From Science News, Feb. 5, 2020: A new experiment raises prospects for building a particle accelerator that collides particles called muons, which could lead to smashups of higher energies than any engineered before. Fermilab scientist Vladimir Shiltsev comments on how scientists with the Muon Ionization Cooling Experiment, or MICE, have cooled a beam of muons, a necessary part of preparing the particles for use in a collider, the team reports online Feb. 5 in Nature.

From Scientific American, Feb. 5, 2020: The best-laid plans of MICE and muons did not go awry: Physicists at the International Muon Ionization Cooling Experiment, or MICE, collaboration have achieved their years-long goal of quickly sapping energy from muons. The results are the first demonstration of ionization cooling, a technique which could allow researchers to control muons for future collider applications — an epochal achievement, according to Fermilab physicist Vladimir Shiltsev.

From the UKRI’s Science and Technology Facilities Council, Feb. 5, 2020: For the first time scientists have observed muon ionization cooling – a major step in being able to create the world’s most powerful particle accelerator. This new muon accelerator will give us a better understanding of the fundamental constituents of matter.

From Kane County Chronicle, Feb. 4, 2020: This year’s events will feature The Great Neutrino Hunt, The Mr. Freeze Cryogenics Show, live physics demonstrations, a physics carnival developed and presented by high school students, and several activities for kids and their parents. The event also will feature tours of the Linear Accelerator Gallery and the Muon g-2 experiment and a driving tour of the site.

From University of Colima’s El Comentario, Feb. 4, 2020: Alexis Solís Ceballos, estudiante de Ingeniería Química Metalúrgica en la Facultad de Ciencias Químicas de la Universidad de Colima, participó recientemente en una estancia de tres meses en el Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (Fermilab) de Estados Unidos, donde un grupo de científicos de todo el mundo explora las altas energías para responder preguntas fundamentales que ayudarían a entender mejor cómo funciona el universo.

The Muon Ionization Cooling Experiment has achieved its goal of squeezing a beam of muons before they decay.

For the first time, scientists have observed muon ionization cooling — a major step toward the realization of the muon collider. If built, a future muon collider could provide 10 times the discovery reach of CERN’s Large Hadron Collider.

To some degree, scientists on all of today’s particle physics experiments share a common challenge: How can they pick out the evidence they are looking for from the overwhelming abundance of all the other stuff in the universe getting in their way? Physicists refer to that stuff — the unwelcome clamor of gamma rays, cosmic rays and radiation crowding particle detectors — as background. They deal with background in their experiments in two ways: by reducing it and by rejecting it.

From WTTW’s The Interview Show with Mark Bazer, Jan. 31, 2020: Fermilab scientist Dan Hooper talks about the early moments of the universe in this 16-minute interview at Chicago bar The Hideout.

From Cambridge Network, Feb. 3, 2020: Representatives from UK Research and Innovation and the US Department of Energy have signed an agreement that outlines £65 million worth of contributions that UK research institutions and scientists will make to the international Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment and related projects hosted by Fermilab. DUNE will study the properties of mysterious particles called neutrinos, which could help explain more about how the universe works and why matter exists at all.