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Ah, Thursday evening once again. Time for church bells... It has been three weeks since I last heard the ringing of the bells at St. Giles. Last week, at this time, I was at a production of The Gondoliers and, the week before, I had been forced out of my office by maintenance people who needed to turn off the power. I enjoy the bells as a part of my weekly experience, so it is good to hear them again.
So, why am I still at work past 8pm tonight -- especially when I have an important personal phone call scheduled in forty minutes? Well, after partially cooling down the K-400 cryostat last week, we ran out of liquid helium. And, of course, the liquefier down the road had broken once again, so we did not receive another dewar until this afternoon. For most of this week, a good fraction of our group was out of town (mostly at a workshop meeting in Sheffield), so I was the most senior person here. Just me and the post-graduate students. When it was evident that more liquid helium would be arriving, I spent yesterday evening pre-cooling the cryostat down to liquid nitrogen temperatures (77K). It was good to do it all by myself, as it demonstrates that I am becoming familiar with some of the cryogenic equipment. Also, my pre-cooling yesterday enabled us to get going on the helium transfer as soon as the dewar arrived this afternoon. We are still working on that now. In fact, with S taking a dinner break, I am writing this entry with frequent breaks to check on the helium transfer going on in the next room.
One of the reasons that it is personally important for me to get immediate experience cooling down a cryostat to sub-kelvin temperatures (which I have not yet done, as we ran out of helium too soon last week) is that I found out today that I will be travelling to Italy next week for my first trip to the Gran Sasso underground laboratory. The CRESST experiment is located in Gran Sasso, which means that I am quite excited about my upcoming trip. After nearly two months here at Oxford, I finally get to see the actual experiment that I am working on! The CRESST detectors are cooled by an S-1000 cryostat, which is larger and more complicated that the equipment that I am currently working on. However, by working with the K-400 now, I hope to have some familiarity when I arrive in Gran Sasso next week.
If I get the plane tickets that I requested today, I will be leaving on the evening of Wednesday (5/31/06) and returning on the night of the following Tuesday (6/6/6)... with a couple of hours to go sightseeing in Rome before I catch my flight. Should be fun; I have only been to Rome once (for a day) and that was some time ago, back in 2001. It will be good to make this trip; as of tomorrow morning, I will not have flown anywhere since I arrived in England two months ago. I'm not used to being grounded for so long! It is rare that I go a full calendar month without getting on board a plane; I did not fly anywhere in April and I am coming very close to not flying anywhere in May -- I plan to depart Heathrow at 8pm on May 31st! Only four hours shy of spending all of May on the ground! Not normal for this Nomad! It will also be good to see another underground laboratory. So far, I have been to two: the Kamioka mine (in Japan, where I spent countless hours) and the Soudan mine (in northern Minnesota, where I spent two days).
Of course, the one down side to this trip is that I will miss hearing the bells of St. Giles ring next Thursday evening.
My upcoming trip to Italy leaves me hopeful for a more sane weather situation, at least for a little while. I have found the weather in England to be completely alien to me, at least so far. I find that all my usual instincts about how to read the weather are simply wrong. After having a week of very nice weather when![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
cassiopia was here, our weekend in London had intermittent rain all four days. There is actually a drought going on; one of the London papers proclaimed on the front page that it was the "Wettest Drought in History" as they went on to announce seven more days of rain!
Also, after having some beautiful Spring days a few weeks ago, the weather now seems to feel like early April most of the time. Yesterday saw bouts of torrential rain, sometimes pushed to forty-five degrees from the horizontal by the wind, and there was even a brief hailstorm! Ye gads!! Usually, I am wearing shorts and sandals in late May. Instead, I had to put on my jacket and arm warmers (knitted byresourceress) to stay warm in my office yesterday. Today, however, was much better. I came in wearing three layers -- tee shirt, sweater, and jacket -- but quickly was able to shuck two of them. On my way back from the dentist this afternoon, I was wishing that I had packed shorts to change into. Very odd weather, indeed! We shall soon see what Italian Spring weather is like.
Finally, since I mentioned the dentist, I should note that I had my first appointment today. I am still forming my opinion of the National Health Service in the United Kingdom. I strongly favour nationalised health care, but that does not mean I support every implementation of it. In the UK, it is apparently challenging to find an NHS dentist, as many dentists only do private practice and many that take NHS are not accepting new patients. I did, however, find an NHS dentist who was recommended by my landlady.cheshcat and I registered last month and I had my first appointment today.
Here is my experience so far: When I called to make an appointment, there was no date available for the next four weeks. Upon arriving at that appointment today, I was examined and out in ten minutes. No x-rays, no cleaning. Just a quick poke about in my mouth. The dentist proclaimed that my teeth look fine, except for a relatively large gap between the second and third molar on the upper left, and a similar gap between the first and second molar. Most likely, these gaps were caused by my bout of periodontitis a year or so ago. He wrote me a prescription for an antiseptic mouthwash and said he would see me in a year. Total cost for this ten minute visit: £15.50. The price is not bad, but I question how much was actually done. I shall be back in six months and, if no x-rays or cleaning come then, I may have to get a tad pushier about asking for them.
Okay, it is now 11pm. I took my important call two hours ago on a dinner break, while I walked to get take away from the Noodle Bar. My watch is beeping to remind me ofcheshcat, who is in Phoenix right now (with her watch beeping 3pm at her). Here at the University, we have stopped attempting to transfer helium tonight. Our efforts were unsuccessful, most likely due to a leak caused by an extension that we added to the transfer tube. The extension has been removed and we shall resume our efforts in the morning.
Time to say goodnight, Gracie...
