Construction

So this week there has been much rejoicing in the area of downtown Knoxville, specifically between mile markers 379 and 383 as the road construction that has been going on forever, at least for the time, has been finished. That's right, we now have 5 lanes of traffic flowing in those four miles through one of the most congested areas in East Tennessee. It's really quite amazing. I managed to go from my apartment to Oak Ridge this afternoon at 2:45 and I didn't even have to slow down. Before now, it would have been a mile long stand-still and would have taken about45 minutes to get through. Today, 10 minutes, and no complete stops. Amazing. So it's all well and good, until they start finishing the exit interchanges and probably closing stuff again. But at least for now we can enjoy free-flowing traffic.

I made my 3rd trip out to the lab today. At the moment, it's all reading and learning about how the machines work and some of the theory on why things go as they do. I don't really get everything that I've been reading, but it makes sense while I'm looking at the book, at least to some extent. Essentially, the superconductor is placed in a magnetic field, and then it is cooled in order to become superconducting. Once it is cold enough to be superconducting (lower than 77 K), the magnetic field is turned off. This change in flux induces an electric field within the superconductor, which can then carry on forever, since the resistance, the force that would dissipate a current, is zero. So you've essentially got a machine that can run forever on an initial set of conditions. It's really quite interesting. Of course, the materials are currently made in rather small portions, and it's difficult to get things super-cooled in an environment other than a lab with specific equipment to maintain these temperatures. In the next couple weeks, once I get through the reading and start to know how to work the machinery I should be able to start taking some of my own data. Exciting stuff. That Masters degree is getting closer by the day.

Just to top it off, if you haven't seen this video then check it out. I think it fits nicely with my need to push up my glasses after that last paragraph.