Dune: Government Spice Antimatter

Sanford Underground Research Facility // America's Deepest Underground Lab // Lead, South Dakota SURF and the Antimatter Beam What new people need to know about DUNE, Sanford Lab, and the search for why matter won. The deepest underground lab in America: 4,850 feet downPer SURF. It also calls itself "America's Underground Lab" and says it is among the deepest in the world.

From the Sanford Underground Research Facility's own website: its Education page "Surviving the Antimatter Apocalypse." Students play a particle of matter in the early universe and try to avoid annihilation with antimatter. sanfordlab.org

$62.5T / gramEstimated cost of antimatter, the most expensive substance on Earth

800 miBeam path, Illinois to South Dakota

4,850 ftDeepest lab in America

1876-2001Homestake, the largest gold mine in the Western Hemisphere, became SURF

The Researcher’s Angle Documented: SURF’s own article says Fermilab will generate intense beams of neutrinos and antineutrinos. The beam goes 800 miles through the Earth to SURF’s far detector. The lab sits in a former gold mine. The author’s claim: DUNE is a way to collect and use antimatter, not just observe it. The connections below are the author’s own to share. Readers can decide for themselves.

THE CONNECTIONS: THE DISCLOSURE DOTSEvidence dots from pop culture, history and names, all connected to the real-world project and to antimatter. It started with the name DUNE.

WHAT IT LOOKS LIKEThe stand-ins: what antimatter gets disguised as.

The Spice Connection

The Opening Narration, in Full

"The beginning is a very delicate time. Know then that it is the year 10,191. The known universe is ruled by the Padishah Emperor, Shaddam the Fourth, my father. In this time the most precious substance in the universe is the Spice Melange. The Spice: - extends life - expands consciousness - is vital to space travel The Spacing Guild and its Navigators, who the Spice has mutated over four thousand years, use the orange Spice gas, which gives them the ability to fold space. That is, travel to any part of the universe without moving. Oh yes, I forgot to tell you. The Spice exists on only one planet in the entire universe. A desolate, dry planet with vast deserts. Hidden away within the rocks of these deserts are a people known as the Fremen, who have long held a prophecy that a man would come, a messiah who would lead them to true freedom. The planet is Arrakis, also known as Dune." PRINCESS IRULAN, OPENING NARRATION OF THE 1984 FILM

If the video does not load, watch it on YouTube.

Bruce Almighty (2003): A Meteor and "Spice"Bruce uses his God powers to make a meteorite land harmlessly near a cook-off, which earns him the nickname "Mr. Exclusive." The author says Bruce says this should spice things up a bit.

Spice god.

Jimmy Neutron: Win, Lose and KaboomThe author says a meteor of alien origin crashes. Jimmy's father mentions Irish people, then "space gazpacho," a soup, and says "I bet that'd be spicy, huh?" The author notes the father in Dune, Princess Irulan's father.

Jimmy Neutron, “Win, Lose and Kaboom!”: Jimmy’s father, and Jimmy and his father at the huge inscribed stone.

Jimmy Neutron Wiki: Win, Lose and Kaboom! If the video does not load, watch it on YouTube.

Call of Duty Zombies: Element 115 Element 115 is Moscovium in the real world and "Divinium" in the game. It first appears as a meteor fragment. It powers the Ray Gun, Pack-a-Punch, Perk-a-Cola machines and the teleporters, and it created the zombies. The wiki calls it the "fabric and webbing" of the universe. Dr. Ludvig Maxis and Group 935 discovered it. Buried is a Black Ops II Zombies map set in an underground western town, with an entrance to the mines near Quick Revive and an Easter egg called "Mined Games." Call of Duty Wiki: Element 115 Call of Duty Wiki: Buried

Bob Lazar: The 115 ConnectionThe author matched this to the element 115 Call of Duty uses. Lazar claims a chip of element 115 powers a reactor. In "The Lazar Tape" (1991) he said a proton strikes the 115 nucleus and makes element 116, which decays and radiates small amounts of antimatter. In 1989 he said the 115 itself gives off the antimatter, and in 1993 he said it makes anti-hydrogen. His claims are unverified and his versions differ.

If the video does not load, watch it on YouTube. Spice and Antimatter, Side by Side

Most precious substanceIn Dune: The rarest and most valuable commodity. One briefcase could buy a planet.With antimatter: Called the most expensive substance on Earth, at about $62.5 trillion per gram, or about $62.5 billion per milligram. The figure is an estimate attributed to NASA and repeated widely.

Space travelIn Dune: Interstellar travel relies on spice. Navigators fold space with it.With antimatter: Proposed as fuel for interstellar space travel, with a higher energy yield than any current propulsion system. NASA has studied it.

One sourceIn Dune: Made only on Arrakis, deep beneath the sands.With antimatter: Made in quantity only at a few giant accelerators. CERN's Antiproton Decelerator makes about 10 nanograms of antiprotons a year. Fermilab makes the antineutrino beam that DUNE uses.

WaterIn Dune: Spice forms when sandtrout excretions mix with water. Navigators swim in orange gas.With antimatter: Pop culture often shows antimatter as water-like (see the water section). SURF describes its detector in water language.

The nameIn Dune: The planet Arrakis is also called Dune.With antimatter: The experiment hunting the matter-antimatter answer is DUNE. The collaboration chose that name in 2015.

The Gold Connection

Homestake Mine, Lead: until it closed, the largest and deepest gold mine in the Western Hemisphere. It ran from 1876 to 2001.

1876-2001Years Homestake produced gold

41 million ozGold produced, per SURF

8,000 ftDepth of the mine workings, per Wikipedia

1876Homestake Mine opens.

1965Ray Davis builds a solar neutrino experiment in the mine, using a 100,000-gallon tank. It runs for about three decades. He later wins a Nobel Prize.

2001The mine closes.

2004 to 2006South Dakota creates the Science and Technology Authority to study a lab. T. Denny Sanford pledges $70 million, and the lab is named for him. Barrick Gold donates the land, and the state adds more than $40 million.

2009The 4850 Level is dedicated.

SURF's tagline for its mine-to-lab story is "A Legacy That Inspires Wonder." Image via sanfordlab.org.

Gold Makes Antimatter: The Laser Route

Why Gold This is part of what the gold theme is about. Physicists make antimatter by shining a laser at gold. The gold stays gold. It is the target, and the laser is the energy. So the gold in the mine, the gold room and the gold helmets all point at the same thing: gold is the material you turn energy into antimatter with.

It Is RealHui Chen’s team at Lawrence Livermore fired the Titan laser, in pulses of about a trillionth of a second, at gold disks about 1 millimeter thick. In 2018 the National Ignition Facility also made positrons this way.

The EquationGold + intense laser = positrons + electrons.

How ManyTheir first published result measured up to 20 billion positrons per steradian. Later work reports 10 billion to 550 billion positrons per shot. One shot makes 100 to 5,000 times more positrons than a human body makes in a whole lifetime.

Step 1 and 2The laser blasts the gold’s own electrons to near light speed. Those fast electrons crash into the gold nuclei and give off high-energy light, called gamma rays.

Step 3 and 4Near a gold nucleus, that light turns into an electron and a positron. The positrons shoot out in a jet, mostly from the back of the gold.

Why Gold WorksGold’s heavy nuclei have a strong electric field, which helps the light turn into pairs. The positrons annihilate right away into gamma rays, and they are not dangerous.

