A joint Fermilab/SLAC publication
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03/01/06

On the shoulders of how many giants?

Scientists since the time of Sir Isaac Newton (and before) have built their work on the work of those who preceded them. Newton famously described this by saying, “If I have been able to see farther, it was only because I stood on the shoulders of giants.”

03/01/06

Nuclear drive-in

Standing outside in the dark and the cold on the east coast of Scotland, 500 people let out a communal gasp as a huge screen was illuminated on the side of the Torness nuclear power station.

An illustration of a brick wall being constructed
03/01/06

Quarks

Quarks are fundamental particles found in the matter all around us.

03/01/06

Melissa Alexander: The beauty of Super-K

Recently I discovered that one of the most beautiful expressions of Japanese craftsmanship is neither a vase in a Tokyo museum nor a carving in a Kyoto temple. Instead, it rests deep inside a mountain in the Japanese Alps.

03/01/06

ILC design

Supersymmetry. Dark matter. Extra dimensions. Scientists have proposed the International Linear Collider (ILC), a next-generation project designed to smash together electrons and their antiparticles at a higher-than-ever energy, to learn more about these and other mysteries of the universe.

03/01/06

Burl Skaggs: In the clouds

Burl Skaggs lives in a two-story house in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada mountains. Each workday he has breakfast, kisses his wife Carol goodbye, and goes down to his extra-large garage.

03/01/06

Slippery substance

Water continues to reveal mysteries and surprises as researchers investigate its structure.

03/01/06

Out of the box: Designing the ILC

Scientists working on the design of the proposed International Linear Collider have made some important decisions and agreed on the base-line configuration of the machine.

03/01/06

James Gillies: CERN strategy

CERN, the laboratory, has its home outside Geneva, Switzerland, but CERN, the organization, is a much broader collaboration, involving all of Europe. The Council of CERN is seeking input on developing a long-term vision for European particle physics.

03/01/06

Bernard-Paul Heroux: It's teatime

Drinking tea makes you more effective at work. Any type of liquid caffeine works well, but the effect is best when cookies are added. This isn't the result of the latest medical study–just an observation we have made while working in dozens of departments and laboratories around the world.

03/01/06

Balance

Women confront specific challenges working in the sciences. Often heated discussion of women’s work/home balance is in vogue in US newspaper and magazine editorial and feature pages.

Logbook of February 2006
02/01/06

Supernova 1987A

Upon arriving for work at the laboratory of Masatoshi Koshiba at the University of Tokyo, Yoji Totsuka handed me a fax telling of a supernova in the Large Magellanic Cloud, picked up by optical telescopes.

02/01/06

Another artifact

In response to our story "Artifact: Relativator," SLAC physicist and director emeritus W.K.H. "Pief" Panofsky provided us with another type of circular slide rule he has had in his desk since the late 1970s.