The end of March 2000 had finally arrived. Bil, Ditlev, Rob, and I arrived at London’s Heathrow Airport with the three dewars full of crystals. One of them was in a rectangular case, and the other two were in cases that were cylindrical with dome-shaped caps, resembling what Brian called a small thermonuclear device. Among ourselves, we referred to them as the suitcase and the bombs and had to consciously refrain from that habit at the airport when checking them in as baggage (today no airline would accept them as baggage and they now must be shipped separately by FedEx). We certainly didn’t want a zealous airline or security official opening the dewars and warming up our precious crystals.
It was an icy cold day when we landed in Chicago, rented a car at O’Hare International Airport, and drove down to Argonne where the APS was. After a fitful night’s ...