Laser Route vs Decay RouteThe decay route (the PET kind): fast protons hit a target and change its nuclei. The changed atoms are unstable and decay later, at random. A proton turns into a neutron, a positron and a neutrino shoot out, and the nucleus ends up a different element. The laser route: the laser’s energy becomes fast electrons, then gamma rays, then an electron and positron pair. It happens instantly, and the gold nucleus stays the same.

What It ShowsThere are two ways to make antimatter from a target. Change the nucleus and wait for it to decay, which gives a positron and a neutrino. Or turn energy straight into pairs, which gives an electron and a positron. Both put energy in and get antimatter out.

The Gold Room

Inside ProtoDUNE at CERN. Photo: Maximilien Brice, CERN. SURF's header image file for this photo is named "protodune-in-gold."

Where It IsThe famous gold photos show ProtoDUNE, the prototype at CERN in Switzerland. They do not show the detector at SURF, which is not built yet. ProtoDUNE is about one-twentieth the size of one far-detector module.

Not Gold MaterialThe gold comes from lighting. Physics Today says special lights that protect the photon-detection elements give it the gold hue. CERN's article refers to LEDs.

Why the Gold Room Matters SURF is a former gold mine that produced about 41 million ounces of gold. The project's signature image is a gold room. SURF's own header image file is named "protodune-in-gold." Outlets call it a "golden cage." A photographer said many viewers believe the interior is really gold.

A photomultiplier tube, a light sensor, being installed at SURF, with a gold-toned dome. SURF's homepage describes a similar photo as a tube install. Image via sanfordlab.org.

Jimmy Neutron, Men at Work: Gold Hats, Helmets and the Helmet Matrix

Jimmy Neutron: Men at WorkThe episode's invention is McSpanky's Hover Hats. The Jimmy Neutron Wiki's trivia says: "It was never established if Jimmy got the equipment needed to replace the gold that was destroyed from the helmets." So gold is part of the hats and helmets in this episode.

Jimmy Neutron, “Men at Work”: Jimmy holds a gold bar, and gold sits inside the helmet.

The Helmet Matrix Claim What is known as the helmet matrix tech is an antimatter device. In pop culture it is often a hat, not just a helmet. This Jimmy Neutron episode about hats and helmets is the example: gold comes up, and here it could reference antimatter energy. From the author's post "Helmet" (Cobra Connections, May 2025).

The Helmet ClaimA Q&A in the post describes an implant "like a peripheric helmet 20 cm above the head" that "blocks our channels." A 2012portal quote describes "virtual reality helmets that overlay the head area of etheric auric field."

BlockersMagneto's helmet blocks telepathy. Juggernaut's helmet blocks mental attacks. Gumball's Lucky Helmet. Grojband's Evil Helmet. Cassandra Nova is helmet-subdued in Deadpool and Wolverine.

Power and ControlDarth Vader, Sauron, Lord Business (The Lego Movie), Miraak (Skyrim), Dream's Helm (Sandman), Fused Shadow (Zelda), the Chum Bucket helmet (SpongeBob).

HatsThe Sorting Hat (Harry Potter), Mr. Krabs' hat, Slowking (Pokemon), and Dishonored's Hatters Gang. The post ties hats to hidden identities, magic conduits and status, and helmets to technology, concealment, barriers and authority.

Gold and the Gold RoomThe author ties the gold in this episode to why the room is made to look gold. The room is in what used to be the largest gold mine in the Western Hemisphere.

The Scooby-Doo Tie-InThis is where Scooby-Doo and the Alien Invaders comes in. A key part of that story is secretly mining gold. See the Scooby-Doo and the Alien Invaders block below.

The Bee ThemeThe author says this episode has a bee theme. He reads the bee as a symbolic reference to the 13th bloodline network of the cabal.

The Gaelic Link Between the Two Episodes In "Men at Work," the kids go to work at McSpanky's, an obvious version of McDonald's. Mc and Mac are Irish and Scottish Gaelic name prefixes, meaning "son of." The author points to the Irish and Scottish link in the "Mc." In "Win, Lose and Kaboom," Jimmy's father mentions Irish people. The author's point: a Gaelic connection ties the two episodes together. Carl Wheezer has red hair, another Irish and Scottish marker, the author notes.

Scooby-Doo and the Alien Invaders: Gold as Cover

The Claim In Scooby-Doo and the Alien Invaders, a government-linked team is secretly mining gold. Maybe the gold is the cover for another thing, like antimatter. This ties back to the gold helmets in the Jimmy Neutron episode "Men at Work" (see Men at Work above). Velma and Daphne both have red hair, the author notes, an Irish and Scottish marker. A small detail: SALF is very close to SURF. Both start with S and end with F, and only the middle two letters differ.

Scooby-Doo and the Alien Invaders: Velma finds a glittering fleck of gold, and Shaggy and Scooby find gold in the cave.

The secret mine: gold veins in the cave walls, a wheelbarrow of gold with jackhammers, and the people working it.

The SALF TeamSALF stands for Search for Alien Lifeforms. Its members are Max, Laura and Steve. They hired men to pose as military police.

The Secret Gold MineThe cave is part of a 19th century gold mine. Velma finds clues: mining equipment, gold inside the caves, dried mud on their boots and a dry riverbed. The mine sits on government property, so the team kept it hidden.

The Cover StoryThe SALF team dressed as aliens to scare people away from the site. Mystery Inc. unmasks them in the canyon and the impersonators are arrested.

The Water Connection

The Claim Pop culture often describes antimatter as water-like, and likely etheric. In Dune, spice needs water to form. That fits the water link (see the spice section). The name SURF is something you do with water, which strengthens that point.

Water in Pop Culture

Fantastic Four: Down the DrainIn “Behold the Negative Zone,” Mr. Fantastic says: “Amazing. Matter runs down into that black hole like water down a drain. But if my theory is correct, it will enter a negative zone and become antimatter.” The episode also has the bat-winged villain Annihilus (see the Bat Connection).

Sailor Moon: The Tape in the BubbleEarly in episode 6, the tape is shown inside a bubble of water. The same episode has the sound waves and the bat villain Kyurene. Pic is in the Bat Connection.

Shadow Beings as LiquidMephiles (Sonic 2006) is a mass of darkness that acts like a liquid. The Shadow in Supernatural first appears as a pool of dark liquid. Noob Saibot (Mortal Kombat) turns into liquid and shows up as living oil.

Same episode: Mr. Fantastic in his lab, as matter runs into the black hole like water down a drain.

The scene: Mr. Fantastic says, “Amazing. Matter runs down into that black hole like water down a drain. But if my theory is correct, it will enter a negative zone and become antimatter.” If the video does not load, watch it on YouTube. What SURF and Fermilab Say, in Their Own Words Each quote links to its source.

