More than 500 tons of niobium would go into building the ILC. What's so great about niobium? Where does it come from? And is the Earth's supply going to run out?
SPIRES is not only an archive for scientific papers; it also provides information on researchers. The HEPNames database contains the names and verified records of over 7000 high-energy physicists, from graduate student to professor emeritus.
Louis Barrett, physicist at Western Washington University, drives a lot. His daily commute to the university, located in Bellingham, Washington, is more than 80 miles.
Travel is an integral part of the life and work of particle physicists. Since the beginning of the year, some 30 physicists known as the Quantum Diarists have criss-crossed the world to meet collaborators at distant accelerators, attend conferences, teach a seminar, or interview for jobs.
Almost in time with the rhythmic open-mouthed chewing and the occasional call for more ketchup during lunchtime at Fermilab's day care center comes the repeated mantra, "Careful of your milk."
As the Global Design Effort for the proposed International Linear Collider starts to take shape, an international collaboration of scientists simultaneously works on an alternative linear collider technology that pushes physics and engineering to the edge.
