Stanford and University of California researchers found evidence of particles that are their own antiparticles. These 'Majorana fermions’ could one day help make quantum computers more robust.
In today's particle physics experiments, it takes a fraction of a second for data recorded by detectors to be transferred to a data storage facility. Soon thereafter, collaboration members from around the world have access to the data via the Internet.
A piece of steel may look cold and lifeless. But like any other piece of matter, it is bursting with activity deep inside. Electrons whiz around inside atoms, and a sea of never-resting quarks and gluons populates the nucleons that make up the atomic core.
Particle physics has been getting its due in the theater world with the recent plays Copenhagen and QED, which celebrate the lives and work of famous physicists. Now the field is being paid the highest musical and artistic compliment.
Computing centers are hot--–literally. At least, they are in the absence of extensive cooling systems. With an increasing number of computers installed at scientific labs nationwide, the efficiency of those cooling systems is becoming much more important.
All fields of science benefit from more resources and better collaboration, so it's no surprise that scientific researchers are among the first to explore the potential of grid computing to connect people, tools, and technology.
This memo by John Yoh, written on November 17, 1976, certainly caught the attention of the Columbia-Fermilab-Stony Brook collaboration (Fermilab experiment E288).
Believe it or not, most of Fermilab's power comes from pi. Electrical power, that is, as the shape of the lab's power poles is modeled after pi, the symbol for the famous number.
