, they usually imagine these three quarks to be more-or-less on equal footing. Even so, puzzling data from an experiment carried out 40 years ago was thought to suggest that two of the quarks cluster together into what is called a diquark. However, there has been very little experimental evidence since then to support this idea - perhaps until now.

A committee appointed by the U.S. Department of Energy and National Science Foundation to review and recommend the future course of nuclear physics research in the United States has issued a report supporting the continued funding of the experimental program at the U.S. Department of Energy's Jefferson Lab.

When Melanie Goff, president of a small, minority, women-owned business, needed to find new business prospects in the federal government, she turned to Freda Hopper. Hopper has been working with small businesses looking to get their foot in the door to federal contracting as a small business program manager since 1998, serving small businesses from her position at Oak Ridge Operations Office in Oak Ridge, Tennessee.

A 13,000 square-foot office suite in Oyster Point will likely be the first place in the world where boron nitride nanotubes — a high-tech product developed at Jefferson Lab — will be manufactured for commercial use, officials said. The nanotubes, first discovered in California in the 1990s, could be used in products as diverse as satellites, golf clubs and computer screens.

Hendrik Schatz studies exploding stars — or more specifically, what connection exploding stars have to our planet’s existence and the existence of elements on Earth today. He suspects that about 15 billion years ago, stars either exploded or collided, sending radioactive particles into the universe. Eventually, these radioactive particles became stable, clinging together to form Earth and many of the elements we use today, such as gold and uranium.

An international workshop on neutrinos is bringing particle physicists from all over the globe to William & Mary. NuFact 2012 will be held in Williamsburg July 23-28, jointly sponsored by William & Mary and Jefferson Lab. Jeff Nelson, the Cornelia B. Talbot Term Distinguished Associate Professor of Physics at William & Mary, is one of the organizers of the conference, along with fellow physicists Robert McKeown, Patricia Vahle and Michael Kordosky.