Skip to content
  • About
  • Contact Us
  • Passport
  • Support WSKG
Donate
  • Donate
  • logo
  • logo
  • Donate
  • Home
  • News
  • TV
  • Radio
  • Schedules
  • Events
  • Arts
  • Education
  • History
  • Science
  • Donate
  • More
    • About
    • Contact Us
    • Passport
    • Support WSKG

WSKG - Local news and arts, broadcasting NPR radio and PBS TV.

WSKG thanks our sponsors...
  • Donate your vehicle to support WSKG

WSKG (https://wskg.org/science/chess-upgrade/)

  • Donate
  • Home
  • News
  • TV
  • Radio
  • Schedules
  • Events
  • Arts
  • Education
  • History
  • Science
Listen Live WSKG
Listen Live WSKG Classical

Watch Live WSKG TV
Watch Live PBS Kids
Learn at Home
Covid-19 information

Particle Accelerator Upgrades Keep Cornell Competitive

By Sarah Gager | June 7, 2018
More
  • More on cornell
  • Subscribe to cornell

Sarah Gager / WSKG News

Joel Brock, Director of CHESS, in the tunnel of the particle accelerator

ITHACA, NY (WSKG) – Students running around the track at Cornell University’s Charles F. Berman field might not realize that about five stories down there’s another track sending atoms circling – a particle accelerator. It was shut down this week for massive upgrades.

Joel Brock, Director of Cornell High Energy Synchrotron Source—or CHESS—ducks under machinery to get into the tunnel of the particle accelerator.

“This is the tunnel part. Now you can see it’s round. This was bored like a subway tunnel in the early 60s and the view doesn’t change much from here on a round.”

https://wskg.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/2018-CHESS-upgrade-spot.mp3

Sarah Gager / WSKG News

Joel Brock, Director of CHESS, ducks under machinery to get into the tunnel of the particle accelerator

If you could peer around the corner, you’d see a repeating pattern of huge orange and blue magnets.

The magnets steer matter around the tunnel at nearly the speed of light. Researchers harness x-rays made from the excitation of electrons to peer inside the smallest parts of an atom. For instance, companies testing material for airplanes can see where it starts to break down at the molecular level.

Brock’s been with Cornell since 1989, long enough to see some changes.

“Back in the old days, using film, you had to take a photograph. We had a dark room. People used to come work for a week, and now it’s like four or five hours to do the whole thing and they leave with a solved structure. So, yeah, the world has changed since 1980.”

Back then, when this was used for particle collisions, electrons and positrons circling in different directions would crash into each other revealing all the different molecular parts that make up matter, but that kind of research hasn’t happened at Cornell since 2008.

Sarah Gager / WSKG News

Workspace at CHESS where Michael Rossman solved the structure of the common cold in the late 70s/early 80s

The upgrades will take out a sixth of the ring that was geared more for particle collisions and fine tune it for x-rays, in part, by adding more undulators which excite electrons. It will also send positrons in the same direction.

The project is funded by New York State. Brock said without the upgrades, they wouldn’t be relevant.

“We wouldn’t be internationally competitive anymore and we’d lose our funding. Right now, CHESS is funded by the National Science Foundation as a national user facility. The foundation wants world class facilities. We have to be the best use of the taxpayers money, which means, every five to ten years, we have to upgrade to stay at the forefront.”

Sarah Gager / WSKG News

A man works in front of new magnets for the upgrade

A $15-million state grant funds 150 jobs at Cornell.  It’s hoped additional people will be hired by the New York manufacturers who are providing most of the materials. The upgrades should be done early next year.

The university is developing a new type of particle accelerator which is more energy efficient. Brock calls it the future of particle accelerators.

Correction: Cornell expects to retain 150 jobs with funding from NYS. An earlier version of this story said 290 jobs. The Cornell Laboratory for Accelerator-based ScienceS and Education currently employs 290 people.

Recent Posts

  • Funding Hold Up Threatens New York’s Progress Against AIDS

    BINGHAMTON, NY (WSKG) — 2020 was the year of the COVID-19 pandemic, but it was also the target for New York to end the HIV/AIDS epidemic. Ending it meant fewer than 750 infections per year.

  • More Security At New York’s Capitol, Although No ‘Specific Threat’

    ASSOCIATED PRESS - Security was tightened around the New York state Capitol on Thursday and law enforcement officials around the state were focusing on potential threats, even as they continued to track down people involved in last week's mob attack on the U.S. Congress. The  FBI warned  several days ago that armed protests by violent Trump supporters were being planned in all 50 state capitals in the days leading up to the inauguration of President-elect Joe Biden.

  • Vaccine Sign-Up Confusion Continues, Appointments Booked Through April

    ALBANY, NY (WSKG) - One day after announcing that five new state-run vaccination sites are opening this week, Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s office is warning that appointments for the limited number of vaccines at those sites are already booked through April. On Wednesday, Cuomo’s office announced that large-scale vaccination sites at the Jacob Javits Center in New York City, the Westchester County Center, the New York State Fairgrounds in Syracuse, State University of New York at Albany and Jones Beach are opening this week and will vaccinate thousands of New Yorkers in the coming months.

  • Rollout Of COVID-19 Vaccines In Rural PA Requires Flexibility And Trust From Communities

    STATE COLLEGE, PA (WPSU) — As the general public awaits COVID-19 vaccination across the country and in Pennsylvania, questions remain about how vaccines will reach rural communities and how accepting of the remedy rural residents will be. During a public hearing held by the Center for Rural Pennsylvania Wednesday, Dr. George Garrow, Chief Medical Officer of Primary Health Network, which has dozens of community health centers in central and western Pennsylvania, said adapting vaccine delivery for rural communities is key.

  • Rookie Lawmaker Liked New York’s State of State Address, But Wants Details

    TOMPKINS COUNTY, NY (WSKG) - Freshman New York State Assemblymember Anna Kelles was pleased with most of what she heard in Governor Andrew Cuomo’s State of the State speeches this week. The speech occurs every year at the beginning of the legislative session and lays out the governor’s legislative priorities.

WSKG thanks our sponsors...

About WSKG

WSKG connects you to local and global news and the arts online, on the radio, and on TV. NPR and PBS affiliate.

Contact Us

email: WSKGcomment@wskg.org

phone: 607.729.0100

address: 601 Gates Road, Vestal, NY 13850

DONATE

Pay an underwriting invoice

  • WSKG
  • Arts
  • Education
  • Science
  • News
  • Radio
  • Schedule
  • TV
  • About
  • WSKG Staff
  • Contact Us
  • Jobs
  • Public Reports & Policies
  • Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO)
  • Protect My Public Media
FCC PUBLIC FILES
WSKG-FM
WSQX-FM
WSQG-FM
WSQE
WSQA
WSQC-FM
WSQN
WSKG-TV
WSKA
Disabled and need assistance with the online FCC public file?
Contact Gregory Keeler
WSKG
601 Gates Road
Vestal, New York 13850
607-729-0100
gkeeler@wskg.org

Stay Connected

Like Us on FacebookFollow Us on TwitterFollow Us on YouTubeFollow Us on InstagramSubscribe via RSS

© Copyright 2021, WSKG

Built with the Largo WordPress Theme from the Institute for Nonprofit News.

Back to top ↑

Change Location
To find awesome listings near you!