Every summer weekend, several dozen CERN physicists gather to enjoy a beloved American tradition: They play for the Quarks and the Leptons in an international softball league.
It was my first morning in Tokyo. Carrying a camera, an offering of saké, and a note in Japanese that I hoped explained why I was there, I stepped into the sumo training hall to watch the days practice.
At 3:10 a.m. on October 13, 1985, scientists with the Collider Detector at Fermilab experiment informed the main control room that they had observed the Tevatron colliders first antiproton proton collision.
It all started with a swimming hole. In 1988, Maggie Keswick, the wife of noted architect and designer Charles Jencks, had a swamp dug up on her familys Scottish estate to create a place for their children to swim.
For birders, it all comes down to that moment. Focus your binoculars, steady your hands, and look, hard, until you find that glimpse of feathers, a spark of recognition. Do you see it?
A new type of particle collider known as a muon collider considered a wild idea a decade ago is winning over skeptics as scientists find solutions to the machine's many technological challenges.