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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.

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

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.

09/01/06

The rise and fall of the pentaquark

Although initial results were encouraging, physicists searching for an exotic five-quark particle now think it probably doesn't exist. The debate over the pentaquark search shows how science moves forward.

09/01/06

Shop-vacs to the rescue

In creating neutrinos for the MINOS experiment at Fermilab, the NuMI focusing horn delivers batches of protons using intense magnetic fields generated by 200,000-ampere pulses of electric current.

09/01/06

Packing it in

Globe-traveling physicists put some of their best thinking into strategies for their bags–all carry-ons, of course.

09/01/06

E=mc($$$)

With his genius and his unmistakable appearance, Albert Einstein is an icon of both science and culture. Since his passing Einstein has inspired films, books, and even an opera, Einstein on the Beach. Not surprisingly, his popularity pays off handsomely.