Physicist Jean Tran Thanh Van, creator of one of the most prestigious particle physics conferences, is the king of connections. His humanitarian efforts, combined with his vision of a cohesive international particle physics community, have now led him back to his home country of Vietnam.
Light dark photons? Dark Higgs bosons? Scientists look for signs of these weird-sounding particles in data from BaBar—an experiment designed to explain a completely different mystery.
Thin layers of diamonds have become useful tools inside the detectors at the Large Hadron Collider. They're robust enough to monitor the harsh conditions, and they can even provide incredibly precise measurements of the timing of passing particles.
Almost a mile underground, in a new science facility in South Dakota, scientists of the LUX collaboration are building the world's largest dark-matter search experiment.
Physicists have used advances in accelerator technology to develop a revolutionary machine-the Linac Coherent Light Source-for exploring the world on the smallest and fastest scales. Physicist Herman Winick describes the start of the LCLS and the spectacular results that are now rolling in.