College of Science Magazine, Fall 2005 - Physics - Virginia Tech

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College of Science Magazine Issue No.1 Fall 2005 Difficult – perhaps impossible – to imagine for most of us. Now try to imagine a 30-ton device that despite its size still sees only a few per day of this tiny, weak matter. Again, a concept beyond the scope of human comprehension. But that’s what physics is all about — exploring and theorizing about the “incomprehensibles” that make up our world. And for physicists in the College of Science at Virginia Tech, some of these explorations are taking place underground … literally. The particles referred to above are called neutrinos, and they originate from the center of the sun. Neutrinos are one of the fundamental particles of the universe but also one of the least understood. They differ from electrons in that they do not carry an electric charge and can pass through great distances in matter without being affected by it. The Kimballton facility, a joint project between Virginia Tech and the Naval Research Laboratory, is being constructed 1,700 feet below ground at an operating limestone mine in Giles County, Va. (about 20 minutes northwest of Blacksburg). The facility will house research related to detecting and measuring low-energy neutrinos and their properties. Why underground? Simply put, to shield detectors from cosmic ray backgrounds. Science Goes Underground Imagine something so small and so weakly interacting that 100 billion of them go through your thumbnail per second and you don’t even know it. Kimballton Mine “Cosmic ray protons and neutrons are quickly attenuated as you get deeper under the Earth’s surface,” said Bruce Vogelaar, professor of physics, who is leading the project. “But muons (a heavier version of an electron) continue to penetrate much deeper, and when they pass through a detector, can produce background events themselves or secondary background. So the deeper you go, the more you attenuate these muons, and the less background you have. In physics, the name of the game is to get rid of that background or the activity produced by it so you can see rare events of interest.” Studying neutrinos this way helps us understand the sun and stars and even the deep core of our Earth. But this “low-background counting” technology also provides the capability to detect extremely small trace amounts of radioactivity contained in samples of material, resulting in applications for homeland security, microelectronics, and space science. Other Research But it’s not only physics that has taken an interest in Kimballton for scientific experimentation. Certain types of research in geosciences, microbiology, and engineering From left Bruce Vogelaar, Robert Bodnar and mine manager Ray Roeder outside the entrance to Kimballton. Photo courtesy of Bruce Vogelaar can also benefit from an underground location. For example, researchers in geosciences are attracted to the capability to conduct research related to scales of time and space. “In a normal university lab, we can do experiments that we measure in sizes of centimeters and meters and in durations of minutes and hours,” said Robert Bodnar, University Distinguished Professor of Geosciences. “But it’s difficult to ‘scale’ these processes up to the real world and estimate changes, such as those in geological formations, that may occur over the course of hundreds to thousands of years and may occur at spatial scales of kilometers to tens of kilometers. By setting up experiments underground that can run for years or decades, we can get a much better idea of how things behave on longerterm scales.” Bodnar said an underground environment also reduces the risk of environmental interferences that can hinder long-term experiments above ground. The Kimballton site is also desirable to a number of scientific disciplines because of its location in sedimentary rock – an environment where a wide variety of processes occur in nature. “For example, 90 percent of groundwater comes from sedimentary rock,” Bodnar said. “All petroleum deposits we produce are from sedimentary rock; the majority of underground mines in the United States are in sedimentary rock. So there is a wide breadth of research opportunities there.” Another example of the diversity of research efforts that benefit from experimentation within the confines of a mine is the university’s AMADEUS (Adaptive Real-Time Geological Mapping Analysis of Underground Space) project. A multidisciplinary effort among faculty from civil and environmental engineering, mining and minerals engineering, and computer science, this NSF-funded project focuses on mining safety and geological stability issues through the use of computer modeling. The development of life can also be explored by looking at organisms buried hundreds of millions of years ago, and members of Virginia Tech’s Virginia Bioinformatics Institute are looking at the impact ancient waterrecharge may have had on these organisms through studies of their DNA. A Strong Partnership With internationally recognized excellence in multiple programs, Virginia Tech’s foray underground seems like a natural. And the partnership with the operators of the Kimballton Mine is a win-win situation. “The idea that cutting-edge, worldclass underground science can be done locally has real appeal to the local community,” Vogelaar said. “The Kimballton facility and related research will hopefully add to the justified pride the miners already feel for this site. I think there’s opportunity for a long-term science program here. This is an investment that will grow.” While the myriad of research possibilities at Kimballton is just beginning to be explored and developed, Vogelaar’s counting of low-energy solar neutrinos carries on, looking at those “one-in-abillion.” For further information, see www.kimballton.org. College of Science Magazine Issue No.1 Fall 2005
