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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.

Photo of PDG Particle Physics Booklet for Symmetry

04/03/18

The big book of physics

Looking for the latest info on particle physics? There’s a book for that.

Illustration of four Rock 'Em Sock 'Em robots representing the four particles in the Sub Smackdown (blue, red, purple, green)

03/30/18

Photon declared champion

After a week of appreciation for each of the four particle contenders, the photon emerged as the winner in the Subatomic Smackdown.

Photo accelerator operators and CERN's Director General stand together watching the process of the LHC beam on a computer screen

03/30/18

The room where it happens

Symmetry goes inside the CERN Control Centre on restart day.

Illustration of stylized patches of "temperatures" around actual bits of the HLC beampipe (grey, blue, red, pink, black)

03/27/18

Keeping the LHC cold

The LHC is one of the coldest places on the planet.

Photo of two pink trails, representing particles, show the motion of particles passing through the accelerator complex.

03/23/18

Complex complexes

These two-minute animations break down the accelerator systems at Fermilab and CERN.

Illustration of person reading “standard model” keep getting bonked with apples labeled as different experiments (green, pink)

03/20/18

Starting from the bottom

The bottom quark may lead physicists on a path to new discoveries.

Illustration of a view of the LHC for people with visual impairments (red, black, green, blue, pink, grey, white)

03/13/18

LHC exhibit expands beyond the visual

The touring Tactile Collider event explores new ways to access Large Hadron Collider science through touch, sound and live interaction.

Illustration of Renee Horton, NASA, planet, spaceship (red, black, blue, purple, grey, white, purple)

03/06/18

Bring a folding chair

National Society of Black Physicists President Renée Horton talks with Symmetry about finding a place to belong in physics.

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