A joint Fermilab/SLAC publication
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09/01/08

Chomp a cup for science

When you walk into a bar you expect to see whiskey bottles and beer taps, not stacks of tooth-imprinted foam cups.

09/01/08

Diving for zebras

Ben Czaplewski lifts a 30-pound helmet onto his head and lowers himself into a manhole. He disappears without a splash.

09/01/08

Ping-pong roast

At a recent symposium honoring former Stanford Linear Accelerator Center Director Jonathan Dorfan, dinner guests were treated to a course of the unexpected.

Illustration of neutrino symbols on a scale
09/01/08

Neutrino masses

Neutrino masses are extremely difficult to measure. While we know precisely how much an electron weighs, we have little information on the mass of its neutral partner, the electron neutrino. The same is true of the muon neutrino and tau neutrino.

09/01/08

Antimatter's science fiction debut

Fermilab radiation safety physicist William S. Higgins explains how the concept of antimatter first made its way into science fiction.

09/01/08

The LHC express

As passengers boarded the train in a Berlin suburb, researchers from the Large Hadron Collider greeted them: “Imagine you are a proton and this train is the LHC tunnel. You will travel 37 km, slightly more than the 27 km it takes the protons to circle the LHC tunnel.”

09/01/08

JLab's new director

Hugh Montgomery has taken the helm of the Department of Energy’s Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility in Virginia after almost 25 years at Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory in Illinois. He is JLab’s third director, replacing retiring Christoph Leemann.

09/01/08

Mapping the digital divide

Physicist Les Cottrell is the meteorologist of Internet weather. His project tests the strength of Internet connections around the world—and finds Africa lagging farther and farther behind.

09/01/08

Life at the LHC reaches fever pitch

As the big collider ramps up, four physicists talk about working late, finding time to play, and staying connected to family and friends.

09/01/08

Monica Dunford: Physicist bloggers walk a fine line

Ask any physicist: The most common question we hear from family/friends/random strangers in the next seat on the plane is, “What is it, exactly, that you do?” I have even been asked straight up, “High-energy physics? Is that a real job?”

09/01/08

Bring on the protons

As this issue of symmetry goes to press, the most ambitious physics experiment in history is about to take a major step toward full operation.