Neutrino Day draws 600

Lead, S.D. – The Neutrino Day science festival at the Sanford Underground Laboratory at Homestake drew 600 people this morning, many of them young future scientists.

The Lead City Commission declared Saturday, July 11, Neutrino Day, and Gov. Mike Rounds had declared that Saturday would be Neutrino Day in the entire state South Dakota. The event was celebrated in Lead with a free science festival. Neutrino Day featured:

Hands-on science activities.Science lectures for general audiences. (9 a.m., 10 a.m., 11 a.m.  and noon)Q&A’s with scientists. (After the science talks)Walking tours of the Yates Shaft hoist room.“The Ghost Particle,” a PBS documentary revealing the connection between a subatomic particle called a neutrino, the Nobel Prize and the former Homestake gold mine. (9 a.m., 10:45 a.m. and 11:45 a.m.)“Fly Me to the Moon,” a feature-length 3-D animated movie for kids of all ages. (9 a.m. and 11 a.m.)

The Lead Chamber of Commerce has traditionally celebrated Neutrino Day every Feb. 23. This year there’s a new plan. The Chamber is joining forces with the Sanford Lab to create a regular summer event, with science activities for students of all ages – young kids to adults.  South Dakota Public Broadcasting, Black Hills State University and South Dakota School of Mines & Technologies are cosponsors of the event, which is modeled on last year’s Science Rocks festival at Sanford Lab. Additional co-sponsors include the Adams Museum and House in Deadwood and ITT.
Next year Neutrino Day will be Saturday, July 10. For more information, contact Sanford Lab Communications Officer Bill Harlan (above) or the Homestake Visitor Center at 605 584-3110.
*  Neutrinos are subatomic particles, and the former Homestake gold mine is famous for them. The late Ray Davis of Brookhaven National Laboratory installed a solar neutrino detector 4,850 feet underground at Homestake in 1965. The experiment ran for decades, and Davis earned the 2002 Nobel Prize for Physics for his work.
*Here's the WIMP T-shirt story: Physicists think a leading candidate for a mysterious, yet-to-be-detected substance called "dark matter" is a "weakly interacting massive particle," or WIMP. The Sanford Lab at Homestake hosted about 350 scientists last year for a conference in Lead. Among those scientists were a team of dark-matter researchers. Dr. Jose Alonso, lab director, had these T-shirts made up for that select group, but many people have requested them. Now they're available at the Homestake Visitor Center at the Open Cut in Lead. Call 605 584-3110 for more information.

*The Yates Dry: The locker room at the top of the Yates Shaft at the Homestake gold mine in Lead was called "the dry" because the temperature was kept toasty warm so wet mine clothes would dry between shifts. Now the gold mine is being converted into a science laboratory, but the Yates Dry and the Ross Dry (near the top of the Ross Shaft) have retained their traditional names.