What the hell is a cyclotron? It's not exactly nuclear science. Oh, wait, it is nuclear science. And MSU actually has a cyclotron. A good one. Not one of those Sears cyclotrons, or the ones you get in a Happy Meal from McDonald's.
The exterior of the building looks like it was designed by Stanley Kubrick and Isaac Asimov after digging into Darth Vader's secret stash. It has a sleek, blacked-out, curvy look that attracts the nerds like the swallows to Capistrano. It's hard-core. It's science.
And it's ours. And we have two of them inside that Cyclotron building.
Inside the moon unit-looking structure at the corner of Shaw Lane and Bogue Street, the two cyclotrons play a smash-and-grab game of universal proportions. Magnetically powered particles whirl around at speeds that probably would melt your face off and crash into one another so that scientists - presumably in white lab coats with clipboards - learn more about the guts that spill out of the nucleus.
It helps us learn how the elements were created when the universe was born, how the speck of space dust that collected a layer of dirt, then another, then another, turned into the planet Earth and gave us life. It gives us all an understanding of the infinite grandeur and mystery of the cosmos, then studies the tiniest subatomic particle's tiniest particle later that afternoon.
What's that, other cyclotrons? Think you're tough or something? The U.S. News and World Report ranked us as the No. 2 cyclotron in the nation. Our Cyclotron attracts a host of international astrophysicists. Make us a sandwich.
This Friday, the MSU Board of Trustees will determine the fate of a proposed $3 million, 13,000 square-foot addition for our Cyclotron. The proposal calls for more working space, allowing projects currently on the back burner to commence.
More scientists, more elbow room, more science to get under way. For a school with the reputation of being a research university, the expansion of the Cyclotron and its capabilities is sound judgment.
But wait! The school, state and nation are in a budget crunch. Fiscal responsibility is the most popular kid in class these days, and $3 million to improve an already costly investment seems a little out of touch with realistic needs. Add to the equation that nuclear science is getting a bad rap lately, and it puts the trustees in a position to put $3 million back into the school's accounts Robin Hood-style.
For justification's sake, this is the one time that a cyclotron can be compared to an air-conditioning unit - it has the potential to pay for itself.
The Cyclotron's capabilities attract faculty, students, graduate students, scientists and researchers to East Lansing. It brings the next big breakthrough that much closer to happening in our backyard, and it could take a hometown kid to Sweden to collect a Nobel Prize in nuclear physics.
In the interest of facilitating research - not hindering it - the decision to greenlight a $3 million expansion to the Cyclotron is a worthy one. If MSU wants to be on the forefront of national research, we shouldn't be afraid to spend the coins to get us there.
Our Cyclotron can totally beat up other cyclotrons right now. Imagine what the future could bring.
