Even world-famous theorist Juan Maldacena wasn’t sure at first whether he should pursue a Ph.D. in physics.

From The Science Times, July 25, 2020: The Department of Energy officials unveiled a blueprint strategy for a national quantum internet. The DOE is working with university and industry researchers, aiming to develop a prototype within this decade.

Scientists on the Dark Energy Survey have used observations of the smallest known galaxies to better understand dark matter, the mysterious substance that makes up 85% of the matter in the universe. The smallest galaxies can contain hundreds to thousands of times more dark matter than normal visible matter, making them ideal laboratories for studying this mysterious substance. By performing a rigorous census of small galaxies surrounding our Milky Way, scientists on the Dark Energy Survey have been able to constrain the fundamental particle physics that governs dark matter.

From Sanford Underground Research Facility, Aug. 4, 2020: The most publicly visible milestone of the Long-Baseline Neutrino Facility’s pre-excavation work, a conveyor system, now extends over U.S. Highway 85 in Lead, South Dakota. Installation of the conveyor is one of a series of infrastructure strengthening projects undertaken to prepare the Sanford Underground Research Facility for its role as LBNF’s far site. Such projects lay the groundwork for the Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment, the most ambitious particle physics experiment on U.S. soil, hosted by Fermilab.

The ATLAS and CMS experiments at CERN have announced new results that show that the Higgs boson decays into two muons. US CMS — the United States contingent of the global CMS collaboration — played a crucial role in this result, contributing to the excellent performance of CMS detector.

From New Atlas, July 26, 2020: The United States government is outlining its own plans to develop a national quantum internet. The blueprint was developed at a meeting in February by the DOE national laboratories, various universities and industry. The report lays out four areas of research that should be made a priority in order to develop the quantum internet and outlines five milestones that will mark the path toward making it a reality.

From The Hindu, July 27, 2020: The The U.S. Department of Energy announced that it is working toward a national quantum internet that will rely on the movement and interaction of subatomic particles to control and transmit information. Scientists from Argonne National Laboratory and the University of Chicago have already created a quantum network in the Chicago suburbs. It will soon connect it to its Fermilab, creating an 80-mile test bed.