The Detector as a Net and a Pool “to serve as the neutrino fishing net” SURF “propagate through the detector’s vast argon pool” SURF “Much the way a wave front approaches the beach’s shore” SURF “will hold 70,000 metric tons (equivalent to about 525,000 bathtubs)” SURF

Liquid Argon Flows “modeling the flow of liquid argon through the Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment (DUNE)” SURF “giant cryogenic tanks, each about five stories high, that will be filled with liquid argon” SURF “a single drop of water in this building sized tank of liquid argon” SURF “the flow of liquid argon inside giant tanks that are designed to detect elusive particles” SURF

Baths and Swimming Pools “roughly the same volume as five Olympic-size swimming pools” Fermilab “detectors that will be immersed in huge baths of cryogenic liquid argon” Fermilab “resist the outward pressure of the fluid (1.4 times denser than water)” Fermilab “immersed in a bath of liquid argon” Fermilab “about five Olympic swimming pools worth of the liquid” Fermilab

The Old Mine Was Underwater “Homestake was slowly filling with water until last year” SURF “The high-water mark was 4,530 feet underground.” SURF “They have pumped and treated hundreds of millions of gallons of water to get us here.” SURF “The water level at 11 a.m. this morning was 2 inches below the 4,850-foot level” SURF

Spice and the Name In Dune, spice forms when sandtrout excretions mix with water deep under the sand. A Navigator is described as swimming in a container of orange spice gas. Dune Wiki SURF is the acronym for Sanford Underground Research Facility, named for donor T. Denny Sanford.

Dust, Sand, Desert: The Void Looks Like Dune

Dust, sand and spice are references to antimatter.THE AUTHOR'S CLAIM

The Claim Dishonored 2 centers on an antimatter witch who sits on a throne in the Void. That Void looks like a dusty wasteland, a desert, like Dune. Dust, sand and spice are all references to antimatter.

Dune (2021) poster: “It Begins.”

Dust and Sand in the Author's Posts

Dishonored 2: DelilahDelilah Copperspoon is the witch and main antagonist. After she is resurrected, she siphons part of her soul into a statue, which makes her immortal. The player must destroy the statue to reach her. A ritual pulled her back from the Void. She can be killed, or tricked into trapping herself in her own painting.

Dishonored: The First StatueIn The Knife of Dunwall, Daud finds a statue of Delilah Copperspoon in Arnold Timsh's estate. It starts to move and talk. In The Brigmore Witches, Daud can seal her away forever by swapping in a Void painting.

The Painting ThemeThe author’s point: Delilah is sealed away with a Void painting, and in Dishonored 2 she can be tricked into trapping herself in her own painting. The painting theme shows up on the SURF site too, in the phrase “paint a clear picture.”

Dishonored: Dust DistrictNamed for silver dust from nearby mines. Dishonored's Twin-bladed Knife is a Void artifact and the only thing that can end the Outsider.

A Lab in a MineThe post cites an episode of The Universe saying a dark matter lab is in a mine, and links it to Dishonored's mines. SURF is a lab in a mine.

The Irony: DUNE Makes DustRock from the DUNE dig was dumped in the Open Cut in the middle of Lead. Dust plumes in 2021 and 2022 led to complaints. The state shut down dumping on March 31, 2022, and let it resume April 8. Fermilab admitted failures in its protocols and added measures to keep black dust from leaving the Open Cut. The author calls this an ironic link to the dust theme: the project named DUNE put black dust in the air.

His Dark MaterialsDust is conscious particles, called dark matter. The Magisterium's bomb opens an Abyss that drains it.

Prince of PersiaThe Sands of Time corrupt reality. The Dagger of Time extracts the Sand's core.

Sand ArmiesRise of the Guardians: nightmares made of black sand. Doctor Who: Vashta Nerada are dust specks. Thor: Love and Thunder: the Necrosword turned to dust.

Jak 3 (2004)The game centers on the Wasteland, a large desert. Jak and Daxter are banished there and taken in by desert-dwellers at Spargus, an oasis city. The Dark Makers are Precursors corrupted by Dark Eco. Naughty Dog, PlayStation 2, released November 2004.

Other Dust LinksHellboy: Kroenen's blood replaced by dust. Endgame: the Snap turns people to dust. Dune is listed among the dust examples.

The FlashThe Lightning Dagger is made from dark-matter satellite debris from S.T.A.R. Labs and negates dark-matter powers. In a future timeline it is strapped over Reverse Flash's heart to contain him.

Delilah’s Painting Ritual

The Claim Delilah wants to remake the world to her liking. She does it with a painting Void ritual. That ritual is the final mission and boss battle of Dishonored 2. This is the painting theme again.

If the video does not load, watch it on YouTube. Jak 3: Desert, Satellite and Dark Eco

Jak 3 (PlayStation 2, Naughty Dog, 2004). The desert wasteland is the setting.

The Claim Key parts of Jak 3 fit the pattern: a desert location, a satellite, and Dark Eco. The desert is the dust, sand and spice setting. The satellite fits the author's idea of a satellite as a ship with a role to relay. Dark Eco is a possible antimatter anomaly.

If the video does not load, watch it on YouTube. Batman: Arkham City: Ra’s al Ghul and the Sand Demons

The Claim In the Batman game, Batman fights Ra’s al Ghul and sand demons in Tartarus. That is the sand and desert theme again, with a bat as the hero. He goes to another realm, a dream-like place that is Tartarus. It is shown as a desert-like place, and it has water elements too.

The SettingIn Arkham City, the Demon Chamber is in the depths of the Wonder Tower. Batman drinks from a chalice with a psychoactive substance, then Ra’s leads him through a “magical sand land” of fiery pits.

The Sand EnemiesRa’s summons sand goons, which guides also call sand ninjas, by copying himself. He throws oversized blades. Winning the fight earns the Sandstorm achievement.

The PrizeThe reward for winning is eternal life, which ties to the Lazarus Pit and to spice extending life in Dune.

If the video does not load, watch it on YouTube. The realm, from the 5 minute mark: a desert-like place with water elements. If the video does not load, watch it on YouTube.

BEINGS, HORNS AND SOUNDBats, the sound they carry, the figures with horns, and the Irish red hair.

The Bat Connection

The Lab Is in Batavia: BAT-avia The lab behind DUNE, Fermilab, is in Batavia, Illinois. Say it out loud: BAT-avia. Fermilab sits just east of the city limits and uses the Batavia address. The DUNE beam starts in a town with BAT in its name. The author says that is where the bat theme begins.

Fantastic Four (1994): The Negative Zone

Behold the Negative ZoneThe author says the episode "Behold the Negative Zone" has water, antimatter and the bat theme together, and that the Negative Zone villain has bat wings. The episode is season 1, episode 12, aired Dec 10, 1994. Wikipedia says antimatter is central to Annihilus's story: the Fantastic Four first entered the Negative Zone seeking anti-particles.

Matter Down the DrainIn the same episode, Mr. Fantastic stands in his lab and says: “Amazing. Matter runs down into that black hole like water down a drain. But if my theory is correct, it will enter a negative zone and become antimatter.” Water, antimatter and the bat villain all show up in one episode. The scene and video are in The Water Connection.

Annihilus, the bat-winged villain of the Negative Zone, in "Behold the Negative Zone."

Dishonored 2: Delilah and the Bats

The Claim Delilah has a statue with bat wings that made her immortal, and she is sealed in the Void. Bats appear in the same Dishonored 2 setting.

The Dust DistrictThe author points to the Dust District, the location near the Delilah bat Void ritual. In the game, Dust District is the sixth mission of Dishonored 2. The goal is to find information linking Delilah Copperspoon to the disappearance of Aramis Stilton. The district was once the Batista Mining District, ravaged by silver mining, and the Howlers and Overseers fight over the mines. The author ties this to the dust theme and to SURF, a lab in a mine.Dishonored Wiki: Dust District

Dishonored 2 and the bats. If the video does not load, watch it on YouTube.

Dishonored 2: Delilah’s bat-winged statue in the Void ritual chamber.

