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ALICE with one door open

Curiouser and curiouser: a riddle at the ALICE detector

12/09/25
Sarah Charley

In 2023, the ALICE experiment was ready for their best year yet, until a mysterious signal threatened everything. As the LHC wraps up its 2025 lead-ion run, physicists recall how they worked together to solve the puzzle.

09/01/08

Diving for zebras

Ben Czaplewski lifts a 30-pound helmet onto his head and lowers himself into a manhole. He disappears without a splash.

09/01/08

Life at the LHC reaches fever pitch

As the big collider ramps up, four physicists talk about working late, finding time to play, and staying connected to family and friends.

Logbook of August 2008
08/01/08

Z boson

In May 1983, physicists on the UA1 detector for the Super Proton Synchrotron accelerator at CERN made the first definitive observations of the Z boson.

08/01/08

Rat rod

Parked between a shiny green Camaro and a remodeled '63 Mustang, a 1929 Ford Model A pickup-turned-hot rod is a mosaic of rust and rot. A rag plugs the radiator, and ancient wooden slats border the truck bed.

An illustration of a "machine" used to create Z bosons
08/01/08

Z boson

The Z boson is a neutral particle that mediates the weak force.

08/01/08

Call of the bike

As Reid Mumford pedals, sometimes he thinks about how to break away from the pack. Other times he thinks about how the smallest bits of the universe break apart in high-energy collisions.

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