Bob Bishop: Scientific computing

The future of science will be driven by the improving performance of accelerators, telescopes, microscopes, spectrometers, and computers. The progress of scientists will depend on how well these instruments leverage each other and the investigation process.

Computing

My first computer, as a child, was a Commodore VIC-20. I learned to program on it but within weeks had exhausted its 5-kilobyte memory.

Robert Lang: Much more than paper hats

Artist Robert Lang has folded intricate paper sculptures from flat sheets that, in some cases, started out over nine feet long. He uses the same method many of us used to make cranes and party hats in elementary school–a series of precise folds. But Lang’s designs are far more complex.

LIGO analysis

Scientists at the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) are hoping to catch a wave a gravitational one.

Les Cottrell: Bringing the Internet to China

When I was at high school in England my favorite subject was geography/geology. However, fearing that jobs in geology might involve looking for oil in inhospitable places, with few encounters with the opposite sex, I switched to physics.

The grid

The grid provides computing power on demand.

Bottom quark

This memo by John Yoh, written on November 17, 1976, certainly caught the attention of the Columbia-Fermilab-Stony Brook collaboration (Fermilab experiment E288).

Atomic nucleus, not electron

Careers in particle physics

I am a high school student in Illinois, close to Fermilab. I am very interested in a career in particle physics. I admire the efforts of the many laboratories to introduce topics of particle physics to various age groups, including mine.

Deep Down Things: The Breathtaking Beauty of Particle Physics

How deep down does Bruce Schumm want to take us? "Deep down within the atomic nucleus," he writes, "deeply within the paradoxical richness of empty space, deep inside the synapses of the great scientific thinkers of the twentieth century."

It's not just Charlotte's Web

The amazing properties of spider webs have fascinated scientists for years. Some of the mysteries of the spider's thread (such as the radii and spirals of threads produced by the Nephila pilips spider shown above) are unraveling through the use of synchrotron light sources.

Fermilab goes eBay

In need of a computer monitor? How about a forklift? Or maybe a sousaphone? If you are working for the US federal government or an approved agency, all this and more is available to your organization—for merely the cost of shipping a few boxes or a crate.

VIP at DESY

He boldly pressed the red button and said, "They promised to explain to me afterwards what I am doing here exactly."

The power of pi

Believe it or not, most of Fermilab's power comes from pi. Electrical power, that is, as the shape of the lab's power poles is modeled after pi, the symbol for the famous number.

Snowmass 2005

In August 2005 nearly seven hundred physicists and engineers from around the world traveled to the small Rocky Mountain town of Snowmass, Colorado, to advance the planning and design of the proposed International Linear Collider.

Jan-Henrik Andersen: Visual language

Few facets of nature are more mysterious than the quantum world. Particles that appear and disappear from nothing, interactions governed by probability, and intrinsic uncertainties are enough to baffle even the most experienced scientist.