A slide that captures the future(s) of particle physicsJune 30, 2010 Of the estimated 10,000 slides
shown at the International
Conference on High Energy
Physics, a few stand out as
likely to stick around for a while.
One may be the first slide ever
that lists all known future projects
in high-energy physics
around the world, along with
their states of readiness. |
||
Lighting up the dark universeJuly 28, 2010 An experiment doesn’t have
to be exotic to explore the unexplained.
At the International
Conference on High Energy
Physics, scientists unveiled the
first results from the GammeV-CHASE
experiment, which used
30 hours' worth of data from
a 10-meter-long experiment
to place the world’s best limits
on the existence of dark
energy particles. |
||
New limits on Higgs mass announcedJuly 26, 2010 Scientists at Fermilab’s Tevatron
collider have ruled out a significant
range of possible masses
for the Higgs boson, narrowing
the search for what is probably
the world’s most famous particle.
The Higgs is thought to give
all other particles their masses. |
||
LHC results: Not just the same old thingJuly 26, 2010 While the Large Hadron Collider
experiments may be measuring
particles whose existence has
already been proven, they are
making those measurements at
an energy 3.5 times higher than
ever before. This provides new,
useful information to the physics
community, including input
for theoretical models that are
continually refined to more accurately
reflect the way the universe
works and predict where
new particles may be hiding. |
||
Europe reaches the top, err, the top reaches EuropeJuly 23, 2010 It might be a long way to the top,
but the LHC experiments are
already halfway there: CMS and
ATLAS presented their first
candidates for the rediscovery
of the top quark, the heaviest
particle in the Standard Model,
which first showed up in
Fermilab experiments in 1995. |
||
The ILC in one minute flatJuly 22, 2010 The folks working on the proposed
International Linear
Collider have created a one minute
animation that flies you
through its 30-kilometer-long
tunnel. It has no sound, but the
visuals speak for themselves. |
||
People in physics: Listening to the universe with Amedeo BalbiJuly 12, 2010 Amedeo Balbi, researcher at the
University of Rome “Tor Vergata,”
is one of the rare scientists
with a gift for explaining his
research to a non-expert public.
He studies the Cosmic
Microwave Background, the fossil
radiation from the big bang. |
||
Protons crack a Dead Sea Scroll secretJuly 6, 2010 INFN researchers who probed
tiny pieces of a Dead Sea
Scroll with protons found that
its chemistry matches the
chemistry of the water in the
area where the ancient document
was found, supporting the
idea that it was made locally. |
||
SLAC’s new X-ray laser peels and cores atomsJuly 2, 2010 The first published scientific
results from the world’s most
powerful X-ray laser show
its unique ability to control the
behaviors of individual electrons
within simple atoms and
molecules by stripping them
away, one by one—in some
cases creating hollow atoms. |
||
World Cup fever at CERNJuly 2, 2010 During the past few weeks,
national pride has hit a high, with
the World Cup football (soccer)
competition in full swing. Save
for the Olympics, it is the only
sporting event where everyone
at CERN has a home team to
cheer for. |
||
CERN opens dazzling new public exhibitionJune 30, 2010 It’s like stepping into a science
fiction film: Eerie blue and
green lighting; spherical white
chairs with black cushions;
touch-operated computer information
stations; a full-wall
projection of stars and galaxies;
and a calming voice coming
over a loudspeaker and asking,
"Why are we here?" |
||
CMS exotica hotline leads hunt for exotic particlesJune 24, 2010 Exotic physics is the physics that
breaks rules and defies expectations.
This is the domain of the
unstable and excited, the string
balls, black holes, and extra
dimensions. The CMS exotica
group is devoted to seeking
out these events, and the hotline
supports their search. |
||
MiniBooNE results suggest antineutrinos act differentlyJune 18, 2010 The MiniBooNE experiment
has found that antineutrinos,
which should follow the same
rules as neutrinos, might oscillate
in a slightly different way.
The results seem to favor
a much-debated antineutrino
result obtained by the Liquid
Scintillator Neutrino Detector
experiment in 1990. |
||
Three nerds walk into a bar...June 15, 2010 Forty-odd Chicagoans gathered
in a bar, not to watch the
Blackhawks in the Stanley Cup
finals but to hear Jason St. John
talk about particle colliders,
the Standard Model, and how
the Large Hadron Collider won’t
be the end of us all. It was
Chicago’s inaugural Nerd Nite. |
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Rewriting textbooks and remeasuring the particle data booklet at the LHCJune 14, 2010 During the Physics at LHC conference,
textbooks were being
rewritten as physicists presented
their remeasurements
of data contained in the Particle
Data Group booklet, which
covers all existing and hypothetical
particles. One theorist
presented his prediction for
a page from the 2016 version
of the booklet. |
||
Could DZero result point to multiple Higgses?June 4, 2010 Theorists say the discovery of
a significant imbalance between
the production of matter and
antimatter during particle collisions
at the Tevatron points to
new physics at work—including
the possibility that there may
be five types of Higgs boson,
rather than just one. |
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Although the superstars of the particle accelerator world are giant
research machines such as Fermilab's Tevatron and CERN’s Large
Hadron Collider, there are also tens of thousands of accelerators
at work in medicine and industry. In this Illinois plant, for example,
a beam of accelerated electrons makes polymer coatings for wire
and cable more heat resistant. The $3.5 billion market for medical
and industrial accelerators is growing at more than 10 percent per
year. (See "Accelerators for America's Future,".)
Photos: Reidar Hahn, Fermilab
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