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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.

02/01/11

Cosmic gall

In December 1960, The New Yorker published John Updike’s poem about the neutrino, a ghost-like particle discovered a few years before.

02/01/11

Crossing the valley of death

Many a promising innovation dies on its way from the research lab to the commercial market. But with help from government or industry, the survival odds increase.

02/01/11

The LSST's supersized sweep of the sky

The Large Synoptic Survey Telescope, which will plumb a bigger volume of the universe than any survey before it, isn't just a challenge for astronomers. It also requires the expertise of high-energy physicists, who play key roles in advancing the flourishing field of survey astronomy.

10/01/10

High-tech marbles and bubblegum

Fermilab scientists are using what look like dime-store toys to polish specialized accelerator cavities, each of which costs about as much as a brandnew Maserati.

10/01/10

Riding the waves in search of cosmic rays

As physics lab environments go, one could do worse than sharing the expanse of the Atlantic Ocean or the animal-dotted ice shelves of Antarctica with 20 pancake-cooking, dart-playing Swedish sailors.

10/01/10

Armenia detects space weather

On Mount Aragats, the highest point in the Armenian landscape, atop a volcano ribboned with glaciers, lava-born fissures, and medieval fortifications, an early 20th century observatory is leading Armenian physics in new, 21st century directions.

10/01/10

Hit it over the Alps

Every summer weekend, several dozen CERN physicists gather to enjoy a beloved American tradition: They play for the Quarks and the Leptons in an international softball league.

10/01/10

Treading lightly in Tokyo

It was my first morning in Tokyo. Carrying a camera, an offering of saké, and a note in Japanese that I hoped explained why I was there, I stepped into the sumo training hall to watch the days practice.

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