Weber State College Comment, January 1988. Page 4 for some reason, there is an imbalance in the system. To right the unbalance the nucleus of the atom will change characteristics. A neutrally charged neutron may get rid of an clectron to become a positively charged proton or the proton may give up a positive particle, called a positron, to become a The resulting “waste,” be it said. et a Weber State researchers also hope to use the machinery to better understand nuclear power. The sun uses nuclear — energy, nuclear fusion to be exact, to produce heat and light. Man can somewhat duplicate that process (hydrogen bombs are sun-like reactions), but as yet no one has discovered how to control nuclear fusion to produce useable energy. “If we could control it we could extract energy a little at a time and use it for electrical power. Some scientists are trying to solve that problem, but it’s a tough one,” Dr. Jeffery said. Students may not be able to crack those difficult kinds of problems when the lab opens for classroom instruction during spring quarter of this academic year, but the WSC physicist predicts the lab will have a dramatic effect on student learning and opportunities. “There are a lot of things we can do with this on an undergraduate level,” he said. “Our students will be very well trained.” eS decay or THO Nuclear OFC KOR ole In the heavier materials such as lead and uranium extra neutrons are needed to hold the protons together, but it can get to a point where there are too many neutrons and the atom becomes unstable. Such is the case with uranium. It would take about 4.5 billion years give or take a million, but uranium will eventually change its nuclear makeup until it becomes lead. The process by which that happens is what students and faculty will study, Dr. Jeffery yy Sees and 126 neutrons. The most abundant form of uranium, on the other hand, has 92 protons and electrons and 146 neutrons. Dr. Rondo Jeffery of the WSC physics department, says that the new lab will give faculty and students opportunities for state-of-the-artresearch. 1k, ee electron or positron, fires out of the nucleus at near the speed of light, and is “seen” by the new WSC equipment, Dr. Jeffery said. The nuclear detector monitors these particle emissions to a tenth of a percentage point and the computer charts the proceedings to give students and professors an idea of what’s going on in the atom's tiny world. Positrons add an additional note of intrigue to the process, he said. If these small particles of positively charged matter combine with electrons the result is a small particle of light, called a gammaray, and the complete annihilation of both the positron and electron. They simply disappear; no mass, no anything. “The theory is that for every particle there is a similar anti-matter,” Dr. Jeffery said. “Some have even speculated that there is an anti-earth.” Radioactive particles are used because their nuclei are in a constant state of imbalance. Lead, for example, in one stable form has 82 protons and electrons Se a neutron. Viena oh Sai and graduate research,” he added. The machine measures particles emitted from the nucleus of atoms and since radioactive materials have the most active nuclei, they will be used for study. But Dr. Jeffery points out that only very lowlevel materials will be used for safety sake. “We'll be studying their energy levels and all sorts of aspects of the nuclei,” he said. Scientists can tell what is going on in the center of an atom from the by-products it shoots out, he said. Atoms are one of natures’ most basic building blocks, and, with the exception of hydrogen, contain a center or nucleus of neutrons and protons. Hydrogen, the lone exception of the 92 naturally-occurring elements, lacks any neutrons. Neutrons are neutrally charged and protons have a positive electric energy, and both are located in the center of the atom. Electrons, or negatively charged particles, circle the center, and usually are the same in number as the protons. Whenever all the protons, neutrons and electrons are put together in a proportionate manner the material is considered stable. “Helium, forexample, has 2 protons and 2 neutrons and 2 electrons,” he said. The fun begins, Dr. Jeffery said, when Bik. For every particle there is an opposite “anti-particle” tha, in collision,t results in total annihilation of both particles, and Weber State nuclear physicists and students will now study this and other perplexing oddities of nature thanks to a grant which establishes the college’s first nuclear physics laboratory. The laboratory will feature a computerrun nuclear particle detector that allows students and scientists to study the nucleus of atoms, so-called “anti matter,” and subatomic energy levels. Dr. Rondo N. Jeffery of the WSC physics department, said the researchgrade equipment costs approximately $36,000, half of which was funded by a grant from the College Science Instrumentation Program sponsored by the National Science Foundation. The grant was one of two given to the state of Utah this year. The other one went to the WSC electronic engineering technology department. “The kind of background we can give students on this equipment will make the Students very well trained to work on the super collider or in any nuclear energy field,” Dr. Jeffery said. “This equipment is not very common in a teaching college. Most universitics who have this would use it mostly for faculty acquires physics lab ze College nuclear a ~—- a © electron ~~ Chlorine Atom Atoms consist ofa nucleus or center of positively charged particles called protons. Neutrons, or particles with nocharge, help hold the atom together and give the atom its weight. Negatively charged electrons orbit the nucleus. ticle, tobecome aneutron. The particles emitted by nuclear decay are what WSC students and professors will study in their new nuclear physics lab. alia Nuclear decay is the process of neutrons giving up an electron to become a proton. Protons can also give upa positron, or a positively charged par-