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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.

Cutaway image showing the two beam pipes inside the Large Hadron Collider

06/12/17

How to clean inside the LHC

The beam pipes of the LHC need to be so clean, even air molecules count as dirt.

Happy birthday banner over mantle holding birthday cards

06/08/17

Another year wiser

In honor of Fermilab’s upcoming 50th birthday, Symmetry presents physics birthday cards.

Scientists work inside the empty ICARUS detector

06/06/17

A tale of three cities

An enormous neutrino detector named ICARUS unites physics labs in Italy, Switzerland and the US.

05/30/17

A brief etymology of particle physics

How did the proton, photon and other particles get their names?

HPS Silicon Vertex Tracker being assembled

05/26/17

First results from search for a dark light

The Heavy Photon Search at Jefferson Lab is looking for a hypothetical particle from a hidden “dark sector.”

Illustration of a scientist handing papers to another, blindfolded scientist through hole in glass door

05/16/17

The facts and nothing but the facts

At a recent workshop on blind analysis, researchers discussed how to keep their expectations out of their results.

Illustration of two men in detached roller coaster car flying through space

05/09/17

Understanding the unknown universe

The authors of We Have No Idea remind us that there are still many unsolved mysteries in science.

05/04/17

Sterile neutrino search hits roadblock at reactors

A new result from the Daya Bay collaboration reveals both limitations and strengths of experiments studying antineutrinos at nuclear reactors.

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