News

Symmetry

Exhibit explores layers of SNOLAB

A large silver hive-like object that looks like it's made from an erector set hangs from the ceiling. Its shadow on the floor below. A door with an exit sign is in the center of the photo. A projection screen with an illustration that reads "voluminous" is on the right side of the photo.

In Drift: Art and Dark Matter, pieces by four artists-in-residence dig deep into the underground laboratory.

Which neutrino is the heaviest?

Three factoid cards, which look similar to playing cards or a baseball card, appear on a background of stars in a night sky (or in outer space) in a cartoon rendering. On each of the cards is a circle adjusted its sunglasses, presumably each a type of neutrino. Underneath these images on the cards are scribbles representing text and a question mark. In the upper left corner, the abbreviations for electron neutrino, a muon neutrino or a tau neutrino appear.

Figuring out which type of neutrino is heaviest, or solving the puzzle of neutrino mass hierarchy, would be a huge leap in our understanding of both neutrinos and the physics that govern our universe. The NoVA experiment or DUNE could help physicists do just that.

Seeing through walls and breaking down barriers

A cartoon-style illustration of a gray outdoor staircase with ornate serpents, tongues out, as the bannisters. Green grass in front, red and purple lightning shapes striking down all over the illustration.

Physicists and archaeologists are teaming up to provide research opportunities for Black and Hispanic undergraduates to image an archaeological site in Mexico using muon tomography. Fermilab personnel will help with the project, and Fermilab will also produce the scintillators for use in the muon detector.

On the marvels of physics

An image of a man in glasses and a purple shirt, Dr. Clifford Johnson, is overlaid on an illustration of comic strips. The panels include a hand writing equations on a whiteboard, an Agent Carter script, textbooks, and a male superhero talking to a person in a dress with the speech bubbles blank and formulas being written beside them.

Theoretical physicist Clifford Johnson answers questions about his work in science and outreach, including advising on movies like Avengers: Endgame.

Dark matter’s signature could be written in stone

A proposed dark-matter detection method would look for tracks of dark matter etched into billion-year-old mineral samples.

Where science meets the sacred

Sanford Underground Research Facility is making an effort to build bridges with Native American communities and operate with respect for the sacred land it is built on.

From the atmosphere to the underground

Read the travelogue of a xenon atom as it journeys from the air we breathe to a dark-matter detector a mile underground.

The next supercollider

What does it take to envision and build a seemingly impossible particle accelerator? The results of these discussions will shape the next 100 years of particle physics research.

The mystery of the muon’s magnetism

A super-precise experiment at Fermilab is carefully analyzing every detail of the muon’s magnetic moment. The Fermilab Muon g-2 collaboration has announced it will present its first result at 10 a.m. CDT on April 7.

The data wranglers

Illustration: Scientists sifting through data

A degree in particle physics or astrophysics can lead to a career in data science. Physicists know how to take enormous amounts of raw data and use it to address a question—often approaching it from multiple angles before finding the answer.