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A strong regional tradition of high-energy physics and astrophysics—plus the aspirations of one young researcher—brought the High-Altitude Water Cherenkov Gamma-ray Observatory to Mexico.

From UChicago News, Oct. 15, 2019: Astronomers at the University of Chicago, MIT and elsewhere have used a massive cluster of galaxies as an X-ray magnifying glass to peer back in time, to nearly 9.4 billion years ago. In the process, they spotted a tiny dwarf galaxy in its very first, high-energy stages of star formation. Fermilab and University of Chicago scientist Brad Benson is a co-author of the study.

From Black Hills Pioneer, Oct. 10, 2019: Representatives from the British Consulate, Fermilab and Sanford Underground Research Facility were on hand for a dinner in Rapid City, South Dakota, in honor of the Red Arrows and the ongoing scientific and technological relations between the UK and the U.S. In 2017, the UK committed $88 million to the Long Baseline Neutrino Facility and the Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment. Fermilab Director Nigel Lockyer notes that the first science and technology agreement between the United States and the United Kingdom was driven by neutrino physics.

A collaboration with fewer than 100 members has played an important role in Fermilab’s ongoing partnership with Latin American scientists and institutions.

From Kane County Chronicle, Oct. 14, 2019: Fermilab at the Kane County Sheriff’s Office will conduct live gunfire tests of Fermilab’s on-site gunfire detection system from 9 p.m. to midnight Oct. 17.

A series of short physics schools organized in collaboration with CERN has had an outsized impact on the careers of scientists from Latin America.

Today, as vice president of research at the University of Colima in Mexico, Alfredo Ananda’s main occupation is building a more certain route to a research career for Latin American students. He does this by providing them with challenging academics and international connections.

From CERN, Oct. 7, 2019: The CMS collaboration has measured for the first time the variation, or “running,” of the top quark mass. The theory of quantum chromodynamics predicts this energy-scale variation for the masses of all quarks and for the strong force acting between them. Observing the running masses of quarks can therefore provide a way of testing quantum chromodynamics and the Standard Model.

Advances in subatomic physics heavily depend on ingenuity and technology. And when it comes to discovering the nature of some of the most elusive particles in the universe, neutrinos, scientists need the best and most sensitive detector technology possible. Scientists working at CERN have started tests of a new neutrino detector prototype, using a very promising technology called “dual phase.”

From Rapid City Journal, Oct. 9, 2019: For the past 17 years, shovels, safety goggles, tramway cars and other remains of the defunct Homestake gold mine lingered in a closed-off tunnel under the city of Lead, South Dakota. Now the tunnel is alive with activity again, thanks to preparations for the Long-Baseline Neutrino Facility and the international Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment, hosted by Fermilab.