Archive

Illustration of a neutrino in a fly trap

09/20/22

Catching neutrinos at the LHC

After the successful initiation of two new detectors, scientists have begun to envision an expanded suite of neutrino experiments at the Large Hadron Collider.

Photograph of Jannicke Pearkes, a blonde woman in a CERN hard hat, standing next to the ATLAS detector

08/16/22

Design thinking and the Disco-tracker

As part of a class on design thinking, a graduate student turned her research topic into an art installation resembling a giant disco ball.

Images of six people referred to in the article

08/02/22

6 views of working in particle physics without a PhD

Symmetry chats with scientists and engineers about doing important work in physics without a doctoral degree.

Illustration of a line of people walking past Drumheller Fountain at the University of Washington

07/12/22

Final Snowmass meeting to be held next week

The workshop is the culmination of a two-year process to provide a scientific vision and detailed proposals to the planning process for the future of US particle physics.

Illustration: Staircase leads to an idea

07/06/22

10 years later, Higgs boson discoverers publish refined measurements

In new papers by the CMS and ATLAS collaborations, physicists detail high-precision results from Higgs boson studies—but no new physics (yet).

Illustration of Higgs boson w/question mark shadow and tiny scientists

06/30/22

Four things physicists still wonder about the Higgs boson

Scientists have learned a lot about the Higgs boson in the decade since they discovered it. But intriguing questions remain.

Illustration: Kaplan, Arkani-Hamed, Dunford in foreground, sitting in theater, clips of documentary overlaying background

06/23/22

Particle Fever: Where are they now?

The 2013 documentary Particle Fever follows physicists from the start-up of the LHC through the discovery of the Higgs boson. Where are those physicists now?

Illustration of particle collision surrounded by four scientists

06/21/22

Reverberations of the Higgs

The discovery of the Higgs boson inspired young people around the world to pursue a career in science and technology.

Illustration of a standard model display shelf

05/24/22

What’s up with the W boson mass?

The CDF experiment at Fermilab measured the mass of the W boson and came up with an answer that no one expected.

Illustration of two Higgs particles running away from a scientist

04/26/22

Double trouble Higgs

Scientists worried Higgs pairs would be too rare for LHC experiments to find. But by using machine learning, they now are getting tantalizingly close.

04/22/22

What’s new for LHC Run 3?

CERN’s accelerators and the LHC’s detectors have undergone major upgrades that will allow scientists to collect more data in the upcoming run than they did in the previous two runs combined.

Illustration of a tree with thought bubbles as fruit

04/05/22

Where do theories come from?

The catalysts for inspiration are hard work and innumerable connections with a wider scientific community.

03/29/22

From small town student to international leader

Patty McBride was recently elected the next leader of an experiment at the LHC. But her proudest moments remain seeing her collaborators succeed.

Illustration of a car made of parts from other cars

03/08/22

How to break a theory

When a theory breaks, you learn how to build it better.

Illustration demonstrating identical swimmers with different masses

12/07/21

Are leptons all alike?

Building experimental evidence suggests that the electron, muon and tau may feel different forces.

Diagram of the progress of a muon through the CMS detector

08/26/21

Teaching a particle detector new tricks

Scientists hoping to find new, long-lived particles at the Large Hadron Collider recently realized they may already have the detector to do it.