"Ferret Meets Particle Accelerator: A Strange Experiment Unveiled"
In 1971, physicists at the National Accelerator Laboratory (NAL) faced a problem with their new particle accelerator - it kept failing due to contamination in the vacuum tubes. To clean the tight spaces, they came up with an ingenious solution: using a ferret named Felicia. Trained to crawl through the tubes with a string attached to her, Felicia successfully cleaned the accelerator. Eventually, she was replaced by a mechanical process, and on March 1, 1972, the accelerator reached its target energy. Sadly, Felicia passed away a few months later, but her contribution to the early days of NAL's existence is remembered.