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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

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

A lab away from home

It's a stretch: In search of new skills, particle physicists spend months or years at labs far from home, absorbing culture along with science.

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

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?

07/01/07

Particle event

Scientists call the particle collisions and interactions they study “particle events.”

07/01/07

Talk and chalk

Theorists cant help it: When asked to explain something, they reach for a piece of chalk. The language of math and physics seems to require a writing implement and a large vertical surface.

07/01/07

Industry eyes the next big collider

With a blue marker poised at a large white flip chart, Maury Tigner, a physicist at Cornell University, turned to a group of about 10 representatives from industry and asked, “What kind of applications interest your company?” The room was cramped and beige, a generic hotel meeting spa

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