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01/01/06

Top turns 10, in a manner of speaking

After the discovery of a new elementary particle 10 years ago by Fermilab's CDF and DZero detector collaborations, a group from DZero threw a party. Between bottles of bubbly celebrating the top quark's detection, a contest of brains was in full-swing.

01/01/06

A dry run for money

Graduate students acclimate to sparse levels of comfort, but present and former Fermilab doctoral students Matt Leslie (Oxford University, CDF), James Monk (Manchester University, DZero), and Simon Waschke (Glasgow University, formerly CDF) are reaching for extremes: Taking a 1987 Renault purchas

01/01/06

International Year of Physics

The United Nations declared 2005 as the International Year of Physics (IYP). Welcome as it is within the physics community, and though a fitting gesture to celebrate the centennial of Einstein’s annus mirabilis, what has the year achieved?

01/01/06

Chelsea Wald: Blogging a year in particle physics

In December 2004, the particle physics community started a bold and somewhat unusual initiative. Called Quantum Diaries, it was to be a Web site weaving together the online diaries of dozens of physicists from around the world for the World Year of Physics.

01/01/06

NOvA: A neutrino appearance expirement

Deep in the woods of Minnesota, close to the Canadian border, particle physicists hope to construct the next neutrino experiment on a secluded piece of land, fit for studying a lightweight particle that was, itself, once ignored.

01/01/06

Ecoscience

Stepping onto the site of a physics laboratory, you might expect to see enormous accelerators, ultra-powerful supercomputers, or scientists in lab coats racing between experiments. At one lab, however, what you will actually see are goats.

01/01/06

The search for extra dimensions

Although we now think of the universe as three bulky, nearly-flat dimensions, we might soon discover that the fabric of space-time consists of many more dimensions than we ever dreamed.

01/01/06

Graduate school gourmet

If you are working on a PhD, chances are you're too busy feeding your brain to plan your next meal. Particle physicists share how they managed when they needed cheap or fast meals during grad school.

01/01/06

Unitary triangle

The weak force is responsible for the decay of matter: unstable particles made of heavy quarks and antiquarks decay into particles made of their lighter cousins.

01/01/06

Artifact: Relativator

Few periods in history were shaped by science as much as the 1950s. The Cold War was in full swing. The space race was finishing its first lap with Sputnik's launch. The Manhattan Project remained fresh in everyone's minds.

01/01/06

Heather Rock Woods: The strong force of physicists

I learned calculus in kindergarten. Or I should have. Whenever I needed help in high school calculus, I tried every avenue before turning to Dad, because he inevitably (or so I remember) criticized my long-term memory. "You learned that in kindergarten," he would chastise.

An illustration of a factory
01/01/06

B factories

B factories mass-produce B mesons, particles that contain a bottom quark.

Logbook of November 2005
11/01/05

Inventing the web

The idea for the World Wide Web first appeared in a memo dubbed “vague but exciting.”

11/01/05

Hot computers

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.

11/01/05

Doctor Atomic: A manhattan project opera

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.

11/01/05

Networks of the past

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.