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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.

07/01/09

Accidental beauties

These exquisite test samples transcend their original purpose—ensuring all the metal parts of SLAC accelerators and detectors are flawless.

07/01/09

Nope, no UFOs at Brookhaven Lab

The spotlight caught Todd Satogata. The camera zoomed in. “Did your particle beam shoot down a UFO?” the TV host asked. The accelerator physicist at RHIC, Brookhaven National Laboratory's Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider, smiled. Of course not.

07/01/09

Periodic table

Look at the periodic table of elements, and youd be hard pressed to find an element that is not used in physics. But what are the most important elements for building accelerators, detecting particles, and solving the mysteries of the universe?

07/01/09

Detectors shipped in cooking pots

Looking for an inexpensive and safe way to transport delicate particle detectors? Try pressure cookers and child safety seats.

07/01/09

The DUSEL cavern is getting restless

You can't feel it. Yet the moon's gravitational pull shifts the ground ever so slightly, creating “earth tides” that rhythmically raise and lower the ground.

07/01/09

It's cute! It's clean! It's a SLACmobile!

Plugged into a weatherproof outlet behind SLAC's Test Laboratory, what looks like an oversized green-and-silver go-cart waits with its load of tools and paint supplies.

07/01/09

This family tree has physics branches

Who is the grandfather of particle physics? Some might argue he is Otto Mencke, a German philosopher and scientist who received his doctorate from Leipzig University in 1688.

07/01/09

Growing a diverse workforce

When it comes to training, hiring, and retaining women and members of ethnic minorities, particle physics lags far behind other fields of science. Staffers at three national labs Fermilab, SLAC, and Brookhavenare attacking the problem at every level.

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