Diana Kwon

The group Science Responds harnesses physicists’ expertise in fields like data science, statistics and software development to support efforts to fight COVID-19.

Underneath the vast, frozen landscape of the South Pole lies IceCube, a gigantic observatory dedicated to finding ghostly subatomic particles called neutrinos. Neutrinos stream through Earth from all directions, but they are lightweight, abundant and hardly interact with their surroundings. A forthcoming upgrade to the IceCube detector will provide deeper insights into the elusive particles.

For the last three decades, physicists have patiently waited for the next nearby supernova. Luckily, waiting is no longer the only option.
With an upgrade to the Super-Kamiokande detector, neutrino physicists will gain access to the supernovae of the past.

In the last few decades, Argentina and Chile have proven themselves prime spots for astronomical observation — a status that has been a boon in many ways for both countries.

When LIGO and Virgo detected the echoes that likely came from a collision between a black hole and a neutron star, dozens of physicists began a hunt for the signal’s electromagnetic counterpart.

The Big Bang Science Fair brings science communication and outreach to an arts festival in Rhode Island. The event is filled with presentations, workshops and hands-on activities covering a wide range of scientific disciplines. It makes its second appearance later this month.

By developing clever theories and conducting experiments with particle colliders, telescopes and satellites, physicists have been able to wind the film of the universe back billions of years—and glimpse the details of the very first moments in the history of our cosmic home. Take a (brief) journey through the early history of our cosmos.

These international projects, selected during the process to plan the future of U.S. particle physics, are all set to come online within the next 10 years.

Some scientists spend decades trying to catch a glimpse of a rare process. But with good experimental design and a lot of luck, they often need only a handful of signals to make a discovery.

Scientists are using cutting-edge machine-learning techniques to analyze physics data.