Connecting with Cornell volume 19, issue 2 (Fall 2006): Collisions of the Smallest Kind: Cornell's Accelerator-based Sciences

Abstract

The red brick columns face an unassuming parking lot on Campus Road across from Alumni Fields. One might write them off as part of Cornell's physical plant until walking past and seeing the words, Wilson Synchrotron Laboratory. Curiosity takes hold: what happens inside the columns? Entering a column from the street puts you on the fifth floor, faced only by an elevator that provides the ride down. Then you realize it's what takes place beneath the ground, under Alumni Fields, that matters. The journey is into the world of particle physics and x-ray science. Here is a look inside as Cornell scientists tell stories of collisions of the smallest kind and the most dazzling beams of light.