Stilton Manor: Where the Ritual Happens

The Claim Delilah’s ritual takes place in the mansion of Aramis Stilton. Stilton has red hair, an Irish and Scottish marker (see The Red Hair Connection). The Timepiece is picked up on the same level, and it is needed to get into the room where the ritual happens. That room has the bat statue tied to the Void. Time, bats and the Void meet in one place. The same game has the Dust District and the Timepiece: dust, sand and time again, the antimatter theme.

Aramis Stilton, Dishonored 2: the red hair and beard.

A Mine Baron’s HouseStilton rose from miner to owner of nearly all of Karnaca’s silver mines. He hosted the séance that was Delilah’s resurrection ceremony at his manor. It broke his mind.

The TimepieceA device given by the Outsider. It switches the user between 1852, the present, and 1849, the past, inside Stilton’s manor. It is used in the mission “A Crack in the Slab.” Entering the secret room sends the player to the past, where the rituals can be watched.

The Dust LinkAfter Stilton disappeared, the Batista mining district fell into chaos. That district became the Dust District. Saving him in the past prevents it.

Dishonored Wiki: Stilton Manor Dishonored Wiki: Timepiece

Examples from the author's article "The Shadow Beings" (Disclosure Dots, Nov 2026).

The Claim Shadow beings are antimatter beings. They are sometimes described as bats living in a shadow realm. The same examples that show antimatter as water-like also show the bat theme (see The Water Connection).

Bats and Sound Bats are a sound animal. They find their way by sound, with echolocation. That is the link to the sound theme: where the sound theme is present, the bat theme can be too, and the other way around. It shows why the two themes keep showing up together. See the Sound Connection.

Sailor Moon: Sound, Water and a Bat in One Episode

The Claim One early Sailor Moon episode ties sound, water and bats together. Water: early in the episode, Queen Beryl is seen playing a tape inside a bubble of water. Sound: the tape sends out sound waves, and the bat villain fights with sound waves too. Bat: the villain is a bat.

The Episode“Protect the Melody of Love: Usagi Plays Cupid,” episode 6 of season 1. It first aired in Japan on April 18, 1992. The Viz dub aired May 26, 2014.

Kyurene, the Bat YoumaA humanoid, vampire bat-like monster with large bat ears and wings. She blasts supersonic waves from her wings, extends her nails into claws, and can dissolve into a swarm of bats.

The TapeA cassette carries a high-frequency signal that drains energy from roses, and would do the same to people. Queen Beryl watches it work. Jadeite reports the tape will feed energy to Queen Metalia.

Red HairKyurene has red hair. The author points to the red hair theme: red hair is strongly tied to the Irish and the Scottish. See The Red Hair Connection.

Sound Used Against HerSailor Moon throws a microphone that amplifies Kyurene’s wing waves and blasts them back at her. Moon Tiara Action finishes her.

Sailor Moon, episode 6: the tape in water bubbles, Queen Beryl with the tape in a bubble, Jadeite holding the tape, and the swarm of bats.

Sailor Moon Wiki: Protect the Melody of Love Sailor Moon Wiki: Kyurene

What the Shadow Beings Article Documents

Antimatter Is NamedHot Wheels Battle Force 5: the Shadow Zone. Shadow Matter reacts with Antimatter and would destroy the Multiverse.

BatsThe article says some shadow beings come as swarms or shadow animals, like bats and snakes. Gecko Moria (One Piece) splits his shadow into bat-like swarms.

Bat from Another WorldWarcraft: the Bloodhunter Fel Bat comes from an unknown world inside the Nether. Warcraft's Legion ships run on fel matter anti-matter devices.

Shadow RealmsShadow Realm (Jackie Chan Adventures, Thor: Love and Thunder), Shadow Zone (Battle Force 5), Netherrealm (Mortal Kombat), The Empty (Supernatural), Twilight Realm (Zelda).

Bats in the Mines of Lead Were there bats in the mines when SURF was being built?

Black Hills Mines Hold BatsThe South Dakota Bat Working Group says at least ten bat species roost in South Dakota mines, and the Black Hills has had open mines for over a hundred years. Abandoned Black Hills mines are documented hibernation and maternity roosts (Mystic, Hill City, Rochford, Custer County).

Homestake Dealt with BatsA Globe and Mail article says Homestake Mining Co. hired a bat biologist to pick bat sites at the Black Hills mine as it was being closed. A Bat Conservation International staffer says Homestake worked with them to identify mines that attract bats and close those mines in a bat-friendly manner. The articles do not name the mines.

Bat Gates and Standing WaterBy the end of 2008 there were 38 bat gates in the Black Hills region, 31 on abandoned mines. They block people and let bats through. Black Hills mine hibernation sites are often mines with standing water. Homestake itself was dewatered and then allowed to flood after the pumps were shut off on June 10, 2003.

The Sound Connection

A "horn" is related to the antimatter situation. It is not a coincidence.THE AUTHOR'S CLAIM

The Claim Horns and trumpets are deeply connected. The gold figure in Mormon imagery is shown with a trumpet. This brings in the sound theme. The Irish have horn artifacts and treasures, and a musical instrument, the harp, as their national logo. Bats are a sound animal too, so the sound theme and the bat theme go together. See the Bat Connection.

The Horn in the Physics

It Makes the Antimatter BeamFermilab's LBNF page says the beam uses "a series of magnets called horns." Switching the horns to select and focus particles with the opposite electric charge produces a beam of the neutrinos' antimatter counterparts, antineutrinos. The page does not say how the switch is made.

What a Magnetic Horn IsAlso called the neutrino horn or Van der Meer horn. A high-current pulsed focusing device invented by Dutch physicist Simon van der Meer at CERN. It uses pulsed currents of hundreds of kiloamps to make a strong magnetic field that focuses pions and kaons into a sharp beam. They then decay into neutrinos or antineutrinos.

Sound LinkThe horn is pulsed. The beam comes in very short bursts, about a millionth of a second of protons at a time.

Water LinkThe horn conductors are water-cooled after each pulse. The cooling water becomes radioactive, mainly from beryllium-7 and tritium. This ties to the tritium note in the DUNE section and the water theme in the water section.

Horns in HistoryThe NuMI beam at Fermilab uses 2 horns. CERN's Gargamelle chamber used a single horn on a muon antineutrino beam when it saw the first neutral current reactions.

A magnetic horn, the focusing device used in neutrino beams. Image via Wikimedia Commons.

The Trumpet, the Harp and the Irish Line

The HarpThe harp is Ireland's national emblem. Alongside it, the author points to Irish horn artifacts and treasures.

Irish HornsThe dord is a bronze horn native to Ireland, with excavated examples from about 1000 BC. The Dowris Hoard, a Bronze Age find, held several horns. The Loughnashade Trumpet dates to the 1st century BC and was found at the bottom of Loughnashade, Loch na Sead, which means "Lake of Treasures."

The Loughnashade Trumpet, an Irish horn from the 1st century BC, found in the "Lake of Treasures." Image via Wikimedia Commons.

The Meteor Makes a Sound

The Claim The meteorite creates a sound. In pop culture, a meteorite, comet or asteroid is often a disguise. It is really a secret satellite. A satellite and an alien spaceship mean the same thing here. Both are references to a ship with a role to relay. What it relays is the sound base of the matrix. This ties the meteors to the horn and trumpet sound theme above.

