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Illustration of a W boson among a pattern of masks

Explain it in 60 seconds: W boson

09/10/24

Josh Bendavid and Sarah Charley

Meet the short-lived particle that helps the sun shine.

08/01/07

Professor Prairie

Particles and prairie. For many people, these words are synonymous with Fermilab.

08/01/07

Number crunching, redefined

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.

08/01/07

Raising MoNA

In the olden days, farmers would travel for miles through the American countryside to help neighbors raise a barn.

07/01/07

First users’ meeting

In 1967, 400 enthusiastic scientists met at Argonne National Laboratory to discuss plans to build a new 200 GeV accelerator and a national laboratory to house it.

07/01/07

Chalkboard discussions usually arise spontaneously, with one person explaining something to a small group standing nearby. Scratchings on the board tend to represent fragments of a conversation rather than a complete train of thought.

07/01/07

Speed: It’s not just for particles

In pursuit of high velocities, a group of Fermilab physicists has found an unusual outlet: They race a dragon boat.

07/01/07

Pesky invaders

An overgrown zebra mussel population at Fermilab received a rude awaking when operations engineers treated the lab’s water cooling system in early June to remove nearly 4000 pounds of mussels.

07/01/07

Secrets of a heavyweight

A dozen years after it first appeared on the world stage, the top quark is still one of the hottest topics in particle physics. Why is it so much heavier than any other particle? And what can it tell us about the origin of mass and other quantum mysteries?

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