Particles with two heavy quarks are predicted by the Standard Model theory of particle physics, but this is the first time scientists have been able to confirm they exist.
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.
Only detectors with the greatest precision capabilities will measure up to the machine seeking to explore supersymmetry, dark matter, the Higgs mechanism, and new physics that hasn't yet been imagined.
The SLAC archives, in the windowless basement of the Central Laboratory Annex, are no greenhouse. Yet for the past few years, a small tree has adorned the den of SLAC's archivist Jean Deken.
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.
Michael Salamon brings an outward vision to Office of Science and Technology Policy. He says Walt Whitman got it wrong: the more one learns about nature, the more beautiful it becomes.