Studying the properties of rare isotopes can help astrophysicists explain how the reactions that occur when stars explode produced the elements that make up Earth and all the other planets
You probably haven't read this news story in the headlines, but researchers at the US National Superconducting Cyclotron Laboratory (NSCL) at Michigan State University have recently created the heaviest isotope of zinc (silicon) ever observed. After striking a beam of calcium ions at a target made of tungsten, the scientists analyzed the reaction products and identified three ions of form 44.
Each of them contained 14 protons and 30 neutrons (in normal form there are 14 neutrons). Given that this large nucleus only managed to survive for a few fractions of a second before decaying, the achievement may not sound sensational, but such nuclear research is extremely essential.
Studying the properties of rare isotopes can help astrophysicists explain how the reactions that occur when stars explode produced the elements that make up Earth and all the other planets. Isotopes with appropriate chemical and radiological properties can be integrated into new cancer treatments. And a better understanding of rare and unusual nuclei could even explain why the universe is rich in matter but almost devoid of antimatter.
Scientists at NSCL (which I have directed since 1992) and at the American Argonne National Laboratory in DuPage, Illinois, have sought in recent years to build a more powerful ion accelerator that could crack the secrets of the nucleus. In February 2006, the US Department of Energy rejected the proposal to build the rare isotope accelerator at a cost of one billion dollars and asked the physics community to consider the design of a cheaper facility.
In December 2006, a committee of the US National Academy of Sciences issued a 124-page report that concluded that a smaller ion accelerator, costing only $550 million, could still do valuable work and that its construction should be considered a high priority.
Scientists in Japan recently inaugurated the $380 million radioactive isotope beam plant. Researchers in Germany and France plan to complete the construction of similar facilities in the next four years. The National Academy's report warns that "failure to achieve similar capabilities (in the US) will not only lead to the loss of American leadership in the field, but also to the erosion of current capabilities and cuts in the training of future American nuclear scientists."
One of the reasons why this warning should be heeded is that a stable program of nuclear research is essential to maintaining US competitiveness in the 21st century. Senator Carl Levin of Michigan and National Science Foundation Director Arden L. Bement Jr. emphasized this point during their visit to NSCL in the fall of 2006.
Around the NSCL there is a community of 700 researchers who come to the laboratory from 100 research institutes in 35 countries. In an era of increasing globalization and a continuing need for cross-border cooperation, the United States will benefit greatly if it ensures that the prominent international centers of research and education remain in it. Such centers offer the best active education for young American students and researchers.
Obviously, for us working in the field, science itself - the production and investigation of atomic nuclei that are not found on Earth but are very important in the universe - provides the most compelling reason for building a new accelerator. In addition to revealing new clues about the evolution of stars, such research will also provide important interdisciplinary connections on broad scientific topics, such as the self-organization of matter and the emergence of complex structures from simple structural units. Many future innovations in materials science, medicine, and the fields of nuclear energy and homeland security will depend on the knowledge acquired by nuclear scientists.
In nuclear science, as in many other fields, the prospect of new discoveries attracts the best minds. High-energy physicists who study the nature of matter in the universe are now flocking to the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) near Geneva, which is expected to start operating in 2008. But the US still has plenty of time to maintain its competitiveness in the field of nuclear physics, which is no less fascinating. If the US acts now, it can still lead. If you choose not to act, she will trail behind.
Written by: C. Conrad Gelbke, Director of the US National Superconducting Cyclotron Laboratory (NSCL) at Michigan State University. You can read about the laboratory's plans for the next-generation facility for the scientific study of isotopes on the website. Published in Scientific American Israel magazine.
One response
Research is important, but who will do it is not.
Technology crosses boundaries, and eventually people fight people. And people lose.
Knowledge is preserved, I don't know for what or for whom, but it has an eternal value and a temporary value - the useful one - after which leaders and market forces compete so much and develop for it.