The Laughing Wolf

A Rainy Day In Knoxville

Well, it started out that way, but no one in our group seemed to care. The rain was easing up fairly early, and besides we were going to spend most of the morning inside anyway. The trip to Oak Ridge National Laboratory was uneventful, and gave a nice chance to meet and talk with people.

Once there, we were given a series of presentations, most of which focused on various aspects of nanotechnology and wearable robotics. The nanotech lectures were very good overall, and it is interesting to see the progress that has been made. When I first began to cover the topic, and got to take part in a hands-on workshop at Cornell, the promise was there but getting things done was still in the future. The future is here and we even got to look at some nano-devices that can be used for a variety of purposes. Nano is still mostly promise, but the promise is starting to be realized.

The wearable robotics session was quite good, and it was interesting and amusing to find reporters and scientists talking about books and stories such as Starship Troopers, The Forever War, and The Man In The Gray Weapons Suit. Heinlein and company had indeed nailed a number of the problems down, but they are being met. Wearable robotics are still a ways away because of power, control, and sensing, but with luck and some good funding, not too far away.

The final part of the day were presentations on, and tours of, the Spallation Neutron Source. This is a facility being built at Oak Ridge that will provide neutrons for scientific experiments in the way that facilities like the Advanced Photon Source at Argonne create X-ray beams. The SNS as it is known, will allow scientists to study materials, including nanomaterials, in ways not currently possible. It will also allow other scientists to study the neutron itself along with some large-scale activities such as cosmology.

The facility is under construction, but major sections are already built and in place. In fact, we were told that we were some of the last people to tour the linac and beam production end because portions are already being powered up and tested. It was fascinating to see the drift tubes, superconducting segments, and more being put in place. If I get the chance, in the next few days I will try to post some pictures made with the camera phone.

I skipped a banquet last night to go have dinner with some friends. Knoxville is home to Mark Maxwell, one of the best science artists in the world, and it was a pleasure to have dinner with him and Anita. Afterwards, we went back to their home and studio, and I got to see some of his latest work and works in progress. He has finally gotten a major painting that he is doing just for him to the point of being finished, and it sums up a lot of my feelings about Apollo – and NASA. Melancholy, but powerful.

A couple of quick travel notes for Knoxville. I can’t really recommend the Holiday Inn Select downtown. It took two tries to get a decent room, I can’t detect any wi-fi I can tap into, there is no high-speed access, today was the first day they got the wakeup call right (hour early each morning), poor service on the part of several staff, and more. Yet, I can say that two staffers made up for a good bit, Jenny and Kim. If not for them, I might have bailed.

What I can recommend is the Downtown Grill and Brewery. Food is average, but the beer is excellent. Their porter is one of the three best I have had.

The briefing is continuing, but I have to head out today. Wish I could stay, but plan to take care of a few things while I am here.

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