[Ferris   stands  in  snowy  field  in  Illinois,  near   Fermilab
 accelerator] Most of what we know about subatomic particles has been
 learned by accelerating the  particles to a high velocity, colliding
 them with one another,  and studying  the debris  that  comes flying
 out.   One physicist compared it to smashing a pair of elegant Swiss
 watches  together,   and  then  trying  to  figure out how they were
 designed  by looking  at the cog wheels and screws  that  would come
 flying  away.   It's  not the world's most elegant or subtle method.
 But it  works. (video:     the  small,  3.5    inch  accelerator  in
 his hand]   This  was the  world's first particle  accelerator.   It
 employed principles  that are still in use today. Positively charged
 nuclear  particles,  protons,  were  injected into this little ring,
 where  they  were subjected  to  a  powerful  electromagnetic field.
 Since protons are positively charged, they were pulled around toward
 the negative side of the field.  Then the polarity of the electrical
 field was reversed,hurrying the protons around to here. By repeating
 the process, you could  get them going at  a pretty good clip, until
 they  spiraled on out to the  edge of the ring and finally collided
 with this target here.

   This prototype was built in Berkeley, California, in 1930.  It won
 its inventors  a grant  of $500.00   They used  the money to build a
 second accelerator twice its size.  That one was followed by another
 still larger accelerator.  Particle  accelerators  have been getting
 bigger and  bigger  ever since.    The  larger  the accelerator, the
 smaller the scale to which it can probe the  fundamental  structures
 of  nature.   And I'm  standing  in the  midst of one of the world's
 largest  particle  accelerators.  It's  Fermilab,  on  the  Illinois
 plains.   It  works  much  like  the  first  accelerator  by   using
 electromagnetic force  to whirl particles around the ring.   But the
 ring   has  gotten  larger.    At  Fermilab,  it's  three  miles  in
 circumference.   [video: aerial of Fermilab ring]

   [video: helicopter shot, flying low along one segment of the ring;
 dissolves  into  a  particle collision tracing]  In a tunnel smaller
 than  a  fire  hose,   buried  beneath  the  earth,   particles  are
 accelerated to nearly the speed  of light, and then  collided with a
 fixed  target.   The  resulting  explosions,  recorded  in  detector
 tracings like this one, reveal a wide variety of subatomic particles
 that  interact  by  means  of four fundamental  forces--gravitation,
 electromagnetism,  and the weak and  strong  nuclear forces. The way
 physics sees it, particles and forces are the authors of every event
 in our world, from the exotic to the everyday.

   [video:    baseball  game,   New  York  Yankees  vs.  Los  Angeles
 Dodgers;  Bob Elliot and Ray Goulding as announcers Biff and Steve.]

 BIFF:   Hi there, sports fans.  This is Biff Burns--

 STEVE:  And this is Steve Boscoe--

 BIFF:   And it's a beautiful day for baseball.   Thanks to the  weak
 nuclear force,  the sun is busy  releasing  energy  from  the nuclei
 of atoms,  making it a balmy seventy degrees here in Dodger stadium.

 STEVE:   The  pitcher's  on  the  mound,  and  we're  all set to get
 underway. [batter hits  a deep  pop  fly]   He really got a piece of
 that one!

 BIFF:   He sure did, Steve.   But  the Earth's  gravitational  force
 warped space so much it looks like  an easy out.

 STEVE: Yup.  He caught it, all right.

 BIFF:    Well, it's not so much  that he caught it;  it's more  that
 the  electromagnetic  field  set  up  by  the  atoms  in  his  glove
 surrounded the electromagnetic field of the ball.

 STEVE:  Well, whatever you say.

 BIFF:  Uh-huh.

 STEVE:  Out.   Well, let's see.   Who's up next?  Looks like Reggie.

   [Reggie  Jackson, then  playing  for the Yankees]   The pitcher is
 looking in to get his signal.  [Reggie swings, connects.]  Wow, what
 a wallop!

 BIFF:    He just about knocked the quarks out of the ball.

 STEVE:  It's out of here!  It's a home run.

 BIFF:  And  this is  Biff Burns, saying until next time this is Biff
 Burns saying so long--

 STEVE:  And this is Steve Boscoe rounding third and being thrown out
 at home.

                                   *****

 continued

--- FMail 1.22