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11/01/06

Quark Park

There's a new scientific path in Princeton, New Jersey. Out of the loam of a vacant lot, a cluster of quasicrystals winks at some pink plasma. Tectonic plates shift, and neurons connect in a hippocampus curve of bamboo.

11/01/06

Lightning strikes, Tevatron blinks

The highest-energy particle accelerator in the world, Fermilab's Tevatron, boasts four miles of particle-accelerating circumference. But during thunderstorms it can become a bull's-eye for stray lightning bolts that demonstrate the intimidating power of nature.

11/01/06

Close quarters

A little after midnight, foreign voices and scents of dinner drift from the kitchen and down the halls of Dorm 1. Slavic dialogue stirs me from sleep and the aroma of cooked kielbasa sausage grabs my full attention.

09/01/06

Particle pocket card

In the early 1950s, Nobel-Laureates-to-be Norman Ramsey and Ed Purcell created cards of physical constants they found themselves using most frequently.

09/01/06

Particle Data Book

This year, the Particle Data Group celebrates its 50th anniversary with a release of a 1230-page edition of the Review of Particle Physics.

09/01/06

New life for a linac

How the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center is transforming the world's longest linear accelerator into a novel X-ray laser.

09/01/06

Making science "K'nex"tions

Stanford Linear Accelerator Center librarian Lesley Wolf needed a creative idea for the next library display. Ten-year-old Connor Reed had lots of free time this summer and an extensive set of K'nex, the flexible equivalent of Lego.