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Tuesday, April 02, 2002

Public lecture series presents “Levitation, Superconductivity and the World’s Largest Magnets”

The Frontiers in Science Public Lecture Series continues Wednesday [April 10] with a talk on “Levitation, Superconductivity and the World’s Largest Magnets,” presented by Greg Boebinger of the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory (MST-NHMFL). The series is intended to inform the public about the diversity of research being conducted at the Laboratory.

Sponsored by the Laboratory Fellows, five free lectures a year are planned. Each lecture will be presented in Los Alamos, Santa Fe, Española and Taos to ensure that Northern New Mexico residents can attend. All lectures are scheduled to begin at 7:30 p.m.

"We want to make people aware that the Lab researches global warming, AIDS, astrophysics and a number of important issues facing the world in addition to nuclear weapons research," said Joe Ginocchio of Nuclear Physics (T-16), coordinator of the lecture series and a Laboratory Fellow.

Boebinger will discuss his work at the Lab’s National High Magnetic Field Laboratory on April 10 in the James A. Little Theater at the New Mexico School for the Deaf in Santa Fe. He will repeat his discussion on April 17 in the Taos Convention Center, on April 24 at the Center for the Arts Theater at Northern New Mexico Community College in Española and on April 25 in the Duane W. Smith Auditorium at Los Alamos High School.

The NHMFL develops the world's most powerful electromagnets, more than a million times stronger than the Earth's magnetic field, for use in basic research experiments. A 1.4-billion-watt generator, one of the largest electrical generators in the United States, which delivers the energy stored in its rotor to the magnet during a magnet pulse, powers these electromagnets. New materials are necessary to build the electromagnets because ordinary steel would burst under the stresses involved in confining the high magnetic field inside the magnet.

Researchers worldwide visit the NHMFL to perform experiments on a wide range of materials, including high temperature superconductors. Boebinger’s talk will include a number of hands-on demonstrations on the interplay between electricity and magnetism, including using high-temperature superconductors to demonstrate magnetic levitation.

For more information, go to the public lecture series Web site at http://stb.lanl.gov/fellows/fellows.html online. Directions to the lecture locations also are available on the above Web site.

--Shelley Thompson

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