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09/01/05

Memory tree

The SLAC archives, in the windowless basement of the Central Laboratory Annex, are no greenhouse. Yet for the past few years, a small tree has adorned the den of SLAC's archivist Jean Deken.

09/01/05

Memorable Fourth

Holiday weekends are meant to be special, but nine Fermilab employees got a dose of unwanted excitement this Fourth of July.

09/01/05

Reviewed: Symmetry

Young science geniuses are the stuff of legend, making breakthrough calculations in their attics on stormy nights and revolutionizing the world by the age of 30.

09/01/05

Gary Johnstone: Making Einstein's Big Idea

I worked on the film Einstein's Big Idea for about eighteen months--—from early research to completion of the edit. In all that time two questions recurred: How does a filmmaker write a film about science geniuses? How do you get actors to play physicists?

09/01/05

Superconductors

Superconductors transmit electricity without wastefully producing heat.

09/01/05

Super-fast super-sensitive detectors

Only detectors with the greatest precision capabilities will measure up to the machine seeking to explore supersymmetry, dark matter, the Higgs mechanism, and new physics that hasn't yet been imagined.

09/01/05

Around the world

Travel is an integral part of the life and work of particle physicists. Since the beginning of the year, some 30 physicists known as the Quantum Diarists have criss-crossed the world to meet collaborators at distant accelerators, attend conferences, teach a seminar, or interview for jobs.

09/01/05

Niobium

More than 500 tons of niobium would go into building the ILC. What's so great about niobium? Where does it come from? And is the Earth's supply going to run out?

09/01/05

The secret lives of stars

Donning plastic 3D glasses and turning out the lights, a small group of astrophysicists intently watch the universe projected on the wall.

09/01/05

Science: A richer experience of life

Michael Salamon brings an outward vision to Office of Science and Technology Policy. He says Walt Whitman got it wrong: the more one learns about nature, the more beautiful it becomes.

09/01/05

Robin Staffin: Optimizing US high-energy physics

Whenever I have met with high-energy physicists in recent months, conversation has always turned to the charge to the High Energy Physics Advisory Panel subpanel known as P5, the Particle Physics Project Prioritization Panel, to consider the future of the two biggest US accelerator-based programs

09/01/05

An international enterprise

Particle physics, like most sciences, is a truly international enterprise. Two specific stories in this issue of symmetry highlight its global nature.

08/01/05

Gluon discovery

This collision event recorded in 1979, provided the first evidence of the gluon, the carrier of the strong nuclear force.

08/01/05

Great minds think...

I want to point out for the record that the cover of the June/July issue of symmetry appears to have been "heavily inspired" by the cover of the recent SLAC report SLAC-R-709,

08/01/05

Secret color code

Thank you for a charming issue on neutrinos (May 2005). The use of jelly beans of different colors to convey the notion of the various flavors of neutrino is very sweet and engaging.