Symmetry features

Grab your cocoa or pumpkin spice — as today we examine what’s naughty and nice.

The year 2019 was a banner one for Albert Einstein: It included the first image of a black hole and the 100th anniversary of the 1919 solar eclipse expeditions that validated his theory of general relativity. Learn more about both, plus topics such as quantum theory, the Hubble Space Telescope, and the science (and fiction) of “Game of Thrones” in Symmetry writer Mike Perricone’s annual list of new popular physics books.

Enormous scientific collaborations are made up of hundreds upon thousands of individuals, each with their own story. Online collections of profiles, such as Faces of DUNE, the Dark Energy Survey’s Scientist of the Week blog and Humans of LIGO, reveal the sometimes-ignored human sides of scientists.

Scientists who moved from particle physics or astrophysics to medical physics sit down with Symmetry to talk about life, science and career changes.

Test beams generally sit to the side of full-on accelerators, sipping beam and passing it to the reconfigurable spaces housing temporary experiments. Scientists bring pieces of their detectors — sensors, chips, electronics or other material — and blast them with the well-understood beam to see if things work how they expect, and if their software performs as expected. Before a detector component can head to its forever home, it has to pass the test.

Latin American institutions are instrumental in creating photon detectors for the Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment.

A collaboration with fewer than 100 members has played an important role in Fermilab’s ongoing partnership with Latin American scientists and institutions.

Today, as vice president of research at the University of Colima in Mexico, Alfredo Ananda’s main occupation is building a more certain route to a research career for Latin American students. He does this by providing them with challenging academics and international connections.

Advances in subatomic physics heavily depend on ingenuity and technology. And when it comes to discovering the nature of some of the most elusive particles in the universe, neutrinos, scientists need the best and most sensitive detector technology possible. Scientists working at CERN have started tests of a new neutrino detector prototype, using a very promising technology called “dual phase.”

Many researchers from Latin America can trace their entry into experimental particle physics to an initiative started by former Fermilab Director Leon Lederman.