9:45 a.m. – Klystron gallery and Linac Light Source tour
10:30 a.m. – Visit discovery site of desmostylian fossil
11:15 a.m. – Break
11:45 a.m. – Archival Survey of Space and Time (ASST) camera tour
12:30 p.m. – Lunch
Fund-hungry physicists had to eat, too.
She was at the cafeteria when the tour group arrived for lunch. One of the security guards that she’d approached earlier stood by the balcony doors. He was wiping his mouth with a napkin from Blue Bottle.
“Was the danish good?” She began to assemble a meal tray, slowed by the stack of reports under her arm and her glances at the cafeteria’s entry. Secretary McCandless was approaching.
“Yes.”
“Did you get the cream cheese one?”
“Yes.” The Secretary crossed the lunchroom with her entourage and the security guard opened the doors onto the balcony, where a catering spread from Evvia was reserved for the federal personnel. Elise McCandless smoothed back her expensively colored hair when a gust of wind blew in from the terrace, revealing a pair of striking diamond studs in her ears.
Perfect.
“Ooof.” Erin wrenched a recalcitrant plastic cup from its stack with a noisypop. She shrugged at the Blue Bottle guard. “You know, I’m studying gravitational waves produced from the movement of astrophysical masses—like the collision of black holes or neutron stars—by looking at their impact on space-time. It takes a monumental amount of force generated from thousands of light-years away to show even a tiny data blip on our monitoring equipment. Imagine if that same force, that pressure, originated on Earth. It’d be enough to make diamonds! I’m still not sure that the pressure could be greater than the vacuum sealing these cups together, though.”
Her intentions couldn’t have been more obvious if she’d been holding up a neon sign that read “Pay Attention and Money to Me!” But the Secretary paused. Her diamond studs glittered. “SVLAC’s research could be used to make gemstones?”
Yes!
“No, Madam Secretary. At least…” She took an experimental step forward. The security guard didn’t stop her. She was discussing fashion and had good danish recommendations.No threat.“Not yet. But my department’s work indicates that there are other natural high pressure and high temperature zones in the universe with the potential to create diamonds from carbon, beyond those occurring under the Earth’s mantle. With the right equipment and funding, we might be able to harness the forces producing those pressures and temperatures. Scientists at NASA have already found nanodiamonds in meteorites! They’re too small for use in jewelry, though. And standard lab-grown gems are commercially available, of course, but just imagine: ethically produced interstellar diamonds…”
“Which department is that?”
“Relativistic Mechanics.”
“Not Quantum Mechanics?” A man from the Secretary’s retinue raised a question now. His badge identified him as the Director of the United States Office of Science. “The general consensus seems to be that quantum is the future of experimental physics. But clearly, there are other relevant fields.”
“My group works with areas of mechanics that are compatible with special and general relativity, sir. Tangible, observable physics and,” Erin tapped her documents, “tangible, observable reports on radio waves emitting from binary pulsars. If we can capture those radio waves—which should be much easier than capturing the force of colliding black holes, in all honesty—they could potentially provide unlimited and reliable power sources for astronauts in orbit.”
“Really.” He eyed her files. “Do you manage this group?”
“Dr. Nadine Fong heads the Relativistic Mechanics group. I’m Dr. Erin Monaghan.”
He appraised her as he’d appraised her papers. Then he extended a hand. “Dr. Richard Hall.”
“Welcome to SVLAC, Dr. Hall.”
Before she and the Director could advance their professional courtesies further into outright networking, a mass of hungry government officials compelled the guard to take his charges out onto the balcony for lunch. She retreated without protest, abandoning her tray and her cup to grab a prepackaged salad. She hummed “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds” while she walked back to Modern Physics. She hardly felt her blisters.
She was still grateful to take a seat in Maiman Auditorium that evening, and surreptitiously eased her chafed, swollen feet out of her heels. She had no intention of moving for a while, anyhow; Hall had invited her to join him in a row behind Secretary McCandless and her security detail. He’d listened to her formal research presentation during a lightning round of department tours, and now she had his ear for the next hour, too. Likely his interest, as well—Ethan Meyer was awkwardly clearing his throat into a microphone at the podium, a slide packed with microscopic numbers and dense text glowing behind him on the projector screen.
“Secretary McCandless and distinguished guests from the United States Office of Science, welcome. Dr. Helena Quarles was scheduled to address you tonight, but she’s unfortunately been delayed in Italy. So instead—I’m Dr. Ethan Meyer, from Quantum Mechanics at SVLAC.” He ran his fingers through his hair in a short, brusque gesture, as if searching for the pen or pencil that he sometimes stuck behind his ear. He’d either attempted to pat down his cowlicks with water, or else sweat was beading on his temples. His tie looked too tight. “This evening, I’ll discuss the research that Dr. John Kramer’s department is conducting on quantum measurement. When a half-reflective mirror splits perpendicular laser beams and bounces them along a pair of thirty-meter tunnels—the beams are calibrated to register the precise locations of the mirrors—”
His data was immaculate, like always. His analyses were sound, obviously. But his constant clarification about the early status of his work overbore its genuinely compelling results. Head cocked, Hall squinted at the print on his slides and frowned.
Under-promise, over-deliverwas Adrian Monaghan’s mantra. Ethan’s conscientious scientific caution was doing him no favors with the politicians, however. Erin took full advantage of that.
“Relativistic mechanics functions at a much broader scale than the quantum field,” she murmured to the Director. “Quantum is useful for micro-scales, but my department’s scope is the rest of the galaxy.”
