Symmetry

As she grew up in the small town of San Pellegrino in the Italian Alps, three things conspired to make Maria Elena Monzani a physicist: a fascination for outer space, a Nobel Prize and a nuclear disaster. Now she prepares an international team to search for clues to one of the biggest scientific mysteries.

Right now could be considered one of the best — and most uncertain — times in theoretical physics. That’s what Symmetry heard in interviews with 10 junior faculty in the field. They talk about what keeps them up at night, their favorite places to think and how they explain their jobs to nonscientists.

A new study shows that light dark matter is 1000 times less likely to bump into regular matter than previous analyses allowed.

Few numbers have gotten under astronomers’ skin like the Hubble constant. In fact, experts have debated the value of this single parameter for 90 years, and if astronomers can measure its value with great precision, they’ll be one step closer to solving some of the other grand astronomical mysteries of our age. There’s just one problem: The measurements they’ve taken don’t agree. The discrepancy makes scientists question whether something is amiss in our understanding of the universe.

A lot of people say they would like to travel to Mars, but Zoe Townsend doesn’t just talk the talk. As a mechanical engineer at CERN, she knows the importance of putting ideas to the test. To see if she could actually handle the unique challenges posed by living and doing science on another planet, Townsend spent 12 days on a simulated Mars mission in the deserts of Utah.

Scientists at SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory are building the world’s largest digital camera for astronomy and astrophysics — a minivan-sized 3200-megapixel “eye” of the future Large Synoptic Survey Telescope that will see light in 2022. In the meantime, the lab has completed its work on a miniature version that will soon be used for testing the telescope and taking LSST’s first images of the night sky. ComCam will help test the observatory once it is installed in Chile later this year.

What do particle accelerators and craggy outcrops have in common? Both have Tor Raubenheimer trotting the globe. Thanks to both his work at SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory and his passion for rock climbing, he has gotten to know people and places on several continents.

Word fans, rejoice! Symmetry is back with another list of 10 common words that take on a new meaning when spoken by scientists. Take these physics words for a spin.

Scientists are redoubling their efforts to find dark matter by designing new and nimble experiments that can look for dark matter in previously unexplored ranges of particle mass and energy, using previously untested methods. Dark matter could be much lower in mass and slighter in energy than previously thought.

A dynamic duo at CERN is planting seeds to foster physics research in Nepal. Like many students in Nepal, they moved abroad to pursue the best higher education opportunities. Now, they are using their unique experiences working at CERN to bring some of these opportunities back to his home country.