News

From Listverse, May 3, 2019: The Dark Energy Camera made this list of 10 brilliant feats of scientific technology, along with LIGO, the Pierre Auger Observatory and the Large Hadron Collider.

By developing clever theories and conducting experiments with particle colliders, telescopes and satellites, physicists have been able to wind the film of the universe back billions of years—and glimpse the details of the very first moments in the history of our cosmic home. Take a (brief) journey through the early history of our cosmos.

From Agência FAPESP, May 1, 2019: Na última década foi iniciada, em diferentes países da América Latina, a operação de grandes infraestruturas de pesquisa, como o maior observatório de raios cósmicos do mundo, o Pierre Auger, na Argentina, e o Observatório Cherenkov de Água de Alta Altitude, no México. Nos próximos anos, devem ser concluídas as obras do Sirius – a nova fonte brasileira de luz síncrotron – e do Laboratório Argentino de Feixes de Nêutrons.

From EarthSky, May 2, 2019: University of Chicago physicists and a former Fermilab scientist have laid out an innovative method – using the Higgs boson – for stalking dark matter. He said the Higgs might actually be “a portal to the dark world.”

From APS’s Physics, May 1, 2019: The Dark Energy Survey has combined its analysis of four cosmological observables to constrain the properties of dark energy—paving the way for cosmological surveys that will run in the next decade.

From Patch.com, April 29, 2019: Fermilab offers several annual traditions for our neighbors, from our Family Open House to our STEM Career Expo. But none are quite as anticipated as the birth of the year’s first baby bison. On April 20, baby bison season officially began. The first calf of the year was born in the early morning hours, and mother and baby are doing well.

It’s not always about what you discover. The LHC research program is famous for discovering and studying the long-sought Higgs boson. But out of the spotlight, scientists have been using the LHC for an equally important scientific endeavor: testing, constraining and eliminating hundreds of theories that propose solutions to outstanding problems in physics, such as why the force of gravity is so much weaker than other known forces like electromagnetism.

From CBS Chicago, April 26, 2019: Officials say the calf was born on April 20, one of 12 to 14 expected this spring. The public is welcome to photograph and see the herd at the lab in Batavia, about 35 miles (56 kilometers) west of downtown Chicago. Admission is free.