Contacts:
Joseph Giannetti (for interviews, call Anita Sue Kolman)
Anita Sue Kolman, (952) 929-6934
Deane Morrison, University News Service, (612) 624-2346
An image is available at: http://www.umn.edu/urelate/images/photo595.jpg
MURAL TO CELEBRATE SCIENCE OF NEUTRINOS
MINNEAPOLIS / ST. PAUL--Who says cave art went out with the Paleolithic painters? Minnesota artist Joseph Giannetti is creating a colorful mural half a mile deep in the Soudan Underground Mine near Tower, Minn. The 25- by 60-foot mural will adorn a physics laboratory, operated by the University of Minnesota, where scientists are probing the nature of tiny subatomic particles. The art will also celebrate the Soudan Mine and the generations of miners who provided iron ore to American industry.
"It's incredibly exciting--like winning the lottery," said Giannetti. "My dream was to do a mural that couldn't be torn down and would last forever. This mural will be the deepest in the world, the only one in a mine and the largest on an irregular surface. But because the wall is not flat, it's also a difficult one."
The Soudan Mine was a working mine from the 1880s until 1962 and is now owned by the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources. The current laboratory was built in the mid-1980s. During the past two years, construction workers have excavated and outfitted a new room for an experiment to probe the nature of the elusive particles known as neutrinos by searching for and measuring neutrino mass. The lab includes a handicapped-accessible, second story visitor's gallery financed by a grant from the Legislative Commission on Minnesota Resources. Giannetti's mural will fill the wall opposite the gallery and give visitors an artist's impression of the scientific experiment below them.
In August an international team of scientists began installing a 5,000-ton apparatus, called the MINOS Far Detector. When all is completed, beams of neutrinos will be shot from Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, near Chicago, and some will be picked up by the MINOS Far Detector. This study of neutrino mass is expected to increase understanding of the Big Bang that formed the universe, the unseen "dark matter" that influences the expansion of the universe, and the fundamental interactions between energy and matter. The mural will contain elements symbolizing the formation and expansion of the universe, the history of neutrinos and the scientists who have striven to understand them.
The project is supported in part by the University of Minnesota School of Physics and Astronomy. The University of Minnesota Foundation has set up the MINOS Mural Fund for those who wish to contribute to the project. To donate, call the foundation at (612) 624-3333.
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