The Minerva Connection

The Connection MINERvA is a Fermilab neutrino experiment in the same beam system as DUNE. Minerva is the Roman goddess, and in Assassin's Creed an ancient scientist who worked in underground temples. Wikipedia says the experiment's name "evokes the Roman goddess Minerva."

MINERvA, the ExperimentMain Injector Experiment for nu-A. A neutrino scattering experiment at Fermilab on the NuMI beamline. It was built 107 meters underground, in the hall of the MINOS Near Detector. Proposed in 2002, first events in April 2009, physics run ended in February 2019.

It Used Antineutrino BeamsNuMI sometimes provided neutrino beams and sometimes antineutrino beams. MINERvA took data with both and studied antineutrino interactions. Its purpose was to measure low-energy interactions to support oscillation experiments.

What It Was Made ofScintillator strips read by photomultiplier tubes, with lead and iron absorbers. Its targets were liquid helium, carbon, water, iron and lead.

Minerva in Assassin's CreedAn Isu scientist and Sacred Voice, one of the Capitoline Triad with Jupiter and Juno. Humans later worshipped her as a goddess under many names, including Athena, Saraswati and Sulis.

Underground ResearchWith Jupiter and Juno, she built underground Temples to research ways to stop a catastrophe. They managed the Grand Temple, where information from the lesser Temples was gathered.

The 2012 LinkIn the Vault she spoke through Ezio to Desmond Miles. In December 2012 she appeared again and gave Desmond a choice between the Sun destroying the Earth and Juno enslaving it.

Minerva in Assassin’s Creed II: a glowing golden figure in a helmet, with gold flecks floating around her.

The Mormon Connection

The Claim The gold figure in Mormon imagery, Moroni, is shown with a trumpet. The Mormon founder is Irish through the R1b-M222 haplogroup. Gold ties it together. The Moroni figure is gold, and gold runs through this whole article. In Deus Ex, a Mormon is tied to particle tech.

Moroni, Joseph Smith and the Gold

Gold Figure with a TrumpetThe gold-leaf Angel Moroni statue stands atop many Latter-day Saint temples and is shown blowing a trumpet.

Joseph Smith and IrelandThe author's post says DNA research led by Dr. Ugo Perego shows Smith's paternal line is of Irish origin, in R1b-M222. It says that haplogroup is most common in northwest Ireland and western Scotland. It cites Eupedia's label "NW Irish, Dalriadic, Ui Neill."

The Gold ThemeThe author's point: Moroni is the gold figure with the trumpet, and gold is the thread through this article. It links to the Homestake gold mine, the gold room, the gold helmets in Jimmy Neutron and the gold cover in Scooby-Doo.

The gold Angel Moroni statue, shown blowing a trumpet. Image via Wikimedia Commons.

Deus Ex: Taggart, Mormons and Particle Tech

The Claim William Taggart is a Mormon in Deus Ex: Human Revolution. At the end of the game you rescue him in Panchaea. His room has a window, and the path to him shows a particle accelerator. The game is about the Illuminati, so they are tying particle tech to Mormons.

Deus Ex: Human Revolution, Panchaea: William Taggart tells Adam Jensen, “How ironic that you should be the one to save us from the monsters out there.” Adam answers, “Monsters, Taggart? You mean people.”

Who Taggart IsFounder and leader of the pro-human organization Humanity Front, which pushes for strict regulation of augmentations. He is a secret member of the Illuminati.

Taggart in PanchaeaIn the Panchaea mission, Adam finds Taggart in a blocked-off server room with his support staff. Taggart rails at Darrow for betraying the conspirators and tries to persuade Adam to broadcast his signal.

PanchaeaThe Panchaea facility holds the quantum computers that power the Hyron Project.

Starship Troopers

The Mormon LinkThe author's post on Starship Troopers is tagged "Spider," shows a still captioned "Starship Troopers Mormon arachnid zone," and links the LDS Film site and wiki pages for "Port Joe Smith" and "Bug Meteor."

The Red Hair Connection

Red hair is strongly tied to the Irish and the Scottish.THE AUTHOR'S CLAIM

The Claim Red hair points to Irish and Scottish blood. It keeps showing up on characters in the examples in this article. It is another way the Gaelic link shows up in the pop culture. The founder of Mormonism is Irish too (see The Mormon Connection).

Red Hair Across the Examples

What Is DocumentedRed hair is most common in Scotland and Ireland.

Kyurene (Sailor Moon)The bat villain of episode 6 has red hair. It is the episode with the sound waves, the water bubble and the bat.

Carl Wheezer (Jimmy Neutron)The author notes Carl has red hair. Carl is in the “Men at Work” episode with the gold helmets and the McSpanky’s Gaelic link.

Aramis Stilton (Dishonored 2)The author notes Stilton has red hair. Delilah’s ritual happens in his mansion, the Timepiece is found on the same level, and he owned the mines.

Velma and Daphne (Scooby-Doo)The author notes both have red hair. They are in Scooby-Doo and the Alien Invaders, where a secret gold mine is the cover.

The Flash and Reverse FlashThe author notes the Flash and Reverse Flash are often shown with red hair. Both are tied to time and speed.

The Flash and AntimatterIn DC’s Crisis on Infinite Earths (1985), an antimatter wave destroys worlds and Barry Allen, the Flash, dies destroying the antimatter cannon.

The Mormon FounderThe author says the person who started Mormonism, Joseph Smith, is Irish. His post says his paternal line is R1b-M222, the Irish and Scottish Gaelic marker.

TIME AND PLACEWhen and where it points.

The Sands of Time: Antimatter and Time

Sand is tied to the time theme, and time is tied to antimatter.THE AUTHOR'S CLAIM

Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time.

The Claim Sands are often tied to the time theme. This is significant because an antimatter universe and time reversal are often tied together in pop culture, and even in science that is hidden or suppressed. Anti time, basically, comes from the effects of the antimatter universe. Another common theme in many pop culture lores: dark forces want to merge our world with another. They breach dimensions and make Earth fall under a new force.

What Is Documented

Antimatter and Time in PhysicsIn 1940 John Wheeler told Richard Feynman that all electrons could be one entity moving forward and backward in time, with the backward parts showing up as positrons. In his 1949 paper “The Theory of Positrons,” Feynman treated positrons as backward-moving electrons. In his Nobel speech he said “positrons could simply be represented as electrons going from the future to the past.” E. C. G. Stueckelberg had a similar idea. Wikipedia

Prince of Persia: The Sands of TimeThe Sands of Time corrupt reality. The Dagger of Time extracts the Sand’s core.

DuneSpice forms deep under the desert sand. It extends life, expands consciousness and lets Navigators fold space.

Time and Antimatter in the Author’s Posts

Night’s DawnPeter F. Hamilton’s trilogy. In the antimatter notes, “time appears to run in the opposite direction” in that context, with a distortion field. Antimatter fuels the starships and is tied directly to the Void. Mirror imagery points to a mirrorverse group, and antimatter-powered combat wasps add a bee and wasp motif.Post: Night’s Dawn

Space Ghost: Antimatter ManA lab experiment turns a statue into antimatter, then Dr. Contra becomes an antimatter version of himself and everything he touches explodes. The narrator says: “Explore the secrets of time and space and the unknown no matter how great the risk.” The post ties the statue scene to Delilah’s statues in Dishonored 2 and to the Void as a power source.Post: Space Ghost, Antimatter Man

Dark Forces and Another World, Examples in This Article

Dishonored 2Delilah wants to remake the world to her liking, through a painting Void ritual in the final mission. Her first ritual happens in Stilton Manor, where the Timepiece moves the player between 1852 and 1849.

