Field Trip to Cornell
On an October morning, ten of us made the three-hour drive from Buffalo State University to Cornell University, where we had an exciting lineup of tours. First, we toured the synchrotron—we actually walked through the underground tunnel and saw the many kinds of magnets that direct the positron beam, some for bending, some for focusing, and some for wiggling the beam to produce extra X-rays. We then visited the lab where people from around the country come to use the high-intensity X-ray source for diffraction.
In the afternoon, we visited the Spacecraft Planetary Imaging Facility, one of the main facilities that keeps original images from planetary missions. We heard a very interesting talk about the planets in our solar system and touched several meteorites, including one that probably came from the core of a former planet. Finally, we visited the Cornell Nanoscale Facility and toured a clean room. What a day!
