May 15, 2007
Brookhaven Lab opens again for Summer Sundays
Brookhaven National Laboratory has announced its 2007 schedule of free public access for its Summer Sundays - including an August 19 tour of its Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider.
Located out on Long Island and normally closed to the public, Brookhaven is operated by the U.S. Department of Energy. Scientist there have won six Nobel prizes, most recently in 2003 when Dr. Roderick MacKinnon won for his work using Brookhaven's National Synchrotron Light Source.
 The National Synchrotron Light Source, one of the world¹s brightest sources of x-ray, infrared, and ultraviolet light beams, will be the focus of the July 15 tour of the lab.
The Sunday events begin July 8 and conclude August 19. All are free and tend to be a low-key casual affair with lots of families, and scientists in casual clothes milling about and eager to talk about their research with anyone who asks.
Last summer, NewYorkology made the trip to see the RHIC (pronounced "rick") and found out that siince the ion collider is turned off in the summer, you can actually get your hands on it during the Summer Sunday tour. Last year, you were able to get up close to the massive magnets around the RHIC ring and visit two labs at different points on the ring, the STAR and PHENIX programs. The giant RHIC tunnels -- which are so big they can be seen from space -- allow ions to travel at 99.995 percent of the speed of light.
Brookhaven National Laboratory is located about an hour from Manhattan on William Floyd Parkway, County Road 46, north of Exit 68 of the Long Island Expressway, map. Unfortunately there's no good public transportation to the lab and the closest train station is Yaphank, served by the Long Island Rail Road.
Note that the dates on the Brookhaven website are currently incorrect. The correct dates are July 8 (life sciences;) July 15 (National Synchrotron Light Source;) July 22 (the new Nano Center;) July 29 (family day;) August 5 (fire rescue vehicles;) August 12 (National Weather Service) and August 19 (RHIC.)
If you go, you should arrive between 10 a.m. and 3 p.m. Any visitor over 16 years old must have a photo i.d. No reservations are required.
More pictures after the jump.
Earlier: Scoping out the city's best science offerings
Illuminating science in the city
May 15, 2007 12:24 PM in Cheap Stuff, Kids, Out of Manhattan, Sightsology, Techology, Tours
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