Jak 3The Dark Makers are Precursors corrupted by Dark Eco.

His Dark MaterialsThe Magisterium’s bomb opens an Abyss that drains Dust.

WarcraftThe Legion’s ships run on fel matter anti-matter devices.

The South Dakota Connection

The Claim There are deeper secret reasons for the location of South Dakota. Pop culture keeps placing key hidden things there: a secret warehouse, a city of gold, and a spider alien war.

Warehouse 13 (TV)A secret warehouse of supernatural artifacts sits in a barren landscape in South Dakota. It was put in a remote place so it could stay hidden. The agents live in the nearby town of Univille.

National Treasure: Book of Secrets (2007)The clues lead to Mount Rushmore. Inside a trapped cave there they find a pit holding Cibola, the city of gold. The film says Calvin Coolidge had Gutzon Borglum carve the mountain to hide evidence of a treasure nearby. It was filmed at Mount Rushmore in the Black Hills. Homestake, the biggest gold mine in the Western Hemisphere, is in the same Black Hills.

Starship Troopers (1997)The Badlands of South Dakota, near Kadoka, play an alien world in the film. The war is against spider-like aliens, called bugs.

Tap a section to open it.

THE BASICS: THE REAL-WORLD PROJECTWhat SURF and DUNE are, who built them and what is documented about the antimatter project.

THE SCIENCEWhat antimatter is, the big question, and why neutrinos.

Why Antimatter, Why Now

The 2026 News From the author's post "Antimatter Mainstream News Review" (Disclosure Dots, Oct 27, 2026).

Moved Out of a LabMar 2026, CERN: 92 antiprotons were driven around the CERN site in a one-ton trap. It was the first time antimatter left the lab where it was made.

Held for MonthsOct 2026: Northwestern trapped a single positron for months, near absolute zero. The device could make measurements about 30 times more precise.

Why Matter WonMar 2025, LHCb: baryons behave differently from their antimatter twins. Oct 2026: a proposed heavy sterile neutrino. Both ideas are unconfirmed.

Testing AntimatterSep 2026: Swiss scientists built a muonium beam, aiming to test whether antimatter falls under gravity.

The Author's Framework The post ties the 2026 news to a "10th layer" in Cobra's framework, and says the issue will be "dealt with" around Nov 11, 2026.

The Big Question

What the Models SayThe Big Bang should have made equal parts matter and antimatter. They should have met and annihilated within a second, leaving only light.

What We SeeA universe full of galaxies, stars, and life. Somehow about one billionth of the matter escaped annihilation.

The models predict "effectively, zero" matter. Yet here we are.ANDRE DE GOUVEA, DUNE THEORIST, NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY

Physicists call this the matter-antimatter asymmetry problem. They have chased it for nearly a century.

Antimatter and Neutrinos

Anti-TwinsMost particles have an anti-twin with the same mass and reversed charge. Antiparticles were discovered in the 1930s. An electron's twin is the positron.

AnnihilationWhen matter meets antimatter, both vanish and leave pure energy.

The Neutrino TwistNeutrinos have no charge, so the neutrino and the antineutrino differ in other ways. That is what makes them such a puzzle.

Antimatter is the most expensive substance on Earth, at an estimated $62.5 trillion per gram to produce. A single milligram would be worth about $62.5 billion. The figure is an estimate attributed to NASA and repeated widely. Why Neutrinos? Why Their Anti-Version?

01Everywhere, Barely UnderstoodA trillion pass through your body every second. SURF calls them among the most abundant and least understood particles. They were born soon after the universe began and are made in stars, supernovae, and nuclear reactions.

02They Change TypeNeutrinos come in three types and shift between them as they travel. This is called oscillation. The three types were found by Cowan and Reines (electron), Lederman, Schwartz, and Steinberger (muon), and the DONUT experiment (tau).

03A Difference Would Explain a LotCompare how neutrinos and antineutrinos oscillate. If they differ, nature treats matter and antimatter unequally. This is DUNE's official goal.

04Quarks Were Not EnoughCronin and Fitch found in the 1960s that the weak force favors quarks over antiquarks. Later work showed the effect is too small to explain the imbalance. Neutrinos are the next candidate.

05Possibly Their Own AntiparticleThe neutrino has no charge, so it may be its own antiparticle. A yes would mean rewriting the Standard Model. The Majorana experiment tested this.

THE EXPERIMENTDUNE: how it works, its timeline, and its problems.

DUNE: The Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment

The Numbers

70,000 tonsLiquid argon in the full far-detector design

1,500+Scientists from 35+ countries

800,000 tonsRock removed for the caverns

The Beam, End to End

FERMILABBatavia, Illinois. Makes neutrino and antineutrino beams and measures them at the source with a near detector.

800 miles (1,300 km) straight through rock. No tunnel. About 4 milliseconds.

SURFLead, South Dakota. Far detector: 70,000 tons of liquid argon at about -300°F in the full design, split across four modules. Phase I builds the first two.

Why 800 miles? SURF says the distance is ideal. The oscillations are at their peak when the particles arrive. One System, Two Ends

Fermilab (Illinois)Makes the neutrino and antimatter neutrino beams and measures them at the source with the near detector.

Sanford Lab (South Dakota)Catches the same beam after it travels 800 miles through the Earth, and measures it with the far detector.

The beam travels one way, straight through the ground. Comparing the two readings shows how the neutrinos changed along the way. Comparing neutrinos with antineutrinos is how DUNE goes after the matter-antimatter question.

The beam: Fermilab makes the neutrinos, the earth carries them 800 miles (1,300 km), SURF catches them. Image via dunescience.org.

The SURF end: the headframe above Lead, South Dakota. Image via sanfordlab.org.

The Fermilab end: Wilson Hall, Batavia, Illinois.

What DUNE Is Built to Find

Goal 1Compare neutrinos with antineutrinos to see whether neutrinos are the reason the universe is made of matter.

Goal 2Search for proton decay, a never-seen decay predicted by theories that unify the forces.

Goal 3Watch for supernova neutrinos, possibly seeing a neutron star or black hole being born. The detector has no view of the sky, but the neutrinos still reach it.

Goal 4Rank the neutrino masses, called the mass ordering. Fermilab's fact sheet calls DUNE the only experiment able to measure it at discovery level.

Goal 5Look for new physics beyond the Standard Model.

How the Beam Is Made and Aimed

How the Beam Is MadeA proton beam from Fermilab's Main Injector hits a target and makes particles called pions and kaons. A magnetic horn focuses them into a decay pipe, where they decay into neutrinos. The final design uses a 2.4 megawatt proton beam. Phase I runs at 1.2.

Aimed Through the EarthTo point at South Dakota, the beam must go into the ground at a steep angle. Fermilab builds a 58-foot hill of packed soil, a 680-foot tunnel, and a 635-foot decay pipe. Near the midpoint the beam is about 19 miles (30 km) underground.

Near DetectorAbout 600 meters (2,000 ft) from where the neutrinos are made. Its parts are SAND, on the beam axis, and two movable ones, NDLAr and NDGar. Its job is to measure the beam so scientists can predict what the far detector should see.

PIP-II AcceleratorAn upgrade that raises Fermilab's proton delivery by 60%. DUNE needs it. It cost $1.28 billion as of 2022, construction was approved in April 2022, and it was expected to finish by 2028.

