Dr. Ray Davis inspects his neutrino detector under construction in the Homestake gold mine. (1965)
A laboratory 4,850 feet underground in the Homestake gold mine in Lead, South Dakota, helped start a revolution in physics.
Dr. Ray Davis installed a neutrino detector in Homestake in 1965. Neutrinos are subatomic particles produced by fusion in stars, and over the course of three decades, the Davis experiment led to the discovery that the neutrinos produced in our sun change type, or "flavor," on their way to earth. The change in flavor meant neutrinos had to have at least a wisp of mass -- a wisp that required a significant change in the Standard Model of how the universe works.
Mike Headley has been named laboratory director of the Sanford Underground Laboratory at Homestake.
"Mike is definitely the right person for the job," said Ron Wheeler, executive director of the South Dakota Science and Technology Authority (SDSTA). "He'll report to me, but Mike will also be our direct link with Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and the Department of Energy."
The annual celebration of science in Lead, South Dakota, takes the leap from outer space to the deep underground from July 7 to 9. Events include a South Dakota Public Broadcasting Science Café on July 7, a special radio broadcast on July 8 and the fourth annual Neutrino Day science festival on Satu…
There was an unusual scene on the 4850 Level on Friday morning, June 17, as reporters and photographers from South Dakota news outlets simultaneously conducted half a dozen different interviews of scientists,
engineers and technicians in the huge Transition Cavern.
Ten journalists took the undergr…
The Sanford Underground Laboratory at Homestake holds great promise for education, technology and research in South Dakota.
While the path to realizing these goals has not been easy, we do have a clear plan for moving forward. A review of recent events will make the plan easier to understand.
In 2007, South Dakota reopened the Homestake Mine for basic physics and early science, studying the most basic building blocks of all matter.
We also began refurbishing and improving Homestake's infrastructure. As we reopened the former gold mine, scientists worked with the National Science Foundation (NSF) on a long-term goal: converting Homestake into a national Deep Underground Science and Engineering Laboratory, or DUSEL.
In December 2010, the National Science Board, which governs the National Science Foundation, decided that the cost and scope of DUSEL were inconsistent with the foundation's overall mission. Despite that setback, we received some good news. The Department of Energy (DOE), which manages all national laboratories in U.S., agreed to study how it might take over the project.
WASHINGTON — Proceeding with three physics experiments planned for the Deep Underground Science and Engineering Laboratory (DUSEL) would provide an “exceptional opportunity” for major scientific advances and give the U.S. a leading role in underground science, says a new report by the National Research Council. Although the future of DUSEL is uncertain, each of the proposed experiments addresses at least one crucial unanswered question “upon which the tenets of our understanding of the universe depend,” the report says.
Engineers and scientists at the Sanford Underground Laboratory have taken three major steps toward creating a research campus 4,850 feet below the surface of the earth, where some of the greatest scientific questions of the 21st century might be answered. Deep labs protect sensitive experiments from…
The Large Underground Xenon Detector, or LUX, will be tested over the next few months in the surface lab, where problems are easier to fix. Later in 2011, LUX will be disassembled and transported 4,850 feet underground, where it will be reassembled and installed in the same cavern excavated for the …
An NSF DUSEL at Homestake The National Science Foundation’s DUSEL at Homestake, would have campuses from the surface down to 8,000 feet. Click Here...
Mike Headley has been named laboratory director of the Sanford Underground Laboratory at Homestake.
