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As heretical as this may seem to some of our fans, we should say, in all earnestness, that Carolina is a better school because of Duke. We are also a better school because of N.C. State. And these two fine universities are better because of Carolina. In several fields of science, we are inseparably one research enterprise, one powerhouse taking on the oversized jobs that none of us could do alone. Some of those jobs are in physics and astrophysics. TUNL is a place scientists go to recalculate the age of the universe. Where they simulate the nuclear reactions that power the sun. Where they contemplate the nature of dark energy.
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| endeavors is the magazine of research and creative activity at the university of north carolina at chapel hill. copyright 2003 endeavors magazine, university of north carolina at chapel hill. no text or image may be reproduced without permission. | |||
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idden away underground, in a bunker-like warren packed with gauges
and wires and machines, stands a hulking beast known as an Enge
spectrograph, which teases out the shrapnel from nuclear reactions.
Art Champagne bolted this monster together from scavenged parts,
painted the carcass two species of blue (Tar Heel and Blue Devil),
then mounted the hardware to roll on a track enameled Wolfpack
red. For all who have seen the frenzy that erupts when any two
of these colors clash on a basketball court, it is hard to imagine
them peacefully sharing a basement together. But they do. And
Triangle Universities Nuclear Laboratory (TUNL) is one place
in North Carolina where the rivalries of Tobacco Road pale to
insignificance in the face of, well, the universe.
ut in the airy sunlight, on leafy green campuses full of spirited
young women and men going about their studies and having their
fun, let the rivalries thrive. But down here in the lab, where
particles explode into the tiniest fractions of physical existence,
bragging rights may well be the silliest concept of all. Everything
we are, right down to the iron in our blood and the oxygen in our
lungs, came from the stuff of exploding stars. As Carl Sagan put
it, "We are starstuff." And here, in this place, we
are one.
Neil Caudle is the editor of Endeavors magazine.
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