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Bison!! Physics!! Bison physics!! — big furry herbivores and particle physics, together at last in Batavia, IL (http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&q=batavia,+IL&om=1) |
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← Bird on a (Bison Behind a) Wire |
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You lookin’ at me? You must be lookin’ at me ‘cause there’s nobody else here … uh, except for these other bison. |
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Nursing bison!! |
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You have much to learn about being a bison, my little one. Like how to eat lots of grass… and walk around slowly… actually, on second thought I think you’ve pretty much got it down. |
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Fermilab is in the western outskirts of Chicago, in Dennis Hastert’s district in the ‘burbs. It’s been home to the world’s most powerful particle physics accelerator experiment since the mid-90s, but it will lose that title sometime next year when those sneaky Europeans turn on their machine at CERN in Switzerland/France (what a bunch of flip-floppers, can’t even decide on a country. Like there’s even a difference. Humph). It’s also the largest employer in Mr. Hastert’s district, which obviously means that he should vote for more money for physics. Most of the land that the lab occupies is maintained as a prairie nature preserve — hence the bisons! Actually these large oafs are kept in a larger enclosure by an electric fence, but they don’t seem to mind. They clearly chose to stand near to the parking lot and to the gawking onlookers. I was a bit surprised at this, considering that there were a number of their babies with them, but I guess they’re used to tourists. I’ve heard some urban myths that explain their presence at the lab. My favorite is that they’re canaries to the particle accelerator’s mineshaft. Which makes me wonder, if a umpteen-thousand pound hairy bison is a canary, what does that make us? |