TritiumBeamlines make tritium, which can enter surface groundwater. Wikipedia says Fermilab keeps rates well below the legal limit. The hill is part of the plan to manage it.

What the Official Sources Say Fermilab's own DUNE page says the scientists will "paint a clearer picture" of the universe. It says the research may "give us the key to understanding why" we live in a matter-dominated universe, which it puts as why "we are here at all." It names two sites: Fermilab in Illinois and the Sanford Underground Research Facility in South Dakota.

Fermilab's DUNE page (lbnf-dune.fnal.gov). The highlights were added by the author.

Official view: DUNE observes how antineutrinos behave compared to neutrinos. Officially it does not collect, store, or use antimatter. Phases, Money and People

Phase IThe first two far-detector modules (about 17 kilotons), part of the near detector, and the 1.2 megawatt beam. The 2022 plan targeted 2032.

Phase IIThe other two modules, the full near detector, and a 2.4 megawatt beam. It would cost at least $900 million more. Physicists worry it may never be built.

Budget SqueezeTo stay within $3.3 billion, module 2 will be only 40% filled with liquid argon when Phase I is done, so it is not immediately usable for physics.

People1,500+ scientists and engineers from 35+ countries. International partners contributed about $570 million, about 20% of the cost as of 2022, including CERN, Brazil, Switzerland, and Poland. The UK announced a 65 million pound investment in 2017.

MoneyAbout $3.3 billion for Phase I (upper allowed range $3.7 billion), plus about $1 billion for the PIP-II accelerator upgrade. With international contributions counted, Phase I is close to $5 billion.

Host LabFermilab, founded 1967, run for the Department of Energy by Fermi Research Alliance.

How the Detector Catches Neutrinos

1CollisionA neutrino hits an argon nucleus and creates charged particles.

2Electrons Break LooseThose particles knock electrons off argon atoms.

3The WebAn electric field pushes the electrons toward walls of wires called anode plane assemblies (APAs).

4TracksPulses on the wires show up as particle tracks. From them, researchers learn about neutrinos and their antimatter counterparts.

19.7 ftHeight of one APA

6,400 lbsWeight of one APA

15 milesOf hair-thin wire per APA

150APAs needed: 136 UK, 14 US

In December 2022, the first two prototype APAs reached SURF by rail, ship, semitruck, and then down the Ross Shaft. They hung beneath the cage because they would not fit inside it.

Before ProtoDUNE, Fermilab tested liquid argon detectors in MicroBooNE (data from 2015 to 2021) and ICARUS, each about 100 tons. DUNE's modules are more than 20 times bigger. DUNE is designed to collect data for 20 years.

DUNE Timeline

2012 to 2014A U.S.-only version, LBNE, is approved in 2012 at a scaled-back $850 million, with no near detector and far detectors on the surface. In 2014 a national priority panel ranks the project highest in its timeframe and calls for an international collaboration. It also backs a sturdier scope with underground detectors.

Jan 2015A new international collaboration forms on Jan 22 and picks the name DUNE. The old LBNE collaboration is dissolved on Jan 30. By March it has 148 institutions in 23 countries. The plan: a 10-kiloton far detector, with installation hoped for by 2021.

2016The design report plans the first two far modules by 2024, the beam by 2026, and all four modules by 2027.

2017Groundbreaking.

2018The ProtoDUNE prototype at CERN records its first particle tracks.

Mar 2022 to Feb 2023The Department of Energy splits the project into two phases (March 2022). A cost review finishes Feb 16, 2023, with an estimate of $3.3 billion.

Dec 2022First prototype APAs arrive at SURF.

Aug 2024Cavern excavation is completed, with more than 800,000 tons of rock removed. A DUNE prototype at Fermilab sees its first neutrinos.

Apr 2026The excavation wins the Underground Construction Association's Project of the Year Award.

2026Installation of the first detector begins. On Oct 27, SURF says construction is entering its next phase.

2029 (est.)First detector operating, per the Fermilab fact sheet. Wikipedia says commissioning is planned for 2028 and the beam starts in the early 2030s.

The Collaboration Grew

2015148 institutions, 23 countries

20181,000+ scientists, 31 countries

20221,400+ scientists, 30+ countries

20261,500+ scientists, 35+ countries

The 2015 PlanA 10-kiloton far detector, with installation by 2021.

The 2016 PlanFirst two far modules by 2024, beam by 2026, all four modules by 2027.

TodayPhase I builds the first two modules (about 17 kilotons), with the beam set for the early 2030s. Installation begins in 2026. The full 70,000 tons in four modules depends on Phase II, which physicists worry may never be built.

Problems and Competition

CostDUNE grew from under $2 billion to over $3 billion. Science and Scientific American have called it "troubled." The project manager listed where the growth came from: Far-site construction underestimated: about +$300M Detector installation assumed off-project: about +$200M Stretched-out funding: about +$300M Fuller understanding of scope: about +$200M Partner gaps taken over by DOE: about +$100M Higher contingency recommended by DOE reviews: about +$400M Congress also appropriated less than requested over the years.

RivalJapan's Hyper-Kamiokande is a 260-kiloton detector 295 km from its beam source. It costs Japan about $600 million, and construction is expected to finish by 2027. It could start taking data 4 to 5 years before DUNE. A 2022 report estimated a discovery-level matter-antimatter result around 2034 from Hyper-K and 2039 from DUNE. DUNE's Phase I detector is much smaller (17 kt), so it expects fewer interactions. But its longer distance should let it settle the neutrino mass ordering first. Fermilab's director calls the two experiments complementary.

THE LABWhere SURF is and what else it hosts.

Where It Happens

SURFSanford Underground Research Facility, in Lead, South Dakota, in the Black Hills.

A Former Gold MineBuilt inside the old Homestake mine, which ran from 1876 to 2001 and produced about 41 million ounces of gold and 9 million of silver.

The Deepest Lab in AmericaSURF is the deepest underground lab in the United States, at 4,850 feet, and among the deepest in the world, per SURF. A mile of rock blocks cosmic radiation that would mess up the experiments.

CommunitySURF does outreach with South Dakota's nine Tribes.

How Deep Is Deep?

0 ftThe surface campus in Lead, with the headframe over the Ross Shaft.

About a 10-minute ride down the shaft in a construction cage, per a photographer's account. A mile of rock above the experiments blocks cosmic radiation.

4,850 ft (about 0.9 mile, 1.5 km)The 4850 Level. Home of the DUNE caverns, Ray Davis's old experiment, and the Majorana Demonstrator. The deepest underground lab in the United States.

The SURF surface campus in Lead, South Dakota. The white tower is the headframe over the mine shaft.

SURF in the snow: the headframe and campus above Lead, South Dakota.

370+ milesOf tunnels, per SURF

27+Experiments hosted, per SURF

100+Global partners, per SURF

Another SURF Experiment: Majorana Demonstrator (2011 to 2022)

The SearchNeutrinoless double-beta decay, a very rare decay. Finding it would show the neutrino is its own antiparticle, which could also explain why matter exists.

The Detector44 kg of germanium crystals in two cryostats, inside a six-layer shield and very pure copper.

The TeamMore than 100 researchers from 16 institutions. Jason Detwiler of the University of Washington was co-spokesperson.

ResultsFinal results came out in February 2023. They showed the method works and can scale up.

SuccessorLEGEND, with about 30 times more germanium. It joins forces with GERDA, an experiment in Italy.

