breaking
January 2012
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January 31, 2012breaking: Fermilab sounds debut in "Alternative Energy"Most Fermilab personnel have learned to ignore the ubiquitous booms, hums, growls and crackles of Fermilab machinery. But composer Mason Bates places these sounds center stage in his new piece "Alternative Energy."
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January 26, 2012breaking: Fermilab plans for a future of discoveryThe only laboratory in the United States dedicated entirely to particle physics recently released its plan for the next two decades.
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January 24, 2012breaking: Scientists finish installation of 80-ton 'particle thermometer' at ALICE detectorScientists on the ALICE experiment at the Large Hadron Collider just completed the installation of a crucial component for tracking high-energy particle jets. Without it, physicists would be lacking crucial tools to select which events out of billions to store and analyze.
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January 20, 2012breaking: Cutting-edge accelerator design gets results 60 years laterDaresbury’s high-intensity proton accelerator, called EMMA, gains its technological edge through an accelerator concept nearly abandoned a half century ago.
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January 18, 2012breaking: The Tevatron's enduring computing legacyOver the course of more than three decades of planning and operation, a tremendous amount of computing innovation was necessary to keep the data flowing and physics results coming at Fermilab's Tevatron. In fact, computing continues to do its work. Although the proton and antiproton beams no longer brighten the Tevatron’s tunnel, physicists expect to be using computing to continue analyzing a vast quantity of collected data for several years to come.
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January 12, 2012breaking: Calling young scientists: Google teams up with CERN and Fermilab for 2012 science fairSubmissions opened today for Google’s second annual science fair. Last year’s winner earned a trip to CERN laboratory in Europe, among other things. This year not one, but two particle physics institutions will contribute to the fair. Engineer Steve Myers, director of accelerators and technology at CERN, and physicist Young-Kee Kim, deputy director of Fermilab, will each participate on the final judging panel. The grand prize winner will receive a trip to visit both labs.
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January 11, 2012breaking: Belle experiment makes exotic discoveryThe Belle Experiment at KEK laboratory in Japan has discovered two unexpected new types of hadrons.
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January 10, 2012breaking: Clearest picture yet of dark matter points the way to better understanding of dark energyTwo teams of physicists at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Fermilab and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory have independently made the largest direct measurements of the invisible scaffolding of the universe, building maps of dark matter using new methods that, in turn, will remove key hurdles for understanding dark energy with ground-based telescopes.
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January 5, 2012breaking: J-PARC completes first successful test run after earthquakeTen months after the earthquake and tsunami that devastated northern Japan, the Japan Proton Accelerator Research Complex (J-PARC) completed the first full test run for their system.
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January 3, 2012breaking: LHC heads into new year with first particle discoveryThe spectrum of the Chi-b states: the leftmost peak is the Chi-b(1P), the middle one the Chi-b(2P), and the rightmost the new Chi-b(3P). The photons are detected either by the electromagnetic calorimeter (unconverted) or by the ATLAS tracking detectors if they have interacted with material and converted to an e+e- pair. Courtesy: ATLAS collaboration.
December 2011
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December 22, 2011breaking: The twelve days of winter break: particle physics editionAs symmetry breaking closes down for its long winter's nap, please enjoy (or at least put up with) a badly adapted holiday song and the chance to reflect on a fascinating year in particle physics.
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December 21, 2011breaking: Happy 10th Birthday, WLCG!Amid all the hype and excitement of the new physics being announced from experiments at the Large Hadron Collider in 2011, there was another, little known, cause for celebration: the anniversary of the Worldwide LHC Computing Grid (WLCG).
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December 20, 2011breaking: U.S. ships world’s largest digital camera to ChileA four-ton digital camera landed safely in Chile this month on its way to making history by enabling the world’s largest galaxy survey, starting next year. Getting the camera there was a worldwide feat of technology and transportation prowess.
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December 19, 2011breaking: A cheaper way to purify liquid argon for neutrino experimentsToday’s high-end experiments are pushing scientists to invent new technologies to meet the demands of the next generation of physics. These innovations, however, must be balanced with creative cost-saving strategies. One expense currently under evaluation is the construction of liquid argon tanks, which play a vital role in sensitive neutrino experiments.
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December 16, 2011breaking: Fermilab to build Illinois Accelerator Research CenterA new accelerator research facility being built at Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory will bolster Illinois’ reputation as a technology hub and foster job creation.
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December 15, 2011breaking: First physics experiments soon to move into former Homestake mineConstruction of a 12,000-square-foot research campus a mile underground is nearing completion in the Black Hills of South Dakota, and scientists will begin to move the first physics experiments underground this spring.
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December 14, 2011breaking: Kicking cancer with carbon ionsHadron therapy patients receive treatment in this room at CNAO in Italy. Image courtesy of CNAO
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December 13, 2011breaking: Possible signs of the Higgs remain in latest analysesTwo experiments at the Large Hadron Collider have nearly eliminated the space in which the Higgs boson could dwell, scientists announced in a seminar held at CERN today. However, the ATLAS and CMS experiments see modest excesses in their data that could soon uncover the famous missing piece of the physics puzzle.
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December 9, 2011breaking: A new book plays on the mystery of physics machinesUnderground and closed off from visitors, experiments in particle physics often hide, rather than flaunt, the exotic and intricate machines that seem more at home in a science fiction blockbuster. No space shuttles, rockets or rovers wow visitors at today’s physics laboratories. The tried and true conduit from the underground to the outside world remains in most part the camera.
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December 7, 2011breaking: Freeing positronium from their dangling bondsLast summer David Cassidy, a scientist at the University of California, Riverside, was busy using silicon to study positronium formation when his team noticed that the positronium, sitting on the silicon surface, didn't behave as it should have.
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Welcome to the new symmetry! We've recently combined the magazine with our symmetry breaking blog; now you can find all articles—including feature stories, “explain it in 60 seconds” articles and blog posts—in one location. Below you will find all symmetry breaking blog posts, past and present. Do you like what you see? Have suggestions? Please let us know.