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December 2008 Issue Cover

On the cover:
What could a radial tire possibly have in common with particle physics? Accelerator technology. In physics, it pushes particles to nearly the speed of light; in industry, it’s used in creating the materials that go into tires. As a bonus, this avoids the use of solvents that can pollute the environment.
Photo: Reidar Hahn, Fermilab

December 2008:
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Contents
Editorial: The Benefits of Particle Physics
The benefits of particle physics are myriad but the field must go beyond anecdotes to quantifiable data.
Commentary: Alan Boyle
In the past year, millions of people became interested in particle physics, drawn by a sense of wonder and fear of the unknown.
Signal to Background
151-year-old recording sings for the first time; labs on Jeopardy!; fueling up on grass; cosmic rays point to better solar panels; electronic circuits with altitude; letters.
symmetry breaking
A summary of recent stories, published weekdays, in symmetry breaking, www.symmetrymagazine.org/breaking/
Particle Physics Benefits: Adding it Up
Stories abound about how particle physics benefits education, the economy, and society as a whole. Quantifying those benefits would help particle physics better demonstrate its value to the country.
A Fearlessly Creative Workforce
Many of the people trained in particle physics move on to industry, where their skills are in high demand. There you can find a theorist exploring for oil or an accelerator scientist working on cancer treatments.
The Power of Proton Therapy
When it comes to getting rid of cancer, the sharpest scalpel may be a proton beam. Technology conceived and hatched in high-energy physics is now treating thousands of patients per year, with fewer side effects.
Snapshot: LCLS Construction
The world’s first hard X-ray free electron laser takes shape at SLAC, where it will revolutionize research in drug development, green products, and industrial technology.
Deconstruction: MRI
Particle physics played a key role in the life-saving medical technology known as Magnetic Resonance Imaging. Its detailed images of soft tissue nearly eliminated the need for exploratory surgery.
Essay: Jordan Sorokin
"After visiting Fermilab, I know that I had only one passionate aspiration, one life-long quest: to become a physicist. The visit sparked an interest inside of me like an electrical wire jerking radically with every ounce of new knowledge."
Logbook: Superconducting Magnets
Today’s particle accelerators and MRI machines wouldn’t exist without superconducting electromagnets. The road to the first patent for this technology took nearly six decades and ended in a photo finish.
Explain it in 60 Seconds: Particle Accelerators
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. They’re used by the thousands worldwide in physics, medicine, and industry.
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symmetry Breaking

From early particle accelerators to the LHC in 12 minutes
July 28, 2010
Check out a 12-minute public television program that traces the invention of the cyclotron in Berkeley in the 1930s, the development of SLAC's two-mile-long linear accelerator in the 60s, and how they relate to what's going on at the Large Hadron Collider.
Lighting up the dark universe
July 28, 2010
Exploring our dark universe is usually the domain of extreme physics. Clues to dark matter and energy are searched for by huge neutrino telescopes and particle detectors, deep underground, and by experiments launched into space. But an experiment doesn't have to be exotic to explore the unexplained. At the International Conference on High Energy Physics, which ends today in Paris, scientists from the GammeV-CHASE experiment unveiled the first results from their experiment, which used 30 hours' worth of data from a 10-meter-long experiment to place the world's best limits on particles of dark energy.
LHC results: Not just the same old thing
July 26, 2010
CERN's press release issued today states that the LHC's first measurements are allowing them to “rediscover” the Standard Model of particle physics. But the presentations at ICHEP tell a slightly different story.
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On the Cover
Issue Cover

What could a radial tire possibly have in common with particle physics? Accelerator technology. In physics, it boosts particles to nearly the speed of light; in industry, it’s used in creating the materials that go into tires. As a bonus, this avoids the use of solvents that can pollute the environment.
Photo: Reidar Hahn, Fermilab

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Logbook Archive
Photo - Logbook: Archive

Particle Data Book

Sep 2006
This year, the Particle Data Group celebrates its 50th anniversary with a release of a 1230-page edition of the Review of Particle Physics...

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