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05/01/05

Searching for the neutrino's identity

Neutrinos are like no other particle in the universe. The more we learn about these "little neutral ones," the less we seem to understand them. Physicists do not even yet know what type of particle the neutrino is.

05/01/05

The elusive neutrino

Not only are neutrinos hard to catch, but they also change form as they travel through space. New experiments hope to understand their chameleonic nature.

05/01/05

Neutrinos

Neutrinos are complicated little beasties--far more so than physicist Wolfgang Pauli could have imagined. He introduced them in 1930 as a theoretical hack to save the law of conservation of energy, which appeared to be violated in some newly observed particle interactions.

Illustration of two flautists
05/01/05

Neutrino mixing

Waves describe some of the most extraordinary phenomena in the world. Waves can be simple—the sound of a flute playing a sustained, single note—or they can be complicated mixtures—a musical chord, for example, which is a combination of many sound waves.

Logbook of April 2005
04/01/05

Distant quasar

On the night of April 27, 2002, the Apache Point 3.5 m telescope in New Mexico captured the light signature of SDSS 1148+5251, the most distant quasar known. A quasar is a compact, ultraluminous object thought to be powered by material falling into a giant black hole.

04/01/05

Running vs. trotting

I noticed a small inaccuracy in the March 2005 article "X-ray Blaze on an Invisible World." Horse people among your readers will instantly recognize that the horse in the photograph "Sallie Gardner" is running, not trotting.

04/01/05

3.4 degrees of John Ellis

How is John Ellis, physicist at CERN, similar to Rod Steiger, actor from such films as On the Waterfront and The Pawnbroker?

04/01/05

What's in the box?

In January 2000, Tom Jordan had just finished up a conference in San Diego, where he had presented one of the new cosmic ray detectors to QuarkNet teachers.

04/01/05

Fermilab's "CMS branch office"

The CMS (Compact Muon Solenoid) detector at CERN, in Geneva, Switzerland, and the new CMS offices at Fermilab are separated only by the amount of time it takes light to travel between the two places.

04/01/05

Einstein bear

In honor of the World Year of Physics, symmetry featured an Albert Einstein teddy bear on the cover of the February issue. Since then, we have received a steady stream of phone calls and email.

04/01/05

Komomaki

Every winter, pine trees on the KEK campus in Tsukuba, Japan, get a treat. Komomaki (woven-straw blankets) are wrapped around the pines a few feet above the ground.

04/01/05

Benvenuto

Mario Calvetti of the University of Florence has been named the new director of Frascati National Laboratories by Italy's Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare (INFN), marking a return to the origins of his scientific career.

04/01/05

Rachel Ivie: Women in physics

Representation of women in physics is increasing but still lags behind other fields. A new study assesses the participation of women in physics over time and around the world.

04/01/05

Neutrons for cancer treatment

In 1967, Don Young was among a handful of physicists working to turn a dream into the research institution that would become Fermilab. His first job found him in charge of building the linear accelerator—and then 30 years later, the Linac would help save his life.