Skip to main content

latest news

Muons: Emblems of discovery

01/13/26

Once a surprise to physicists, these particles are useful tools inside and outside the realm of particle physics. 

09/01/08

The LHC express

As passengers boarded the train in a Berlin suburb, researchers from the Large Hadron Collider greeted them: “Imagine you are a proton and this train is the LHC tunnel. You will travel 37 km, slightly more than the 27 km it takes the protons to circle the LHC tunnel.”

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.

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

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.

08/01/08

New tools forge new frontiers

US particle physics is pushing forward on three frontiers. Each has a unique approach to making discoveries, and all three are essential to answering key questions about the laws of nature and the cosmos.