A world-class accelerator and particle physics research facility was a playground of science experiments, tours, balloons and prizes during Wilson Synchrotron Laboratory's third open house, June 27.

The hallways of Wilson Lab, home to Cornell's synchrotron radiation facility and electron storage ring, were open to all ages during the public event meant to make physics -- and science in general -- accessible and fun.

Curiosity brought Kendal at Ithaca resident Robert Black and his wife, Nancy, to the open house.

"We're very interested in scientific things, and the tour promises to show us a lot about the synchrotron," said Black, after hovering over a plasma ball demonstration. "We've seen the sign for it over the years, and we'd rather see what's inside."

A highlight of the day was the public's first glimpse at a prototype electron beam injector, which would eventually become part of Cornell's new particle accelerator called the Energy Recovery Linac (ERL). The much-anticipated ERL, still in planning stages, would allow the production of X-ray beams with extraordinary imaging capabilities. The prototype consists of machinery that produces electron beams, which would eventually get accelerated to near the speed of light in the completed ERL.

Most people are familiar with X-rays at the dentist or doctor, explained tour guide Karl Smolenski, a scientist at Wilson Lab who works on the ERL.

"But we want to have resolution with our X-rays to see things at the nanometer scale -- far beyond what we can do now," he said.

Besides facility tours, which brought participants up close and personal with the Cornell High Energy Synchrotron Source (CHESS) and the Cornell Electron Storage Ring (CESR), the open house featured stations where red T-shirt-clad volunteers demonstrated such scientific concepts as light and color, vacuums and electricity.

A favorite stop was a demonstration on liquid nitrogen, led by Richard Gillilan, senior research associate at CHESS. Onlookers, required to wear safety goggles, watched Gillilan demonstrate the extreme cold temperature of liquid nitrogen by dunking a carnation and an apple into the mysterious fogging bath and unceremoniously shattering them -- to the delight of younger spectators.

Some of the learning stations were dedicated to the type of science that ERL promises; participants could watch materials exposed to an X-ray source and view the atomic spectra emitted by metals, which, it turns out, can be found in fish ear bones, paintings and breakfast cereal.