Kepler and the FRIB

(4 Minute Read plus video. 11May2022)

About to leap — Master rides too slowly!

Woof! Woof!
This is Kepler, Master’s Jack Russell terrier, writing another article for Master’s Bible-Science Guy Blog.

Master nearly scared me half to death last week when he said the FRIB is in Michigan.

What in the world is the FRIB?

Master explained it to me, and I’m going to explain here today about the FRIB and some related sciencey stuff. But first, I need to fill you in on some background.

Master takes me camping a lot, and one time I met a stolid English bulldog with a cool name: Fizzy. His Boy named him that because the boy loves something called Physics.

I had never heard of Physics before, so I asked Master about it. Master said Physics is the study of how the Great Creator has built and ordered His creation. Physicists study the fundamental constituents of matter and energy and how they behave and interact in space and time.

This was a bit more than I could comprehend, but that’s what Master said. I do understand that Physics is the study of what our Great Creator made. I think that’s a simple enough explanation.

Recently I heard that our state has a cool new Physics place called the FRIB. Despite being scared at first, I now like the way that sounds. FRIB means Facility for Rare Isotope Beams, and it is at Michigan State University.

Master said the FRIB shoots a super-fast particle beam, and that sounds really cool to me. I want to go visit it. Plus I’m always interested in things that move fast, but Master says there’s nothing for me to chase at the Michigan FRIB — the beams zip along at about half the speed of light, a bit too fast for me.

I asked Master what good is that. He said it helps national security identify radioactive weapons being used by bad guys. Rare isotope beams are also used in astronomy. Missus said doctors use rare isotopes to attack cancer and to diagnose and treat illness. It all helps scientists better understand God’s creation.

FRIB has a 400-kilowatt linear accelerator that will shoot a particle beam at an atom’s nucleus. The smash-up results in other versions of an element called isotopes.

At the official opening on May 2, the FRIB lab director Thomas Glasmacher said, “FRIB will be the core piece of our nation’s research infrastructure and today we cut the ribbon to begin our mission of enabling scientific discovery. More than 1,600 scientists are eager to come here because we will be the best, most powerful superconducting heavy-ion linear accelerator.”

Here is a 4-minute video on FRIB explaining its role in research and education related to rare-isotope discoveries.

Isotope sounds like a great name for a puppy! Maybe I’d name another pup Ion. Come to think of it, the name Einstein would go well in that litter.

I’ve heard Master talk about a Physics guy named Albert Einstein (1879-1955). One thing Dr. Einstein said is, “The whole of science is nothing more than the refinement of everyday thinking.”
(Albert Einstein, Physics and Reality, 1936)

“Everyday thinking” is something Master loves. Plus Master even likes to think about thinking.
We are destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God, and we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ.
(2 Corinthians 10:5)

Being captive means you don’t go to the wrong place. When I ran away from Missus into the woods behind our house several years ago, an angry black-and-white thing sprayed me with a horrible, smelly, yellow-green goo. It burned my eyes a long time, and I had to have so many scrubby baths. My dear doggie friend Lacey did not want to be captive, and she ran away and got hit by a car. So taking our thinking captive keeps us on the right track thinking-wise, the track of obedience to Christ.

Three Things To Do Every Day

Thinking is one of the things that Master does every day. Can you guess the Three Things that he says people should do every day?

I was able to guess them because I live with Master and know what he does.

Here are Master’s Three Things:
1. Think
2. Laugh
3. Pray

I actually made a fourth guess: Read God’s Word. Master said he includes that under “Think” because he has to think to read, and he thinks about what he reads in the Bible.

My Three Things list is different:
1. Eat
2. Run
3. Sleep

Many say that my list is better than Master’s.

When Master was reading about stuff you can’t see, like targeting a nucleus and forming isotopes at that Michigan FRIB, he started talking about Jesus and atoms again. He said Jesus is the Great Creator who made them all and holds everything together.
He is the image of the invisible God, the first-born of all creation. For by Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities — all things have been created by Him and for Him. And He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together.
(Colossians 1:15-17)

Anyway, that’s how things look from the Kepler Dog House!

Till next time, this is Kepler signing off. Woof! Woof!

Questions to Ponder

1. What is your list of Three Things to do every day?
2. What are the personal implications for you that Jesus holds all things together?

Share your thoughts on these questions in the comments below. It could encourage or help another reader.

For Christ and His Kingdom. Soli Deo Gloria. Alere Flammam Veritatis.

This is the 48th article in a series of blog posts on a precocious Jack Russell terrier named Kepler. Numbers 1-8 are by Kepler’s master, the BibleScienceGuy. Numbers 9-48 are by Kepler himself.
Read the prequels:
1. Why I Named Our Puppy “Kepler”
2. Kepler’s Kind
3. Kepler’s Lopsided Trade
4. Kepler’s Amazing Nose
5. Kepler’s Business Card
6. Kepler & the Psycho Squirrel (with video)
7. Taunting Kepler
8. Adam and Puppies

The following posts are by Kepler:
9. Who Taught Kepler?
10. Kepler Gets a Buddy (with video)
11. Kepler Chases a Squirrel (with video)
12. Kepler’s Complaint
13. Kepler’s To-Do List
14. Kepler and the Football Weekend
15. Kepler’s Favorite Store
16. Kepler at a Truck Stop
17. Kepler & Henry Catch a Squirrel
18. Kepler Finds Killdeer Eggs
19. Kepler Finds Robin Eggs
20. Kepler Lives to Tell the Tale
21. Kepler, Bears, & Raccoons
22. Kepler Mentors Henry
23. Kepler Gets a Bear
24. Kepler Finds Strange Eggs
25. Kepler Finds Duck Eggs
26. Kepler Gives Thanks
27. Kepler’s Newest Enemy
28. Kepler Loves Bulldogs
29. Kepler Ponders Snow
30. Kepler Wants to Move to Australia
31. Kepler’s Dating Profile
32. Kepler Meets Skunk
33. Kepler Wants to Be Good
34. Kepler on Guard
35. Kepler Chews On Grammar
36. Kepler for President
37. Kepler for President: Grins & Growls #1
38. Kepler for President: Grins & Growls #2
39. Kepler’s Water Guns
40. Kepler Remembers Henry (with video)
41. Kepler Gives a Virus Briefing
42. Kepler’s Campaign Advice
43. Kepler Ponders Senescence
44. Kepler’s AK-47
45. Kepler Talks Turkey
46. Kepler Versus the Squirrel
47. Kepler Hates This Word

Read the sequel:
49. Kepler Finds Strange Creature

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©William T. Pelletier, Ph.D.
“contending earnestly for the faith”
“destroying speculations against the knowledge of God”
“for the defense of the gospel”
(Jude 1:3; 2 Cor 10:5; Phil 1:16)
Wednesday May 11, 2022 A.D.

But now ask the beasts, and let them teach you;
And the birds of the heavens, and let them tell you.
Or speak to the earth, and let it teach you;
And let the fish of the sea declare to you.
Who among all these does not know
That the hand of the LORD has done this,
In whose hand is the life of every living thing,
And the breath of all mankind? (Job 12:7-10)

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