College of Science Magazine Issue No.1 Fall 2005 Hope after tragedy Sobering statistics. And yet researchers in the College of Science’s Department of Psychology at Virginia Tech are offering more than a flicker of hope to families whose lives have tragically gone up in flames. Russell T. Jones, professor of psychology, and his team have studied the influence of major technological and natural disasters on children’s functioning for the past 26 years. His most recent endeavor was the completion of a $1.2 million National Institutes of Mental Health (NIMH) grant assessing the impact of residential fire on children and their parents. “Residential fires are unique in that they typically impact one single family,” Jones said. “After the fire trucks are gone and the Red Cross has completed its efforts, families are basically left to fend for themselves. This isolation may lead to even greater levels of psychological distress.” Jones found in his research that fire emergencies have potentially deleterious consequences on children and their families – consequences that may continue for years after the disaster. Russell Jones (l) counsels Katie Bowyer (r), 12, of Blacksburg, while her mother, Angela (c), observes. Katie survived a tragic house fire in February 2005 that took the life of her grandfather. She spent four months in the hospital – most of them in critical condition – before she was able to return home and begin to put her normal life back together again. photo by John McCormick Studies show one in every five families will experience a fire in their homes. Someone is injured by fire every 37 seconds and killed by fire every three hours. About 70 percent of these fires are residential, and most could have been prevented. “We interview survivors and assess their level of psychological distress,” Jones said. “The most common pathological outcomes include depression and post-traumatic stress syndrome.” REACT Most of the children studied reported that a house fire was the most traumatizing event they had ever experienced, and 75 percent of them believed they could do nothing to prevent house fires. That’s where Jones and his clinical team go above and beyond empirical research. Through a program called REACT (Recovery Effort After Child Trauma), they provide assistance to help children and families recover from a fire. “There are currently no long-term systematic programs that we know of to assist children after a fire,” Jones said. “We hope that our model will be a template for other communities across the country.” The goal of this free program is to help children and their families overcome their physical and psychological hardships resulting from residential fire and return to their previous levels of functioning. Using cognitive behavioral strategies, the REACT team helps children and their families cope with the devastating impact of the fire. The Fear Factor “Most victims feel an unbelievable sense of loss after a fire,” Jones said. “Children typically report a number of fears. Often they are very worried they won’t survive the next time there is a fire.” The REACT team helps children feel more control over their situations by talking about and processing their fears as well as negative thoughts and memories of the event. They are also taught empowering skills such as the “stop, drop, and roll” technique and fire safety and relaxation procedures. “Fear is an important emotional aspect that can get overlooked when the adults in a family are trying to pick up the pieces and put their lives back together,” Jones said. “Many parents are not aware of what’s really going on with their kids.” Jones said a classic response to a negative event is to avoid talking about it. “We know from research that avoidance inadvertently reinforces the fear,” he said. Beyond Psychological Counseling Research shows those most likely to be injured by fire are children and the elderly, and burn injuries are the thirdleading cause of death in children each year. Many victims of fires are from low-income families. The There are currently no long-term systematic programs that we know of to assist children after a fire. REACT team assists families psychologically and helps identify service needs and connect them with resources, such as school counselors, churches, the American Red Cross, and social services. In addition to the NIMH study, two FEMA grants enabled Jones’ group to study both injured and non-injured children following fire-related trauma. He is also spearheading a project in conjunction with the Yale Child Study Center designed to treat children after a residential fire. Jones’ research and humanitarian efforts are nationally recognized. He was recently featured in a PBS documentary on young burn victims and presented some of his collaboration with Yale on C-Span at the First International Conference on Trauma and Psychosocial Issues held at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. For Russell Jones, his personal and professional priorities are children. Even though he and his wife, Virginia, a counselor, don’t have children of their own, they are actively involved in helping them. “My life’s focus is all about advocating for kids,” he said. “Children can’t speak for themselves.” For more information about REACT, contact Jones by telephone at 540/231-5934 or by e-mail at rtjones@vt.edu. College of Science Magazine Issue No.1 Fall 2005
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College of Science Magazine, Fall 2005 - Physics - Virginia Tech

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