I am very excited to be able to spend all day in the underground laboratory at #SNOLAB tomorrow. The day will be a mix of work across projects, including the PICO bubble chamber #darkmatter experiment, the #HALO supernova early warning detector, and the cryogenic noble element distillation column, or #XeStill. I am particularly excited to work with students and colleagues for the day.
I am very excited to welcome my colleague (and soon, my boss), Dr. Ray Bunker, to #SNOLAB! I look forward especially to working with him along with all other members of the SNOLAB Research Division to continue to deliver on the laboratory's research and skilled people missions.
https://fed.brid.gy/r/https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:7tjgk6arml6dzrjicklhpdkb/post/3lproqx3vfk2l
Today is the day I begin my summertime midday runs at work. You cannot run on the mine site that hosts #SNOLAB, but there is a public area just at the edge of the main road and that is a good place to start a run.
Running is quality time with my brain and I have missed it.
Today was the first day of the Future Projects Workshop at @snolabscience.bsky.social . This is the chance for the community - both the current one and potential future ones - to speak to what they think SNOLAB should be doing/hosting/supporting in the coming years. We heard a range of ideas today, from large-scale future neutrino and dark matter detectors to new applications of quantum sensors to subtle neutrino astronomy questions. It was a thrilling day 1 of 3!
To increase #knowledge and #community exchange between underground labs, I am trying to make sure that folks at #SNOLAB can participate in seminars hosted at other labs. Not all labs stream them, but some do.
Tomorrow, the Sanford Underground Research Facility has its next "Deeper Talk" event. Folks at @snolabscience.bsky.social can gather in the auditorium at 11am ET on Wednesday to watch!
Calling all physical science #researchers! The application process is open for the 2025 SNOLAB Underground Science Institute lecture program. Come to #SNOLAB for the summer, work on your project and/or a project at the lab, and get access to academic training and hands-on workshops. This is aimed at graduate students and postdoctoral researchers.
We will start reviewing applications soon!
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Please share this with any #photographers and #photographic #artists who might be interested in turning their creative eye on a science lab that is 2km (6800ft) underground. Applications are welcome! Please mind the deadline.
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Register for the 2025 #SNOLAB edition of the Global Physics Photowalk!
QT @snolabscience.bsky.social over on LinkedIn:
Word is out! #SNOLAB is participating once again in the Global Physics Photowalk.
Apply for a chance to explore one of the most unique places in the world through your own lens. Find out more and register for the 2025 SNOLAB edition of the Global Physics Photowalk here:
I will share more information soon regarding the site visit to #SURF, a sister underground laboratory to #SNOLAB. I want to share now that the "Deep Talk" lecture I delivered last night at the SURF Visitor Centre was an incredible experience. I was especially excited to be able to personally interact with over a dozen audience members. This included an awesome small-group Q&A session after the formal event.
Watch the lecture online:
I am extremely grateful to the Sanford Underground Research facility for hosting a visit by a #SNOLAB communications, user support, and research delegation. The natural beauty of Lead and the Black Hills is a stunning place to contemplate the universe. I am very excited to tour the underground lab tomorrow!
Super excited to see @snolabscience.bsky.social getting ramped up on Bluesky and bridged to the open social web!
In addition to all the other things going on right now, I am enjoying several days of shift on the #HALO supernova early warning project.
There have been no early warnings, since I took over shift, of a #supernova … for the record.
But the team continues to keep the detector running with high uptime as we patiently wait for the next galactic detonation of a heavy dying star!
It’s been a rough few days with this darned respiratory infection, but things have improved enough that I am confident I am going to have a good time giving my 5-minute talk tomorrow at #LaurentianUniversity Research Week: “Lifecycle of the #Cosmos: Deep #Science at #SNOLAB”
Excited to share the experience of making an inexpensive all-electric cloud chamber at Laurentian University #Research Week!
“Physicists wowed by record-shattering neutrino detection”
BY IVAN SEMENIUK SCIENCE REPORTER
#GlobeAndMail #Neutrino #KM3NET
(Gift link)
I am very thrilled that the article features commentary from a #SNOLAB Research Scientist, Dr. Erica Caden!
Want some great #books by women about women and science? Check out this reading list curated by #SNOLAB staff and community members!
https://www.snolab.ca/news/2025-international-day-for-women-and-girls-in-science-book-list/
It is -12C and overcast, I have had some vitamin D, and I am thrilled to be going to work in the underground lab today.
Unlike me, many #SNOLAB employees do four 10-hour shifts in the lab each week. The lab is 6800ft (2km) underground in an active nickel mine, a 1km walk from the "cage" (elevator) we all take underground. The space is a class 2000 cleanroom, 5000 square-metres in size.
I am relieved to be able to get in a 10-hour shift today.
I am really excited to work in the underground lab at #SNOLAB again tomorrow! My job will be to hang back and do no harm as the team investigates the behaviour of a chiller (a super-charged refrigerator) on one of the experiments. Depending on what happens with that chiller, we’ll have some big decisions to make about the next steps in that project. Meanwhile, it will just be nice to be along side the team again.
A colleague of mine shared with me a draft poem about an experiment at #SNOLAB (written by a poet!) and it made my day.
