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02/01/06

SymmeTree

Tired of the usual holiday decorations, SLAC librarian Lesley Wolf created the first ever "SymmeTree" last November.

02/01/06

Collimation

In high-energy collisions, luminosity, or beam brightness, isn't the only thing to consider; low background noise at the detectors is also important. When wayward particles bounce around inside detectors, they can mimic real collisions, muddy results, and even damage parts of the collider.

02/01/06

Terry Mart: Counting papers

Citation numbers and the Impact Factor of journals are often used to evaluate the quality and the importance of research. Both quantities have some shortcomings, and people using these indicators should know when and when not to use them.

01/01/06

Ecoscience

Stepping onto the site of a physics laboratory, you might expect to see enormous accelerators, ultra-powerful supercomputers, or scientists in lab coats racing between experiments. At one lab, however, what you will actually see are goats.

01/01/06

Particle physics goes to school

Students around the world are familiar with the periodic table of elements, a chart that outlines how protons, neutrons, and electrons form more than 100 different types of atoms.

01/01/06

NOvA: A neutrino appearance expirement

Deep in the woods of Minnesota, close to the Canadian border, particle physicists hope to construct the next neutrino experiment on a secluded piece of land, fit for studying a lightweight particle that was, itself, once ignored.

01/01/06

A dry run for money

Graduate students acclimate to sparse levels of comfort, but present and former Fermilab doctoral students Matt Leslie (Oxford University, CDF), James Monk (Manchester University, DZero), and Simon Waschke (Glasgow University, formerly CDF) are reaching for extremes: Taking a 1987 Renault purchas