I was having a routine dental cleaning the other day, and of course it’s an occupational hazard that people want you to explain what you do in words of one syllable or fewer.
For most scientists, membership in a Large Hadron Collider experiment is a ticket to research at a frontier of particle physics. For Hafeez Hoorani, it also marked his country’s first step toward building a tradition of experimental particle physics research.
Who would you drive 10½ hours to see? The Grateful Dead? The Dalai Lama? What about an old, friendly guy who reads a lot and is really good at physics?
In the summer of 1952, physicists at Brookhaven National Laboratory's Cosmotron particle accelerator were preparing for a visit from scientists planning their own, more powerful, accelerator at a new European lab called CERN.
More than two billion tons of cargo pass through ports and waterways annually in the United States. Many ports rely on gamma-ray scanners, based on radioactive isotopes such as cobalt-60, to screen cargo for nuclear materials or weapons.
Hundreds of thousands of patients around the world depend on medical imaging to reveal injuries, diagnose disease, or learn how a course of treatment such as chemotherapy is affecting their bodies.
A report from the field on the vital roles that accelerators play in energy and the environment, medicine, industry, national security and defense, and discovery science will inform strategic planning for accelerator science and technology by DOE's Office of Science.
These are extraordinary times for particle physics, remarkable not only for the scientific discoveries that could be in store, but also for the very real opportunities to address critical issues confronting our nation.
In an attempt to help explain the benefits of basic research, scientists, engineers, and industrialists met for the "Accelerators for America's Future" workshop in October.
