A joint Fermilab/SLAC publication
Add filters
Type
Category
Logbook of August 2008
08/01/08

Z boson

In May 1983, physicists on the UA1 detector for the Super Proton Synchrotron accelerator at CERN made the first definitive observations of the Z boson.

08/01/08

The Iron Lady and the boson

I enjoyed seeing the confidential letter from CERN Director General Herwig Schopper to UK Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher in the Jan/Feb 08 issue of symmetry. It reminded me of a related letter.

08/01/08

The Big Bang Theory

Jennifer Ouellette missed one major unfortunate connection to reality provided by the TV show The Big Bang Theory.

08/01/08

Gamma-rays inspire brass quintet

When you hear the descending flurry of 16th notes in the trumpets, you know the gamma rays are coming. They speed toward the detector in the Gamma-ray Large Area Space Telescope in chromatically harmonized notes.

08/01/08

Pécub's Cup

A Faraday Cup is (pick one) 1) a gadget named after the great experimentalist Michael Faraday, used to measure the current of a charged-particle beam, or 2) an award that recognizes the inventors of innovative instruments for particle accelerators.

08/01/08

Dark matter music

The search for dark matter strikes a new note with a multimedia art work that turns data from an underground experiment into colored light and musical tones.

08/01/08

Rat rod

Parked between a shiny green Camaro and a remodeled '63 Mustang, a 1929 Ford Model A pickup-turned-hot rod is a mosaic of rust and rot. A rag plugs the radiator, and ancient wooden slats border the truck bed.

08/01/08

All aboard

Jason Steffen waited to board a plane in the Seattle airport. He waited to get his boarding pass scanned. Then he walked a few steps down the jet way, and waited some more. His frustration grew.

08/01/08

Call of the bike

As Reid Mumford pedals, sometimes he thinks about how to break away from the pack. Other times he thinks about how the smallest bits of the universe break apart in high-energy collisions.

An illustration of a "machine" used to create Z bosons
08/01/08

Z boson

The Z boson is a neutral particle that mediates the weak force.

08/01/08

Elizabeth Wade: Requiem for a cyclotron

From 1936 to 2008, Columbia University housed a physics legend: an early cyclotron. Columbia’s cyclotron was one of the first machines to split the atom, confirming reports from Europe that such a feat was possible.

08/01/08

COUPP bubble chamber

Donald Glaser of the University of California, Berkeley, won a Nobel Prize for inventing the bubble chamber in 1952 as a way of detecting subatomic particles. Now a University of Chicago professor, Juan Collar, is leading the charge to make the bubble chamber cool and cutting-edge again.