1. Exploring the Universe with Cosmic Rays
Jim Linnemann
Professor of Physics
Frontiers of Science
MSU, Oct 16-17, 2003

2. Overview History and Physics of Cosmic Rays The Milagro Experiment
A Bit on the Cosmos
Resources

3. Thanks to Colleagues Dan Claes, of U Nebraska CROP project
Sarah Eno, D0, Quarknet, U Maryland
Jordan Goodman, Milagro, Quarknet, Umd
Gus Sinnis and many Milagro Colleagues

4. My Goals for class Share my enthusiasm
How my first field of high energy physics
science of the very small
connects with my second field of astrophysics
science of the very large
A flavor of mindset and methods of physics
Welcoming you to my world:
Where extrasensory perception is a daily fact
Provoke, and try to answer questions!

5. My Background Grew up on a farm St. Louis U, Cornell
6 years at CERN (Geneva Switzerland)
MSU since 1984
Living in Haslett; daughter in 3rd grade
High Energy Particle Physics
D0 experiment at Fermilab (Chicago)
starting a MSU program in Cosmic Ray physics
Sabbatical on Milagro, in Los Alamos, New Mexico
I’m an experimenter
Build apparatus, perform experiments, test theories
I enjoy collaborative and international research

6. Your Background? Do you teach High School?
Took physics classes in college?
Do you teach physics?
Goals for class for you?
What else would you like me to know?

7. A random example of the power of mathematics
The same equation
Governs: the radioactive decay of Carbon 14
The loss of obsolete words in a language
Is this a wild fluke?
There is an underlying unity between the phenomena:
number lost per unit time is proportional to the original number
Provided by an English major friend, at a cosmology lecture
A remark by one of her linguistics professors