Delving deep beneath the earth's surface to conduct research in secret laboratories has long been the work of superheroes and fictional mad scientists, but it may soon become reality for one Penn professor.
Judging by the fading charts and photographs that plaster his office walls, Alfred Mann is not the type generally associated with the heroes of Hollywood films.
The wall-clippings recalling the numerous accomplishments of Mann's 60-year career seem as though they are from a distant era, and the same could be said of the physicist himself.
He is polite -- seeing his visitors to the elevator following meetings -- and gentlemanly in his mannerisms.
Mann collaborated on the Manhattan project as a graduate student before turning to the study of neutrinos -- tiny, uncharged particles that can pass through the earth without leaving a trace.
This week, the professor emeritus of Physics and Astronomy faces the apex of his research; he expects that the Homestake Mine in Lead, S.D., will be approved for a scientific research lab 8,000 feet underground.
"It's a dream likely to come true," said Mann, whose enthusiasm for the project stems from 25 years spent working for its creation.
He hopes that the approval will attract the attention of the National Science Foundation, which is looking for a site to construct a major underground research facility.
Mann said that if it secures the NSF funding, Homestake could be the first multi-purpose, state-of-the-art lab of its kind in this country -- and it will provide Mann with opportunities for neutrino research that he has long sought.
The money isn't a guarantee -- the NSF is also considering the Henderson Mine in Colorado as a possible locale for the government facility -- but even if Homestake is not selected, Mann said, it will likely still be developed.
When the gold mine closed in 2001, the state's decision to temporarily seal the site gave Mann and his colleagues an opportunity to promote the scientific agenda.
To protest the sealing, they stood in front of one of the mine's entrances. Though this failed to keep the mine open, it brought a flood of media attention to Homestake and Mann's efforts.
Though Mann says he recalls the episode with a smile, at the time, his entire vision for the lab was threatened -- the sections of the mine that are most valuable to particle physicists would have flooded with water if left unattended.
Five years later, however, bureaucratic contentions have settled and the mine is ready for construction.
Homestake is "very well suited for a deep-underground science and engineering laboratory," Executive Director of the South Dakota Science and Technology Authority Dave Snyder said.
A neutrino detector was constructed at the Homestake Mine by former Penn professor Raymond Davis in the 1960s, but Mann hopes that the new lab will allow for an updated version.
Such a mechanism would actually include three separate detectors, each of which Mann said would be the size of a 14-story building.
Mann said that because neutrinos originate deep in the cores of stars, scientists believe they could confirm theories about the nature of stars and could help explain why the universe is primarily composed of certain particles.
Robert Thorton, a Penn post-doctoral researcher in astro-physics, said that the grand implications of neutrino research make it important to a number of scientific fields.
"Most neutrino experiments are built to solve problems in astronomy and cosmology," Thorton said.
Neutrinos are extremely small, and while millions of them pass through our bodies every second, they are extremely difficult to detect.
Scientists "became convinced that one needed a very large detector because neutrinos interact very weakly with matter," Mann said.
Due to the immensity of these plans, Mann said he may not see his work come to fruition for another five years.
Snyder said that experts must first "enter and rehabilitate the infrastructure" to ensure that it is safe enough for construction to begin.
In the meantime, Mann is busy advocating scientific research throughout the country -- at least until he can secure a clipping on the lab's opening for his office wall.
"Homestake is about to come alive," he said.
