Hopes that the “proton radius puzzle” would upend particle physics and reveal new laws of nature have now been dashed by a new measurement reported in Science.
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.
In 1860, Parisian inventor Édouard-Léon Scott de Martinville set out to capture the beauty of a French folk song, "Au Clair de la Lune," using pig hair and soot.
Michael Miller watches grass grow for a living—super grass, of sorts, grass that could fuel a car and reduce carbon dioxide emissions at the same time.
As the Pierre Auger Observatory in Argentina collects cosmic rays for science, its thousands of solar panels are collecting data that could make solar power cheaper, more efficient, and more reliable.
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.
High-tech businesses must constantly innovate or become obsolete. But when it comes to investing in new machinery and adopting new techniques, industry can be timid, says Bob Patti, chief technical officer of Tezzaron Semiconductor.
Many of the people trained in particle physics move on to jobs in 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.