As the Pierre Auger Observatory in Argentina collects cosmic rays for science, its thousands of solar panels are collecting data that could make solar power cheaper, more efficient, and more reliable.
Stories abound about how particle physics benefits education, the economy, and society as a whole. Quantifying those benefits would help particle physics better demonstrate its value to the country.
High-tech businesses must constantly innovate or become obsolete. But when it comes to investing in new machinery and adopting new techniques, industry can be timid, says Bob Patti, chief technical officer of Tezzaron Semiconductor.
Many of the people trained in particle physics move on to jobs in industry, where their skills are in high demand. There you can find a theorist exploring for oil or an accelerator scientist working on cancer treatments.
When it comes to getting rid of cancer, the sharpest scalpel may be a proton beam. Technology conceived and hatched in highenergy physics is now treating thousands of patients per year, with fewer side effects.
On September 10, 2008, scientists at the European laboratory CERN attempted for the first time to send a beam of particles around a new particle accelerator, the Large Hadron Collider.
Leon Lederman, a 1988 Nobel laureate and Fermilab physicist, plopped a folding table and two chairs on a busy New York City street corner and sat under colorful hand-scrawled signs offering to answer physics questions.
Comiket—short for Comic Market—is the world's largest comic convention. Held in Tokyo, it draws more than half a million people from all over the world to buy and selldoujinshi—self-published manga and graphic novels.