Archive: Explain it in 60 Seconds
| 2010 | ||||
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Charged Leptons Jun 2010 Charged leptons are a breed of elementary particle that comes in three masses: the lightweight electron, responsible for the electricity in our homes; the middleweight muon; and the heavy tau. The Mu2e experiment hopes to catch muons turning into electron, a phenomenon known as flavor violation... |
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Neutrino Apr 2010 The neutrino is perhaps the best-named particle around: it is tiny, neutral, and weighs so little that no one has been able to measure its mass yet. It’s also one of the most abundant particles in the universe... |
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Shielding Feb 2010 Shielding refers to layers of material that block radiation. We don't need shielding from cosmic rays; but this steady background radiation does bedevil scientists and their experiments because it can drown out the nearly imperceptible signals of rare subatomic processes... |
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| 2009 | ||||
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Scintillators Dec 2009 Scintillators are transparent materials that allow scientists to detect particles and other forms of radiation. When radiation hits a scintillator, the material absorbs some of its energy and makes it visible by emitting a flash of light... |
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Intensity Frontier Jul 2009 The Intensity Frontier is one of three broad approaches to particle physics research, each characterized by the tools it employs... |
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Cherenkov Light Aug 2009 Cherenkov light appears when a charged particle travels through matter faster than light can. This effect is the optical equivalent of a sonic boom... |
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Virtual Particles Jul 2009 Virtual particles are short-lived particles that cannot be directly detected, but which affect physical quantities—such as the mass of a particle or the electric force between two charged particles—in measurable ways... |
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Charm Quark May 2009 The charm quark is one of six quarks that, along with leptons, form the basic building blocks of ordinary matter. It is hundreds of times more massive than the up and down quarks that make up protons and neutrons... |
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Neutralino Mar 2009 Dark matter accounts for about 83 percent of all matter in the universe. Whereas matter on Earth and in stars is made of atoms and nuclei, scientists know that dark matter... |
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| 2008 | ||||
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Particle Accelerators Dec 2008 Particle accelerators (often referred to as "atom smashers") use strong electric fields to push streams of subatomic particles—usually protons or electrons—to tremendous speeds... |
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Magnet Quench Nov 2008 A magnet quench is a dramatic yet fairly routine event within a particle accelerator. In the case of a large superconducting magnet, such a... |
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Neutrino Masses Sep 2008 Neutrino masses are extremely difficult to measure. Physicists think the origins of neutrino masses are closely tied to subatomic... |
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Z boson Aug 2008 The Z boson is a heavy particle that is one of the carriers of the weak force. Its discovery completed the Standard Model of particle physics... |
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Rare Decays Mar/Apr 2008 Rare particle decays could provide a unique glimpse of subatomic processes that elude the direct reach of even the most powerful... |
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The W boson Jan/Feb 2008 The W boson is one of five particles that transmit the fundamental forces of nature. It is responsible for two of the most surprising discoveries of the 20th century... |
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| 2007 | ||||
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Terascale Dec 2007 The Terascale is an energy region named for the tera—or million million—electronvolts of energy needed to access it. Physicists are standing at its threshold, poised to enter this uncharted territory of the subatomic world. |
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Jets Oct/Nov 2007 Jets are sprays of particles that fly out from certain high-energy collisions. Physicists hope to use the most energetic jets to look inside the quarks that make up protons. |
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Theory Sep 2007 A theory, in everyday language, differs little from a guess or a hunch. But in science we reserve the word for a well-developed idea based on experimental evidence. |
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Dark Energy Aug 2007 Dark energy is the weirdest and most abundant stuff in the universe. It is causing the expansion of the universe to speed up, and the destiny of our universe rests in its hands. |
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Particle Event
Jun/Jul 2007 A particle event is a particle collision or interaction that is observed by some type of particle detector. |
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String Theory May 2007 String theory proposes that the fundamental constituents of the universe are one-dimensional "strings" rather than point-like particles. |
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Positron Apr 2007 A positron is the antimatter equivalent of an electron, with the same mass but opposite electric charge. When the two meet, they annihilate into a flash of energy. |
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Dark Matter Mar 2007 Dark matter is, mildly speaking, a very strange form of matter. Although it has mass, it does not interact with everyday objects and it passes straight through our bodies. |
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Simulations Jan/Feb 2007 Simulations are used in physics to explore many "What if?" scenarios. In particle physics, they are used for application from designing new types of accelerators and detectors to evaluating the final analysis of data. |
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| 2006 | ||||
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Postdocs Dec 2006 Postdocs are scientists who have completed their PhD research and who continue to develop their scientific skills by working for a few years at a university or other research institution. |
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Acceleration of Particles
Oct/Nov 2006 Imagine a surfer riding a wave. If the surfer paddles at the right speed and gets on a wave at the right time, the surfer will be accelerated to the speed of the wave. |
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X-ray Lasers
Sep 2006 X-ray lasers will deliver extraordinarily intense beams of X-rays in very short bursts ten billion times brighter than those in other light sources. |
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The Higgs Boson Aug 2006 A fundamental particle predicted by theorist Peter Higgs, may be the key to understanding why elementary particles have mass. |
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Elementary Particle Physics
Jun/Jul 2006 What rules govern energy, matter, space, and time at the most elementary levels? |
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The Standard Model May 2006 The Standard Model is the best theory that physicists currently have to describe the building blocks of the universe. |
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Light Sources Apr 2006 Light sources are accelerator-based machines that produce exceptionally intense, tightly focused beams of light... |
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Quarks Mar 2006 Quarks are fundamental building blocks of matter. They are most commonly found inside protons and neutrons... |
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Luminosity Feb 2006 Luminosity is a measure of how efficiently a particle accelerator produces collision events. |
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| 2005 | ||||
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B factories
Dec 2005/Jan 2006 B factories are scientific machines that explore the conditions of the early universe by creating and analyzing huge numbers of B mesons, particles that contain a bottom quark. |
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The Grid Nov 2005 Like its electrical namesake, a computing grid is a mix of technology, infrastructure, and standards. |
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CP Violation Oct 2005 Are the laws of nature the same for matter and antimatter? Why are all the stars made of matter and not antimatter? |
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Superconductors Sep 2005 Superconductors are remarkable materials that conduct electricity without resistance when cooled to low temperatures. |
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International Linear Collider Aug 2005 The ILC is a proposed machine for discovering the hidden mechanisms of the microphysical world. |
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Extra Dimensions Jun/Jul 2005 Detecting extra dimensions is hard because they might be rolled up smaller than what is accessible to current experiments. |
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Neutrino Mixing May 2005 Neutrinos are able to change from one "flavor" to another as they travel through space because of their wavelike nature. |
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Large Hadron Collider Apr 2005 Protons racing through a 27-kilometer tunnel will produce collisions that unveil the secrets of matter, space and time. |
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Supersymmetry Mar 2005 Supersymmetry, if it exists, doubles the number of particles in nature, with each particle having a "superpartner". |
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E=mc2 Feb 2005 Einstein's famous equation says that mass is another form of energy. The convertibility has far-reaching consequences. |
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| 2004 | ||||
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Gravitational Lenses Dec 2004/Jan 2005 A wineglass makes a good model to explain a unique aspect of Einstein's General Theory of Relativity. |
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Antimatter Oct/Nov 2004 Antimatter is made up of particles with equal but opposite characteristics of everyday particles of matter. |
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