This summer, physicist Larry Lee had festival-goers dancing to the sounds of science. He uses his musical training and an interest in collider machinery to create a new instrument of sorts. Using a piece of standard lab equipment, Lee has created a science-inspired, electronic music-backed light show.

From The Atlantic, Oct. 25, 2019: Errant particles from everyday radioactive materials are a major obstacle for particle physicists. The solution? Lead from the bottom of the sea. Fermilab archivist Valerie Higgins is quoted in this piece on materials from old ships reused for physics experiments.

From Forbes, Oct. 30, 2019: Dark matter was proposed in the 1930s and has eluded detection for nearly a century. However, an advanced and high-tech detector called LUX-ZEPLIN has just been installed that might change all of that. Fermilab scientist Don Lincoln gives an overview of the experiment.

For the first time, scientists and policy-makers are creating a regional strategy for scientific projects in Latin America, starting with a focus on high-energy physics and cosmology.

The cryostat for Berkeley Lab’s LUX-ZEPLIN experiment — the largest direct-detection dark matter experiment in the U.S. — is successfully moved to its research cavern. This final journey of LZ’s central detector on Oct. 21 to its resting place in a custom-built research cavern required extensive planning and involved two test moves of a “dummy” detector to ensure its safe delivery.

After 32 years as Fermilab’s staff photographer, Reidar Hahn is retiring – and saying farewell with a final collection of photos in Fermilab’s art gallery. The exhibit will run from Nov. 6, 2019, to Jan. 3, 2020, with a free artist’s reception on Nov. 8.

Berkeley Lab’s Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument aimed its robotic array of 5,000 fiber-optic “eyes” at the night sky Oct. 22 to capture the first images showing its unique view of galaxy light. It was the first test DESI with its nearly complete complement of components. Fermilab contributed key elements to DESI, including the corrector barrel, hexapod, cage and CCDs. Fermilab also provided the online databases used for data acquisition and the software for the instrument’s robotic positioners.

Latin American institutions are instrumental in creating photon detectors for the Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment.

From Washington University’s The Source, Oct. 23, 2019: The Department of Energy has awarded new funding to boost research on dark matter, the mysterious substance that makes up an astounding 85% of the matter in the universe. The Axion Dark Matter eXperiment is one of the fund’s recipients, and a number of Washington University scientists are collaborating on the project.

From Gizmodo, Oct. 23, 2019: Ahead lies a whole frontier in particle physics of grand unsolved mysteries, including why there’s more matter than antimatter in the universe, what the true identity of dark matter and dark energy is, or how the strange, ultraweak neutrino particles ended up so ghostly. The Fermilab-hosted DUNE and Muon g-2 experiments are among those looking for answers.