In addition to serving as director of a major Department of Energy laboratory, he also became known in his later years for other contributions to academic and public life.
Atomic element 94 was named “plutonium” after Pluto, the ninth planet from the Sun (now demoted to “minor planet” status.) By tradition, plutonium should have been assigned the symbol “Pl,” but co-discoverer Glenn Seaborg gave it the symbol “Pu” as
Supercomputers can play chess, map DNA, and aid in the study of dark energy. But recently they were unleashed on a bold new frontier: optimizing the production of potato chips.
His photographs show scientists and experiments, large physics facilities and tiny devices, enthusiastic crowds of conference participants and lone researchers absorbed in thought.
When Aaron Chou heard about an experiment in Italy that suggested the existence of an exotic particle as a candidate for dark matter, he was intrigued enough to go looking for it. His first stop: the Fermilab cafeteria.
Though scientists are skeptical of the suggested particle's existence, the results from Legnaro need to be checked, says Chou, who strayed from his usual area of researchcosmology to help put the project together. "It's unlikely but not impossible.
Bird watchers have "life lists" of species they hope to see in their lifetimes. Why shouldn't particle physics fans do the same? With that in mind, in our April issue we asked readers to help us put together the first particle physics life list.