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Big ideas, big picture

Broaden and deepen your understanding of particle physics and astrophysics.

09/19/23

What is neutral naturalness?

Indirectly testing this theory, motivated by the mysterious mass of the Higgs boson, could be within reach for experiments at the Large Hadron Collider.

06/06/23

A cosmological headache

For over a century, scientists have wondered what is counteracting the force of gravity in the universe.

02/22/22

Beyond the Standard Model

The Standard Model is one of the most well-tested theories in particle physics. But scientists are searching for new physics beyond it.

12/07/21

Are leptons all alike?

Building experimental evidence suggests that the electron, muon and tau may feel different forces.

06/29/21

What is a photon?

The fundamental particle of light is both ordinary and full of surprises.

07/28/20

What dark matter is (probably) not

No one knows for sure what dark matter is. But we know we need something to explain what we see in the universe, and we’ve crossed a few ideas off of our list.

06/16/20

The stories a muon could tell

The discovery of the muon originally confounded physicists. Today international experiments are using the previously perplexing particle to gain a new understanding of our world.

07/09/19

The 9 percent difference

A discrepancy between different measurements of the Hubble constant makes scientists question whether something is amiss in our understanding of the universe.

06/19/18

Waiting for a sign

Some scientists spend decades trying to catch a glimpse of a rare process. But with good experimental design and a lot of luck, they often need only a handful of signals to make a discovery.

12/19/17

Machine evolution

Planning the next big science machine requires consideration of both the current landscape and the distant future.

11/03/15

The particle physics of you

Not only are we made of fundamental particles, we also produce them and are constantly bombarded by them throughout the day.

09/23/14

When research worlds collide

Particle physicists and scientists from other disciplines are finding ways to help one another answer critical questions.

07/01/14

Waiting for supernova

Catching a nearby supernova would be a once-in-a-lifetime experience that could give scientists a glimpse into physics they could never recreate on Earth.

11/26/13

The early universe

How is it possible to look at the earliest moments of the universe? Physicists have their ways—and what they find out will tell us a lot about how the universe works today and how it will unfold in the future.

10/29/13

Why particle physics matters

Particle physics has revolutionized the way we look at the universe. Along the way, it’s made significant impacts on other fields of science, improved daily life for people around the world and trained a new generation of scientists and computing professionals.

10/22/13

Unanswered questions

Do you think scientists have the answers to all the questions? As these researchers admit, there’s still so much to discover. Particle physics is brimming with mysteries and unknowns.

09/24/13

The great physics quest

In their search for fundamental truths, particle physicists have a lot in common with explorers everywhere. 

06/01/12

Through a muon’s eyes

The muon—the short-lived cousin of the electron—could be the key to understanding relationships between other fundamental particles. And it holds a mystery all its own.