From CNN Opinion, Dec. 14, 2022: Don Lincoln examines the result from the National Ignition Facility at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory that fusing elements released more energy than the lasers supplied. While this is a monumental step for science and a spectacular technical achievement, the process has to be repeated again and again and engineers need to construct a containment structure that can survive the bath of neutrons that a functional fusion generator will create.
In the news
From the University of Chicago News, Dec. 8, 2022: A new study in Nature Astronomy proposes sending an atomic clock onboard a spacecraft to fly close to the sun in order to detect the mysterious substance known as dark matter. By finding dark matter and understanding its properties, we might then understand the evolution of our universe.
From the Innovation News Network, Dec. 9, 2022: Learn more about the capabilities of the anode plane assemblies for DUNE’s far detector and the UK’s contributions to the Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment in an interview with Justin Evans from the University of Manchester.
From the Big Think, Dec. 2, 2022: Recently, a team of researchers from Cal Tech, Fermilab, Google, MIT and Harvard announced they modeled wormhole behavior on a quantum computer. They used Google’s quantum computer Sycamore to generate and control what is equivalent to a wormhole and results suggest that wormholes might be real.
From Whitehouse.gov, Dec. 5, 2022: Last week the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy hosted the thirteen National Quantum Initiative and National Defense Authorization Act research centers to discuss the most pressing scientific and workforce challenges affecting quantum information science and the impacts and benefits of the field to society. Fermilab’s Sam Posen and Jens Koch attended the summit to present SQMS’s mission, major scientific impacts, as well their approaches to building multi-disciplinary research teams, engagement with industry, and education and outreach.
From the American Institute of Physics, Dec. 5, 2022: What is next for the P5 process and the final report from the Snowmass conference? Later this week, the High Energy Physics Advisory Panel will hear from Fermilab physicist Joel Butler who said the report is likely to be finalized within weeks.
From the Daily Herald, Dec. 5, 2022: Senator Dick Durbin introduced legislation to rename Fermilab’s Integrated Engineering Research Center after the late Helen Edwards, the particle physicist who worked at Fermilab for 40 years. The legislation is supported by U.S. Rep. Bill Foster, who knew Edwards, and by U.S. Rep. Lauren Underwood and U.S. Sen. Tammy Duckworth.
From Reuters, Nov. 30, 2022: Researchers from Cal Tech and Fermilab announced on Wednesday that they forged two miniscule simulated black holes – those extraordinarily dense celestial objects with gravity so powerful that not even light can escape – in a quantum computer and transmitted a message between them through what amounted to a tunnel in space-time.
From the Big Think, Nov. 30, 2022: Don Lincoln discusses that while the Universe we see is made solely of matter, there is no explanation for this fundamental asymmetry.
Understanding why the Universe was created with more matter than antimatter is key to understanding why anything exists.
From the New York Times, Nov. 30, 2022: Yesterday, a science team led by Cal Tech announced they had simulated a pair of black holes in a quantum computer and sent a message between them through a shortcut in space-time called a wormhole. Fermilab’s Joe Lykken co-authored the paper published in Nature yesterday and provides details on what the team uncovered.