U.S. scientists say they need an underground lab / Geologists, physicists have work they can't do elsewhere
Published 4:00 am, Sunday, August 22, 2004
Geologists say they need to go a mile beneath Earth's surface to understand how groundwater flows and look for life that thrives under extreme conditions. Physicists say an underground detector is the best place to learn more about neutrinos, particles that allow the sun to burn and the stars to shine.
The National Science Foundation is drafting a plan to build a multidisciplinary underground laboratory in the United States that would foster both types of research. It would be the first of its kind in the world -- a single lab in which physicists grapple with questions about the origins of the universe while geologists in a neighboring cavern attempt to unearth the secrets underfoot.
If approved and built, the lab could bring the United States firmly to the forefront of underground research -- regaining leadership it first claimed three decades ago at the Homestake lab in South Dakota. Now, U.S. physicists interested in cutting-edge underground particle research have to travel to places such as Canada or Japan. And underground geologists have nowhere to turn at all.
"There isn't a basic, fundamental geology laboratory right now," said David Lambert, program director of the science foundation's division of earth sciences. Most geologists do their work by drilling deep cores of rock, modeling the underground environment on a small scale in their labs, using computers that give only a partial picture of what happens in real stone.
Burying a lab beneath thousands of feet of rock provides a protective shield against the cosmic rays that constantly shower down on Earth, interfering with sensitive astrophysics and nuclear detection experiments. And the rock surroundings that are so beneficial to the physics experiments are themselves a source of data for geologists.
This summer, the National Science Foundation began a three-stage process for selecting the experiments and the best place to conduct them. The cost is estimated at several hundred million dollars and construction could begin as soon as 2008, although scientists who have already been campaigning for a lab for two decades are well aware there is no guarantee that it will be built at all.
U.S. scientists pioneered underground science three decades ago with a buried solar "telescope," a massive tank filled with ordinary dry cleaning fluid that reacted with particles from the sun. Raymond Davis Jr., who led the Homestake lab, shared the Nobel Prize in physics in 2002 for detecting solar neutrinos, infinitesimally small particles that are byproducts of the fusion reactions of the sun and stars.
Davis' ground-breaking work at the bottom of a working gold mine was in stark contrast to his surroundings, which were "very wild west," according to physicist Harry Miley of the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory who has been working underground for the last 20 years. Homestake, which was closed, along with the mine, in 2001, had rough floors, rough walls, dirt, dust, heat and plenty of humidity. "In our case, a single drop of sweat would kill our experiment," Miley said, recalling one of the unexpected experimental difficulties -- perspiration.
Since then, labs in Japan and Canada have taken the lead in neutrino research. In a Canadian mine that houses the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory, scientists descend and then shower before donning steel-toed boots, a jumper and hair net, a far cry from the rattly elevators (called cages) and dusty environs that Miley and others remember.
Japanese scientists, using their underground Kamioka Observatory, have been able to conclude that neutrinos have some mass -- contradicting earlier research -- but an even bigger facility is needed to push their discoveries further.
U.S. particle physicists have to leave the country to do their work.
"What worries me more than anything else right now is that both the Japanese and the Europeans are moving very, very quickly while we're still struggling to get started," said Wick Haxton, a physics professor at the University of Washington who will propose a site at Icicle Creek in Washington.
The science foundation expects to receive about 10 proposals for possible places to put an underground lab, including the Homestake site, a tunnel carved into a mountain in Washington state, and a working iron mine in northern Minnesota.
"Let me say first and foremost: I don't care where the lab is; I'm gonna use it," said Miley, echoing the opinions of most scientists in the field.
The lab will be an economic boon to the local economy wherever it goes. According to Pete Fuller, a Lead lawyer, a common joke in town is that the average IQ will double if even one Ph.D. scientist moves in.
Many researchers also believe the lab -- by generating public interest and attention -- could boost science literacy, with tours and community outreach for the general public, and summer research opportunities for high school and college students who have no access to the sites in Japan and Canada. "You can't really buy everyone a plane ticket to another continent," said Ed Kearns, a physicist from Boston University who commutes to the Kamioka Observatory to do his research.