Trying to work out what dark energy really is (or if it even exists) requires accurate measurements, particularly of the rate at which the universe is expanding.
Science fair season is here, so we at symmetry were not surprised when 12-year-old Austin Ellsworth of Spring, Texas, called with a few questions about his science fair project.
For million-dollar components that travel thousands of miles to become part of a particle detector, the most perilous part of the trip might be airport security.
Take one part unidentified goop. Add three parts mysterious energy. Throw in a dash of ordinary atoms. Mix. Compress. Explode. Let expand for 13.7 billion years.
In 1985, ten years before scientists at Fermilab discovered the top quark, Scott Willenbrock was a graduate student at the University of Texas at Austin.