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November 2008 Issue Cover

On the cover:
In the last few months of the BaBar experiment at SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, scientists pulled one last trick out of their bag and produced a new particle— the bottom-most bottomonium. In doing so, the 500-member collaboration proved as agile as its cartoon namesake.
Photo: Bradley Plummer, SLAC

November 2008:
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Contents
Editorial: Starting up the Large Hadron Collider
The Large Hadron Collider successfully circulated beams for the first time in September. That wonderful achievement moves the LHC toward first collisions and physics results, but other labs are still working hard in friendly competition.
Commentary: Kate McAlpine
"I think rap is a good way to communicate. Rhyme has always helped embed words in my mind; hopefully science rap can help cement ideas in the minds of students and other interested people."
Signal to Background
Giving a hoot about restoration; open access to galaxies; ask a Nobel laureate; a collider inspires comic artists; Google commemorates the LHC first beam; eclipse chaser; letters.
BaBar and the Very Tiny Particle
In which the 500 members of the BaBar experiment buy enough time for one last adventure: capturing the bottom-most bottomonium.
The Dark Universe Debate
Who will be the first to prove the existence of dark matter and dark energy? A particle physicist and an astrophysicist go head to head.
Where Old Physics Stuff Goes to Live
The Fermilab boneyard is no burial ground; it’s a place where unwanted parts find new homes and lives. They’re matched with scientists who can put them to good use, donated to local schools and parks, or sold for recycling.
Q&A With eta sub b
symmetry’s Calla Cofield scores an exclusive interview with the particle…the ground state…the artist eta sub b, who recently emerged into the public spotlight after 30 years in hiding.
Essay: Robin Hanson
"Today’s LHC forecasts are no easier to score than the typical horoscope."
Logbook: LHC Startup
On September 10, 2008, scientists at the European laboratory CERN attempted for the first time to send a beam of particles around a new particle accelerator, the Large Hadron Collider.
Explain it in 60 Seconds: Magnet Quench
A magnet quench is a dramatic yet fairly routine event within a particle accelerator. In the case of a large superconducting magnet, such a quench generates as much force as an exploding stick of dynamite.
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symmetry Breaking

New facility makes accelerator cavities easy as pie
February 4, 2010
Brookhaven National Laboratory has invested in a new, private facility to treat the superconducting cavities within a few miles of the site. The new facility is top of the line, located almost next door, and shows the power of joining government and private industry.
Confirmed: Hubble 3D will be awesome
February 3, 2010
The upcoming <i>Hubble 3D</i> IMAX movie including footage shot during a manned space mission last year is deserving of the adjective "awesome," says our <i>symmetry</i> correspondent, based on a preview screening in New York.
New MINOS results “strongly disfavor” sterile neutrino, neutrino decay
February 2, 2010
In the search for a better understanding of neutrinos, the Main Injector Neutrino Oscillation Search, MINOS, recently put forth results that help rule out a theorized fourth neutrino and strengthen the case against the hypothesis of neutrino decay. MINOS cospokesperson Robert Plunkett says the results “really start to close the loop” on some major theories that neutrino experiments set out to investigate.
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On the Cover
Issue Cover

In the last few months of the BaBar experiment at SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, scientists pulled one last trick out of their bag and produced a new particle— the bottom-most bottomonium. In doing so, the 500-member collaboration proved as agile as its cartoon namesake.
Photo: Bradley Plummer, SLAC

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Logbook Archive
Photo - Logbook: Archive

Cosmic Microwave Background

Oct/Nov 2006
John Mather and George Smoot shared the 2006 Nobel Prize for experiments on board of the COBE satellite. It took Mather’s experiment only nine minutes to record enough data to confirm the big-bang theory...

View Logbook Archive

Explain it in 60 Seconds Archive
Photo - Explain it in 60 Seconds: Archive

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...

View 60 Seconds Archive
© 2007 symmetry  A joint Fermilab/SLAC publication.  PO Box 500 MS206  Batavia, IL 60510  USA Department of Energy