So, why am I still at work past 8pm tonight -- especially when I have an important personal phone call scheduled in forty minutes? Well, after partially cooling down the K-400 cryostat last week, we ran out of liquid helium. And, of course, the liquefier down the road had broken once again, so we did not receive another dewar until this afternoon. For most of this week, a good fraction of our group was out of town (mostly at a workshop meeting in Sheffield), so I was the most senior person here. Just me and the post-graduate students. When it was evident that more liquid helium would be arriving, I spent yesterday evening pre-cooling the cryostat down to liquid nitrogen temperatures (77K). It was good to do it all by myself, as it demonstrates that I am becoming familiar with some of the cryogenic equipment. Also, my pre-cooling yesterday enabled us to get going on the helium transfer as soon as the dewar arrived this afternoon. We are still working on that now. In fact, with S taking a dinner break, I am writing this entry with frequent breaks to check on the helium transfer going on in the next room.
One of the reasons that it is personally important for me to get immediate experience cooling down a cryostat to sub-kelvin temperatures (which I have not yet done, as we ran out of helium too soon last week) is that I found out today that I will be travelling to Italy next week for my first trip to the Gran Sasso underground laboratory. The CRESST experiment is located in Gran Sasso, which means that I am quite excited about my upcoming trip. After nearly two months here at Oxford, I finally get to see the actual experiment that I am working on! The CRESST detectors are cooled by an S-1000 cryostat, which is larger and more complicated that the equipment that I am currently working on. However, by working with the K-400 now, I hope to have some familiarity when I arrive in Gran Sasso next week.
If I get the plane tickets that I requested today, I will be leaving on the evening of Wednesday (5/31/06) and returning on the night of the following Tuesday (6/6/6)... with a couple of hours to go sightseeing in Rome before I catch my flight. Should be fun; I have only been to Rome once (for a day) and that was some time ago, back in 2001. It will be good to make this trip; as of tomorrow morning, I will not have flown anywhere since I arrived in England two months ago. I'm not used to being grounded for so long! It is rare that I go a full calendar month without getting on board a plane; I did not fly anywhere in April and I am coming very close to not flying anywhere in May -- I plan to depart Heathrow at 8pm on May 31st! Only four hours shy of spending all of May on the ground! Not normal for this Nomad! It will also be good to see another underground laboratory. So far, I have been to two: the Kamioka mine (in Japan, where I spent countless hours) and the Soudan mine (in northern Minnesota, where I spent two days).
Of course, the one down side to this trip is that I will miss hearing the bells of St. Giles ring next Thursday evening.
My upcoming trip to Italy leaves me hopeful for a more sane weather situation, at least for a little while. I have found the weather in England to be completely alien to me, at least so far. I find that all my usual instincts about how to read the weather are simply wrong. After having a week of very nice weather when
cassiopia was here, our weekend in London had intermittent rain all four days. There is actually a drought going on; one of the London papers proclaimed on the front page that it was the "Wettest Drought in History" as they went on to announce seven more days of rain! Also, after having some beautiful Spring days a few weeks ago, the weather now seems to feel like early April most of the time. Yesterday saw bouts of torrential rain, sometimes pushed to forty-five degrees from the horizontal by the wind, and there was even a brief hailstorm! Ye gads!! Usually, I am wearing shorts and sandals in late May. Instead, I had to put on my jacket and arm warmers (knitted by
resourceress) to stay warm in my office yesterday. Today, however, was much better. I came in wearing three layers -- tee shirt, sweater, and jacket -- but quickly was able to shuck two of them. On my way back from the dentist this afternoon, I was wishing that I had packed shorts to change into. Very odd weather, indeed! We shall soon see what Italian Spring weather is like.Finally, since I mentioned the dentist, I should note that I had my first appointment today. I am still forming my opinion of the National Health Service in the United Kingdom. I strongly favour nationalised health care, but that does not mean I support every implementation of it. In the UK, it is apparently challenging to find an NHS dentist, as many dentists only do private practice and many that take NHS are not accepting new patients. I did, however, find an NHS dentist who was recommended by my landlady.
cheshcat and I registered last month and I had my first appointment today.Here is my experience so far: When I called to make an appointment, there was no date available for the next four weeks. Upon arriving at that appointment today, I was examined and out in ten minutes. No x-rays, no cleaning. Just a quick poke about in my mouth. The dentist proclaimed that my teeth look fine, except for a relatively large gap between the second and third molar on the upper left, and a similar gap between the first and second molar. Most likely, these gaps were caused by my bout of periodontitis a year or so ago. He wrote me a prescription for an antiseptic mouthwash and said he would see me in a year. Total cost for this ten minute visit: £15.50. The price is not bad, but I question how much was actually done. I shall be back in six months and, if no x-rays or cleaning come then, I may have to get a tad pushier about asking for them.
Okay, it is now 11pm. I took my important call two hours ago on a dinner break, while I walked to get take away from the Noodle Bar. My watch is beeping to remind me of
cheshcat, who is in Phoenix right now (with her watch beeping 3pm at her). Here at the University, we have stopped attempting to transfer helium tonight. Our efforts were unsuccessful, most likely due to a leak caused by an extension that we added to the transfer tube. The extension has been removed and we shall resume our efforts in the morning.Time to say goodnight, Gracie...
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In this case, "sub-kelvin" refers to temperatures below one degree kelvin (1K), which we then refer to as the "milli-kelvin" range.
Other types of low temperature experiments can go into the micro-kelvin, or even nano-kelvin, range. For our purposes, though, cryostats reaching about five or six milli-kelvin are sufficient for our work.
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I bet I could've...
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