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Science

Tour of the Deep Underground Science and Engineering Lab 35

lukej writes "Over eleven years ago, the possibility of using the retired Homestake Mine as an underground science laboratory was first proposed. Today the local newspaper gives a science-filled tour of that facility, along with a short photo tour, and decent descriptions of some of the experiments it hosts (Majorana, LUX, Long Baseline Neutrino Experiment). Some fairly interesting deep, dirty, and real physical science!"
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Tour of the Deep Underground Science and Engineering Lab

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  • Well thats a first (Score:4, Interesting)

    by halfEvilTech ( 1171369 ) on Monday January 21, 2013 @07:33PM (#42652597)

    that something of relevance from my home state makes it on the front page of slashdot. Gives me hope that something worthwhile can finally come from that side of the state.

    • by JWW ( 79176 )

      They have lots of worthwhile stuff on that side of the state. Now they will hopefully also start having some jobs out there that aren't all based around tourism.

    • This was a triumph...

    • Gives me hope that something worthwhile can finally come from that side of the state.

      Ouch. Admittedly, Rapid City is not a technological Mecca.

      But I've worked and lived in Los Angeles, San Diego, and Pittsbugh, PA, before moving to Rapid City. And the only thing I miss is Ikea.

    • I had the same shock seeing something from the RC journal on slashdot. I am glad they are getting the lab up and running as it was all just proposals when I moved away from Rapid City.
    • Be cool if they mentioned in the summary where in the world the action was taking place.
  • by hedley ( 8715 ) <hedley@pacbell.net> on Monday January 21, 2013 @07:41PM (#42652657) Homepage Journal

    Now Gordon, just push the sample forward...

    • I was thinking more of the umbrella corp, but that works too I guess.
      • by Anonymous Coward

        A secret underground lab designed specifically for Science! Where's my Portal Gun?

  • Being lured into a cave by men in lab coats who want to show you something cool?

  • by Anonymous Coward

    The iron ore mine in at the state park in Soudan Minnesota, on the edge of the Boundary Waters Wilderness Canoe Area, has a lab at the bottom that you can tour. It does neutrino and other particle experiments in conjunction with the Fermi lab in Chicago. Its a similar experience to the one described here.

    They also have a separate tour of the iron ore mine above it.

  • An article about the Homestake neutrino lab. I'm currently interning at a neutrino physics group for a fairly large research university, and my mentor visited there a few weeks ago, so this is relevant to my interests.

  • by PPH ( 736903 ) on Monday January 21, 2013 @10:50PM (#42653707)

    Think of all the science funding and cool high tech your community could attract if only you had an old mine. No time to waste. Start digging for all those rare earth metals now!

  • For some reason, that reminds me of the book Zero Game [bradmeltzer.com] .
  • ...but I didn't understand what a nutrino was.

    • ...but I didn't understand what a nutrino was.

      It's a mis-spelled neutrino! ;-) Probably the easiest way to think of it is an electron but without an electric charge and even less mass (by at least five orders of magnitude). It comes in three flavours, one for each heavier cousin of the electron, and all of them are incredibly light - so light that nobody has been able to measure their masses. However the flavours oscillate over time and this can only happen if they have masses so while we have not been able to measure it we know that it is no zero. T

  • by mbone ( 558574 ) on Tuesday January 22, 2013 @12:21AM (#42654175)

    "Over eleven years ago, the possibility of using the retired Homestake Mine as an underground science laboratory was first proposed.

    You mean, the place where the Homestake experiment [wikipedia.org] (the first to observe solar neutrinos) ran from 1970 to 1994?

    • My thought entirely: it was in use as a scientific laboratory for many, many years prior to 2001 by Raymond Davis, Jr and colleagues to detect solar neutrinos. He identified a significant deficit in the number of neutrinos detected with respect to predictions and worked with John Bahcall for many years to demonstrate that his experiment was working correctly and the standard solar neutrino model was correct. Nevertheless, people doubted them for many years.

      Later however, the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory

    • by lukej ( 252598 )
      Just for the heck of it, I'll defend my semantics. Yup... DUSEL was proposed in the early 2000s right after Homestake shutdown. And the key being, using that site "as an underground science laboratory". Prior to that, it was indeed used... "as a goldmine" (with some science on the side). So it indeed seemed like a 'new' proposal.

      As the NSF was asking for RFPs at the time, there were three or four contenders (a new mine in Colorado, and an existing mine in MN, and of course Homestake). At the time, Ho
  • ...welcome to my underground lair.

  • I want to see an Avatar 2.

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