Zoom Backgrounds from the Archives, part 3

Who is ready for a new batch of Zoom backgrounds?! We know you’ve been waiting for the third installment of our Zoom background offerings... (Check out part one here and part two here!) Our staff has chosen some of our favorite images from the Emilio Segrè Visual Archives (ESVA) and made them available, sized to fit perfectly in your video chat tool of choice (Zoom, Teams, etc.). Whether you are working, attending school, or chatting with friends remotely, these backgrounds are sure to spark a conversation! Download below:

West Milton, New York Power Plant

Credit: AIP Emilio Segrè Visual Archives, Wheeler Collection

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Dome of the first commercial nuclear power plant in West Milton, NY. Made by the first Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) Reactor Safeguard Committee which included Richard Feynman, Edward Teller, Manson Benedict, Harry Wexler, Abel Wolman and John A. Wheeler.

Image information: Wheeler John Archibald H3

A Field in Fleurs

Credit: AIP Emilio Segrè Visual Archives, John Irwin Slide Collection

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A row of cross-type radio telescopes in Fleurs, Australia. They were deployed by Australia’s Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) Division of Astrophysics at a field station 40 km from Sydney.

Image information: Irwin John F6

Seated at a Soviet Synchrotron

Credit: AIP Emilio Segrè Visual Archives, Physics Today Collection

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Gloria Lubkin sits at the synchrotron control panel in Serpukhov, Russia. After working as a nuclear physicist, Gloria Lubkin became a science journalist and later editor-in-chief at Physics Today. Among many other achievements she was one of the first American science journalists to travel to the Soviet Union, in 1968, which is probably when this photo was taken. 

Image information: Lubkin Gloria F1

Control Panel of a Canadian Cyclotron

Credit: AIP Emilio Segrè Visual Archives, Bromley Collection

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The control room for the EN-1 tandem accelerator at the Chalk River Laboratories of Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd, located in Ontario. From the right: Ted Litherland, Allan Bromley, Harry Gove, Charles Gingell, and an unidentified technician. 

Image information: Bromley David Allan F9

Donnelly Lab Equipment, University of Oregon

Credit: AIP Emilio Segrè Visual Archives, Gift of Dr. Donnelly

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This rack of unidentified equipment was used in the Donnelly Laboratory, Room 8 at Pacific Hall, University of Oregon. Russ Donnelly was affiliated with the University of Oregon for nearly 50 years. He was an expert in low-temperature physics, and directed Oregon’s Cryogenic Helium Turbulence Laboratory.  

Image information: Donnelly Russell H1

Walter Massey

Credit: AIP Emilio Segrè Visual Archives, Physics Today Collection

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Walter Massey sitting in his office. Dr Massey has served as the Director of the National Science Foundation (1991-1993), the President of Morehouse College (1995-2007), and the President of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (2010-2016) in his career.

Image information: Massey Walter B1

Henry Bumstead

Credit: AIP Emilio Segrè Visual Archives

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Henry Bumstead in his room at Cavendish Laboratory, University of Cambridge, making a vacuum to split atoms. 

Image information: Bumstead Henry F1

50th Anniversary of the Kamerlingh Onnes Laboratory

Credit: AIP Emilio Segrè Visual Archives

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Exhibit for the celebration of the Kamerlingh Onnes Lab's 50th anniversary. Note the laboratory motto on the wall: "door meten tot weten" - "knowledge through measurement".

Image information: Kamerlingh Onnes Heike H11

Kamerlingh Onnes Lab, continued!

Credit: AIP Emilio Segrè Visual Archives

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(We loved this pair of photographs of the Kamerlingh Onnes Laboratory, we couldn't choose which one to include!) Another view of the anniversary display at the Kamerlingh Onnes Laboratory. The posters announce the discovery of superconductors and one form of equation of state for a gas. 

Image information: Kamerlingh Onnes Heike H8

1922 AAS Meeting

Credit: AIP Emilio Segrè Visual Archives

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Attendees of the 28th American Astronomical Society (AAS) meeting, 1922, at Yerkes Observatory in Williams Bay, Wisconsin.

Image information: AAS E13

James West

Credit:AIP Emilio Segrè Visual Archives, Gift of Dr. West

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James West, inventor of the electret microphone and Acoustical Society of America (ASA) president from 1998 - 1999, with acoustic equipment.

Image information: West James B1

Aboard the Kuiper Airborne Observatory

Credit: NASA, courtesy of AIP Emilio Segrè Visual Archives, Erickson Collection

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Graduate student Charlie Telesco (University of Chicago) and Bob Lowenstein (Yerkes Observatory), 1974 on the Kuiper Airborne Observatory (KAO).

Image information: Telesco Charles C1