External

A group called the Big Bang Collective sets up physics discovery stations at rather unexpected venues: music festivals.

From the Black Hills Pioneer, June 10, 2023: The city of Lead announced Fermi Research Alliance contributed a majority of the costs to the improvements of Manuel Brothers Park in Lead, South Dakota. FRA’s contribution will help pay for the concrete pathway that has been built around the perimeter of the park that the is used as a gathering place for many events and activities for the residents throughout the year.

From Phys.org. June 9, 2023: A team of theoretical physicists led by University of Minnesota Twin Cities has discovered a new way to search for axions, hypothetical particles to help explain “Strong CP Problem”, a puzzling phenomenon in which neutrons do not interact with electric fields despite being made up of quarks. The team worked with experimental researchers at Fermilab and this new strategy opens up previously unexplored opportunities to detect axions in particle collider experiments.

From Stanford University, June 7, 2023: Stanford University has announced experimental particle physicist, Stan Wojcicki, who played an essential role in modern neutrino oscillation experiments using high energy beams, has passed away. Wojcicki was spokesperson for the MINOS neutrino experiment at Fermilab and was well-known as he played a major role at Fermilab.

For over a century, scientists have wondered what is counteracting the force of gravity in the universe.

From CERN, June 6, 2023: Join CERN, Fermilab and Sanford Underground Research Facility on June 15 at 11 a.m. CDT for its first gameshow-style livestream to learn about all things neutrinos. Click to learn more about this exciting virtual event.

From the Innovation News Network, May 31, 2023: Editor Georgie Purcell interviews Sean Foster, Research Scientist at Boston University, and Elia Bottalico, Postdoctoral Researcher at the University of Liverpool, who are both heavily involved on the Muon g-2 experiment. The g-2 collaboration scientists are in the final stages of data analysis for Runs 2 and 3 and are preparing to announce the results later this year.

From Big Think – Don Lincoln, May 26, 2023: The search for the smallest particles remains one of science’s greatest pursuits. By today’s measurements, quarks and leptons are the smallest known building blocks in nature, yet researchers wonder if perhaps quarks and leptons are built of even smaller things. Scientists and researchers continue to to look for smaller objects inside quarks and leptons using accelerators like CERN’s Large Hadron Collider.

U Chicago News, May 23, 2023: Robert J. Zimmer, the 13th president of the University of Chicago, died May 23 at age 75. He is being remembered for his historic contributions to enhance the University’s scholarly eminence, transformative education and positive impact in the world during his 15 years as president.

Creating a startup to commercialize technology developed during research is a risky road for physicists and engineers, but the help of experts can improve their chances.