The StakesSURF says a yes on the antiparticle question would mean rewriting the Standard Model.

THE PEOPLEWho found it, funded it, built it and runs it.

The People Behind SURF and DUNE

The Gaelic Names, Start to Finish

The Author’s Point The mine, the lab, the experiment and the project each have a Gaelic name near the start. It runs from the 1876 gold strike to the people on the project today. Below: the Irish and Scottish names, with the surname origins and the mothers’ maiden names where they are public.

1. The Mine (1876 to 1877)Hank Harney was one of the four men who found the gold. Harney is an Irish surname. George Hearst bought the claim and built the company. His mother was Elizabeth Collins, an Irish surname, and his family is described as Scots-Irish. Donald McLaughlin, the company geologist who proved the ore ran deep, has an Irish or Scottish surname (Mac Lochlainn).

2. The Lab: SURFDennis Daugaard, the former South Dakota governor who helped fund the Rounds Operations Center, had a mother named Florence Kennedy, an Irish or Scottish name.

3. Fermilab: Where the Beam StartsRobert R. Wilson, the first director, has a Scottish or English surname. His mother was Edith Rathbun. Nigel Lockyer, a later director, was born in Annan, Scotland.

4. DUNE: The ExperimentMark Thomson, one of the first two co-spokespersons, elected in March 2015, has a Scottish surname. Thomson means “son of Thomas” and is most common in Scotland.

5. The U.S. ProjectMary Convery, the deputy project director for facilities, has an Irish surname (Ó Conaire). It is also common in Scotland.

Wikipedia: George Hearst Wikipedia: Dennis Daugaard NAS Memoir: Robert R. Wilson Surname: Convery Surname: Thomson

The Gold Mine: Who Found It and Who Built It Up

The Finders (1876)Fred and Moses Manuel, Alex Engh and Hank Harney found the Homestake deposit during the Black Hills Gold Rush.

George Hearst (1877)Hearst, with partners Lloyd Tevis and James Ben Ali Haggin, bought the claim for $70,000. Hearst reached Deadwood in October 1877 and took control. The partners sold shares in the Homestake Mining Company in 1879.

The Engineers and GeologistsArthur De Wint Foote was the engineer. Charles Washington Merrill brought in cyanidization for gold recovery around 1901. Company geologist Donald McLaughlin showed in 1927 that the ore reached the 3,500-foot level.

The Neutrino Origin: The First Experiment in the Mine

Raymond Davis Jr.A Brookhaven chemist. He began building the solar neutrino detector on the 4850 Level in 1965, using a 100,000-gallon tank of cleaning fluid. First results came in 1968. He shared the 2002 Nobel Prize in Physics. The experiment is what started science underground at Homestake.

John BahcallA Caltech theorist. His model of the Sun is what the Davis experiment was built to test. He later worked with Davis to refine the theory and the experiment. Davis found about one-third of the neutrinos Bahcall predicted.

Turning the Mine into a Lab

Barrick GoldOwned Homestake after merging with the Homestake Mining Company in 2001. Donated the mine, the buildings and the inventory. Pumping stopped on June 10, 2003.

Gov. Mike RoundsSouth Dakota governor and the strongest backer of the conversion. In 2006 he and the Legislature appropriated $45.5 million. He is now a U.S. Senator. SURF named its Rounds Operations Center for him on August 20, 2021.

T. Denny SanfordOwner of First Premier Bank. His $70 million gift is why the lab carries his name.

Sen. Tim JohnsonThen-U.S. Senator. Secured a $10 million HUD grant for the mine's transition.

Kevin LeskoPhysicist at UC Berkeley and Berkeley Lab. Led the Homestake Collaboration from 2004 and was an early advocate for the lab.

The Berkeley Lab TeamJames Symons (Nuclear Science Division director), Joseph Wang (senior Homestake proposal investigator), Bill Roggenthen (South Dakota School of Mines, co-principal investigator) and Dick DiGennaro (Homestake project manager).

The AgenciesSouth Dakota created the Science and Technology Authority (SDSTA) in 2004 to oversee the conversion. The National Science Foundation picked Homestake for its deep lab on July 10, 2007, then ended that funding in 2010. The Department of Energy took the site in 2011 and named it the Sanford Underground Research Facility.

Running SURF

Mike HeadleyExecutive director of SDSTA and SURF since July 1, 2013, after Ron Wheeler. He joined in August 2008 and became lab director in October 2011. He studied computer science at South Dakota State, served six years in the Air Force on satellite systems, and led ground systems for Landsat 8 at the USGS EROS Center.

The SDSTA BoardIn 2021 the board chair was Casey Peterson and the secretary and treasurer was Pat Lebrun. Governors Dennis Daugaard and Kristi Noem backed funding for the Rounds Operations Center.

Starting DUNE: The Collaboration

2014 to 2015: LBNE Becomes DUNEIn 2014 the Particle Physics Project Prioritization Panel (P5) named the experiment a top U.S. priority and asked for more international partners. In 2015 it was renamed the Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment. Sergio Bertolucci, then CERN's research director, led the board that grew the collaboration and ran the first election.

The First SpokespersonsAndré Rubbia (ETH Zurich) and Mark Thomson (University of Cambridge) were elected in March 2015, with terms of two and three years so leadership overlapped. Jim Siegrist was the DOE Office of Science official for high-energy physics at the time.

The Later Co-SpokespersonsMary Bishai (Brookhaven) co-led from 2023. Sergio Bertolucci (University of Bologna) served four years. Sowjanya Gollapinni (Los Alamos, Neutrino Group Leader) began April 1, 2025. Dave Newbold (UK Science and Technology Facilities Council) began in early April 2026 for two years.

Running the U.S. Project: LBNF/DUNE-US

The Project TeamJim Kerby is project director. Ron Ray is deputy project director and Kurt Vetter is project manager. Mary Convery is deputy project director for facilities, Marzio Nessi is technical director, and Sam Zeller is deputy project director for the near detector.

Steve BriceHead of the Fermilab DUNE Coordination Office.

The OverseersThe Department of Energy funds and oversees the project. In 2026 the project passed the DOE critical decision review (CD-2/3), which approved its baseline and the start of construction. Fermilab is managed for the DOE by the Fermi Forward Discovery Group.

Fermilab: Where the Beam Starts (Batavia)

Robert R. WilsonFermilab's first director. The lab opened ahead of schedule and under budget. Wilson Hall is named for him. He stepped down in 1978. It began as the National Accelerator Laboratory and was renamed for Enrico Fermi in 1974.

The Directors After HimLeon Lederman, John Peoples, Michael Witherell, Pier Oddone, Nigel Lockyer and Lia Merminga. Young-Kee Kim was acting director after Merminga resigned in January 2025.

Norbert HoltkampDirector since January 12, 2026. More than 20 years running big science projects at SLAC, Oak Ridge and ITER. His first priority is DUNE, with a goal of delivering a powerful beam by 2031.

Fermilab: Newbold Elected Co-Spokesperson Fermilab: Gollapinni Elected Co-Spokesperson Fermilab: New Director's First 100 Days Berkeley Lab: Homestake Strikes Gold Again SURF: Rounds Operations Center SURF: Mike Headley Named Executive Director SURF: The Davis Experiment Symmetry: The Dawn of DUNE LBNF/DUNE: Project Leadership Wikipedia: Homestake Mine

SOURCESEvery link used.

Sources and Links

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