Over the next three months, scientists expect to make the world’s most precise measurement of the muon’s anomalous magnetic moment, often expressed as the quantity g-2.
When I assumed the position of director of the Institute for the Physics and Mathematics of the Universe (IPMU), my smart-mouthed friends joked that I became the Director of the Universe.
In 1991, James Cronin travelled to Leeds, England, to visit Alan Watson, an expert on cosmic-ray physics. Cronin, a Nobel Prize winner in physics who had worked on accelerator-based particle physics experiments, wanted to discuss ideas for cosmic-ray projects.
The spotlight caught Todd Satogata. The camera zoomed in. “Did your particle beam shoot down a UFO?” the TV host asked. The accelerator physicist at RHIC, Brookhaven National Laboratory's Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider, smiled. Of course not.
Look at the periodic table of elements, and youd be hard pressed to find an element that is not used in physics. But what are the most important elements for building accelerators, detecting particles, and solving the mysteries of the universe?
