In the news

University of Virginia physicists shipped the last truckload of five large, specialized panels that contain the detector that will form the shell of the international Muon-to-electron Conversion Experiment, or Mu2e experiment. UVA professors, technicians, postdoctoral fellows, graduate students and undergrads have worked on a total of 83 detector modules, each weighing as much as 2,000 pounds, totaling about 160,000 pounds of materials.

From Amazon Web Services blog, March 7, 2023: The new Quantum Instrumentation Control Kit (QICK) developed by Fermilab and U Chicago engineers proved to drastically improve quantum computer performance while cutting the cost of control equipment. Now, Amazon Web Services has collaborated with Fermilab QICK engineers to have the tool kit accepted as an open-source software project for quantum devices.

From Big Think, March 4, 2023: Researchers in Japan have effectively used muon tomography to X-ray the Great Pyramid in Egypt finding an unknown tunnel in the structure. This new tool used in archeology is detailed in a new paper published in Nature Communications.

From the Kane County Magazine, February 2023: Kane County Magazine speaks with Fermilab’s Rebecca Thompson, head of education and public engagement, and senior scientist Don Lincoln on their passion for science and the curiosity that led them to Fermilab. The story, “For the love of science” begins on page 40.

From DOE Office of Science, Feb. 22, 2023: DOE’s podcast Direct Current launches its new season by talking with national lab quantum scientists Anna Grassellino and David Awschalom about their brain-bending research, the massive impacts it could have on our lives and the joy and frustration of chasing breakthroughs that can take decades to arrive.

From Big Think, Feb. 16, 2023: Common sense says nothing is nothing but science proves that nothing is in fact something. Fermilab’s Don Lincoln explains at the tiny quantum level, empty space is actually a vibrant place with tiny subatomic particles appearing and disappearing.

From Big Think, Feb. 15, 2023: The Standard Model of Physics has been challenged by the Muon g-2 and W-boson measurements. Don Lincoln discusses a recent paper in the journal Nature Communications that attempted to resolve two significant discrepancies in particle physics.

From Popular Science, Feb. 3, 2023: Recently, researchers created a full 3D muon image of a nuclear reactor the size of a large building which provides a safer way of inspecting old reactors or checking on nuclear waste. Scientists can collect muons to paint images of objects as if they were X-rays. Fermilab’s Alan Bross and a team of researchers are working to use this same technology to image the inside of the Great Pyramid of Giza.

From Big Think, Feb. 6, 2023: For the first time, the proton’s size and structure was measured using Fermilab’s MINERVA detector by studying proton/neutrino interactions. This new method, which studies weak force interactions, is a first step in which scientists can use to better understand the laws of the Universe.

From National Geographic (Poland), Feb. 2, 2023: A group of 150 scientists, including researchers from Fermilab and the University of Chicago, has published one of the most precise measurements of the distribution of matter in the Universe. The analysis is groundbreaking because it used data from two very different telescope surveys and it indicated that something is missing in the current standard model of the universe.