particle accelerator news stories on Newser

Fermilab Closes In on Higgs Boson

Kevin Spak — Wed, 07 Mar 2012 07:24:01 CST

Particle physicists are closer than ever to confirming the existence of the Higgs boson, thanks to a report this morning from Illinois' Fermilab. Two teams of physicists that used Fermilab's now-closed Tevatron particle collider and reviewed data provided by their experiments over the last few years say they've spotted events...

2nd Test Finds Faster-Than-Light Particles

Kevin Spak — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 09:02:05 CST

The international physics team OPERA (Oscillation Project with Emulsion Tracking Apparatus) has managed to recreate the result that shocked the physics world , again detecting a batch of subatomic particles moving faster than the speed of light, the Washington Post reports. The "positive outcome of the test makes us more confident...

New Super X-Ray to Study Earth's Core

Kevin Spak — Fri, 11 Nov 2011 14:42:05 CST

The European Synchrotron Radiation Facility has inaugurated a new X-ray beam that could tell us much about Earth’s most mysterious place: its core. The recently revamped ESRF uses a huge particle accelerator to create various intense X-Ray beams, which can give scientists an atom-level look at their subjects. The new...

CERN Quashes ‘God Particle’ Rumors

Rob Quinn — Tue, 26 Apr 2011 06:07:42 CDT

The atom-smashers at CERN have quelled rumors that the elusive Higgs boson "God particle" has been found. A leaked internal memo that suggested detectors at the Large Hadron Collider had found signs of the particle caused excitement when it was posted on a science blog, but CERN says nothing has...

'God Particle' Buzz at Fermilab

Jane Yager — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 04:33:00 CDT

Take that, Large Hadron Collider: Just as the particle accelerator at the Fermi national lab in Illinois was about to be retired in favor of the bigger LHC, rumor has it that the Fermi accelerator, the Tevatron, has found the long-sought Higgs boson, also known as the "God particle." An...

Large Hadron Collider Gets Closer to Mini-Big Bang

Tue, 30 Mar 2010 10:47:27 CDT

The world's largest atom smasher conducted its first experiments at conditions nearing those after the Big Bang today, breaking its own record for high-energy collisions with proton beams crashing into each other at three times more force than ever before. In a milestone for the $10 billion Large Hadron Collider's...

Large Hadron Collider Closing Down for a Year

Rob Quinn — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 04:52:00 CST

The glitch-plagued Large Hadron Collider will be closing down for a year at the end of 2011 to fix flaws in its construction. The atom-smasher restarted recently after being out of commission for 14 months and will soon accelerate protons to energies of 7 trillion electron volts. It will take...

Collider Must Produce 'Eureka Moments'

Jane Yager — Sun, 13 Dec 2009 07:38:11 CST

With the Large Hadron Collider getting back into action, Kurt Andersen travels to the French-Swiss border to examine the potentially "paradigm-shifting" consequences. Or at least, physicists hope it will shift some paradigms. "If this new collider doesn’t produce groundbreaking discoveries, particle physics will have reached a dead end for a...

At Last, Collider Gets Atoms Smashing

Will McCahill — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 19:09:30 CST

For the first time, the world’s largest, most expensive science experiment worked as it was supposed to today, with the Large Hadron Collider sending beams of protons smashing into each other—as envisioned when it first opened in 2008. The 17-mile track underneath the French-Swiss Alps has seen more than...