Argonne National Laboratory
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Argonne National Laboratory is one of the United States government's oldest and largest science and engineering research national laboratories and is the largest in the Midwest. Since the founding of the lab in 1941 the University of Chicago has overseen its operations for the United States Department of Energy and its predecessor agencies. It is located on 1,700 acres (6.9 km²) in DuPage County, 25 miles (40 km) southwest of Chicago, Illinois on Interstate Highway 55. When it was first established it was known as the University of Chicago's Metallurgical Laboratory (Met Lab). Early on the lab was part of the Manhattan Project which built America's first Atomic Bomb.
Argonne has four major mission areas, each of which fulfills important governmental and Department of Energy responsibilities, as well as provides important benefits to society at large. They are:
- Conducting basic scientific research to further our understanding of the world we live in. Argonne conducts basic experimental and theoretical scientific research in the physical, life, and environmental sciences.
- Operating national scientific facilities to help advance America's scientific leadership. Argonne operates world-class research facilities like the Advanced Photon Source.
- Enhancing the nation's energy resources to ensure America's energy future. Argonne is working to develop and evaluate advanced energy technologies.
- Developing better ways to manage environmental problems. Argonne is at the forefront in developing new ways to manage and solve the nation's environmental problems and to promote environmental stewardship.
White Deer at Argonne
Visitors to Argonne National Laboratory-East are sometimes startled by the white deer roaming the site and occasionally speculate on the nature of the experiment that produced their unusual coloring.But the deer are perfectly normal fallow deer (Dama dama), a naturally light-colored species native to North Africa, Europe and parts of Asia. There are about 40 on the Argonne site. The white deer herd began as a herd of 38 animals roaming the estate of Gustav Freund, inventor of "skinless" casings for hot dogs. It had grown from eight or nine, a gift or purchase from Chicago clothier Maurice L. Rothchild.
A heavy snowstorm in the late 1930s forced the deer to forage in the estate's fruit orchard. The Freunds preferred fresh fruit to the deer, so many were given away to parks and zoos. Those that remained were destroyed by the local game warden. All, that is, except two does. One gave birth to a buck, and the herd began to grow in number again.
Born a creamy tan with white spots, the deer become white after reaching their first year. Bucks' antlers are "palmated" - wide and flat like those of moose - and are shed each April or May. The bucks stand about four feet high at the shoulder. Bucks can use their antlers as a slashing weapon, but fights between males are mostly shoving matches in which the deer lower their heads and lock antlers. The Argonne Fire Department has been called out to separate bucks with hopelessly locked headgear.
Except for the mating season, the bucks and does maintain separate groupings. Sometimes large groups may be seen at one time in a clearing, usually in the early morning.
The deer roam freely on the Argonne site. Sometimes they wander through the entrances and end up as far away as Lockport, 12 miles from the laboratory, and Fermilab, 17 miles away. But most stay within the laboratory's confines. Argonne does not own the deer, or feed them.
The laboratory is also home to about 60 native white-tailed deer, commonly referred to at Argonne as "brown deer" to distinguish them from their light-colored cousins. The two species tolerate each other. They tend not to compete for food: whitetails are browsers, eating mostly leaves, while the fallow deer are grazers, partial to the abundant mown grass on the site. White-tailed and fallow deer cannot interbreed.
Photos of Argonne National Laboratory
External links
- [Argonne National Laboratory official website]
- [White Deer Information]
- [Advanced Photon Source website]
- [United States Department of Energy]
- [Maps and aerial photos]
- * Street map from [Google Maps] or [Yahoo! Maps]
- * Topographic map from [TopoZone]
- * Aerial image or topographic map from [TerraServer-USA]
- * Satellite image from [Google Maps] or [Microsoft Virtual Earth]
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