Back on track?

摘要

Oak Ridge National Laboratory is more than 60 years old and, until recently, it looked that way. Despite its track record in nuclear research, the host of wildlife that wanders on campus, and the pretty sunsets over the rolling hills of eastern Tennessee, it looked unlikely to entice the energetic people who are the lifeblood of any great laboratory. Salvation may be at hand. The Spallation Neutron Source (SNS), the largest scientific facility to be built in the United States for a decade, will become operational at Oak Ridge by next June. The $1.4-billion machine will generate neutron beams by firing high-energy protons at liquid mercury. Hundreds of visiting researchers are expected to descend on the laboratory and use these beams to probe the structures of molecules and crystals.