Catherine N. Steffel is a freelance science writer and former science writing intern in the Fermilab Office of Communication.
An experiment that will contribute vital knowledge about something deceptively simple – a proton’s spin – will soon come online at Fermilab. The experiment may either begin to validate the “potato salad” model of proton spin or force scientists to develop a new model entirely.
Humans and robots work together in a carefully choreographed dance to maintain peak production target performance in Mu2e’s search for new physics – direct muon-to-electron conversion.
Scientists have begun filling the ICARUS detector at Fermilab with liquid argon, moving one step closer toward neutrino oscillation measurements and the potential discovery of sterile neutrinos.
Science Storytellers brings together two groups of innately curious individuals: scientists and children. In the Science Storytellers program, kids act as science journalists interviewing real-life scientists. Afterward, they share what they learned. Research shows that transmitting scientific knowledge to the public is important, but actually shifting someone’s opinions requires engaging with them in a two-way dialogue and treating them as a whole, complicated person with knowledge, experiences and influences of their own.
For the first time, a team of scientists has used the orientation of light left over from the early universe to detect gravitational lensing from galaxy clusters – the bending of light around these massive objects. Using gravitational lensing data taken by the South Pole Telescope and the Dark Energy Camera, Fermilab scientist Brad Benson and colleagues have demonstrated a new way to “weigh” galaxy clusters and ultimately shed light on dark matter, dark energy and other mysteries of the cosmos.
Fermilab scientists have reached the lowest temperature ever achieved at Fermilab, testing a refrigerator for the SuperCDMS dark matter experiment. The fridge, which operates at close to absolute zero, is now one step closer toward installation at SNOLAB in Canada.
In November, the Chicago Quantum Exchange held a workshop about ethics and societal impacts of artificial intelligence and quantum computing technologies. Participants from a wide variety of academic backgrounds, from physicists to sociologists, discussed the implications of technology on society and vice versa and identified critical steps scientists need to take so technology is developed and implemented ethically and responsibly.
Fermilab News looks back at 10 ways Fermilab researchers advanced science and technology in 2019, from the physics of particles to the motion of the cosmos. This year brought us groundbreakings, breakthroughs, a world record and awards. Look back at 2019 in this year-end roundup.
Mingzhi Shen’s career started in finance. Then he discovered that he enjoyed working with numbers in a different way, and he joined Fermilab as a network analyst.
The Accelerator Neutrino Neutron Interaction Experiment, equipped with a novel light detection technology and water enhancement that distinguish it from other high-energy neutrino experiments, will start taking data next month.