Secrets Revealed!

Friday, we were deciding on what we could do on Saturday.  I found some info on an open house to the “Berkeley Labs”.  All I knew at first, is that it is a secure facility run by the government that you normally can’t go in to see. With a description like that, of course we are going to go!  Even if we don’t know what it is, we are going!

After some more research, I found it it’s part of the University of California Berkeley Campus, and it employs about 5000 people, it covers about 900 acres of land on the top of a mountain, and normally only employees are allowed in.

Here is an aerial shot of the lab campus.

And here is a quick fly from San Fran to the lab:

The main part of the facility is called the ‘Advanced Light Source’ or ALS for short.  I found that for the open house, you had to register two weeks ago and there were no more slots.

After a few phone calls and emails, I found out there was some room left for walk in registrations, but to get there early. So we did, and we got in!

It could have been a warmer day, it was pretty foggy most of the day, but we brought our jackets and were ready.

The ALS is a 3rd generation synchrotron. It’s a specialized particle accelerator that generates bright beams of x-rays (the brightest on the earth) for scientific research.  Apparently,  electron bunches traveling the speed of light, when forced into a circular path by magnets, emit bright ultraviolet and x-ray light that is directed down beam lines to experiment stations.  (When you look at the next few photos, forget you ever saw them. If the NSA or FBI or XFE comes asking where these photos came from, they never existed and you never saw them)

 

 

There are 7.5 Billion electrons in a bunch. The size of the electron beam is the size of a hair. The ALS produces light that is ONE BILLION times brigher than the sun!  The electron go around the ‘ring’ 1.5 MILLION times per SECOND.  They travel 299,792,440 meters per second, or 99.999994% the speed of light.  That equates to going around the world about 9 times per second.  That’s quite fast.

They use this for research in biology, chemistry, physics, energy, proteins, 3D imaging, atomic and molecular structure and more.  Almost of of the current knowledge we have about xrays, MRI machines, ultrasounds, etc came and continue to come from this facility.

We walked around the ring and saw all the beam line stations. There are 39 different ‘stations’ that scientists conduct experiments on.  Many of them had so many wires and tubes it looked like confusion.  We were surprised by how much tin foil they used!  It looked like someone’s science fair exhibit.   They use 21,000 square feet of tin foil each year.  The tin foil helps to keep things insulated.

We got a bus tour of the campus, and we especially liked this building. It is literally hanging over the cliff.

The place even has its own electric plant and fire department!

They had all kinds of exhibits and booths to show what they do at “the lab”.   Jacob and Hannah got to be surrounded by a bubble.

Marissa is putting her sharp fingernails through a bubble wall and the bubble wall is not popping.

 

Shelley is blowing bubbles into a tank with dry ice on the bottom, and the bubbles freeze before the hit the bottom.

The kids are blowing up balloons with dry ice.

Even though it was foggy, it’s still always a good view from the hills around San Fran.  Here in the background, you can see the tall antenna sticking up from the fog.

We walked around the Berkeley campus and found some geocaches that were there. 

Then it was off to San Fran and Ocean Beach.  It was the annual sand castle building contest.  Many had the same idea as we did, as there was so much traffic going into San Fran. We love going to San Fran. There is so much to see.  We love looking at the different buildings.

We spotted this lady coming out of her house and hopping on her bike.  It looks like she is dressed for horse riding or something!  Shelley said that she wanted to take a pic so Shelley could go and buy similar clothes for herself.

As we passed part of Golden Gate Park, this bike rack caught our eyes. It was very very very very full!

We liked this shot of the building disappearing into the fog.

We love the row of houses that face the ocean.

We finally reached Ocean Beach. There were about 25 castles to look at.

This one was the overall winner.

Of course the kids played a little in the very cold water.

As we were leaving, we wanted to see what the windmill was that we could see off in the distance.  It is part of a tulip garden.  There was a wedding being held there, so we didn’t stay too long.  Just long enough to congratulate the bride and groom and get some pics.

On the way home, of course we had to make a stop here: 

It was right on the way.

We had a great day!