Latest Fermilab Stories

The University of Notre Dame has received a five-year, $6.1 million award from the National Science Foundation to support the continuation of the nationwide QuarkNet program, which uses particle physics experiments to inspire students and provide valuable research, training and mentorship opportunities for high school teachers. Through the QuarkNet program, physicists at Notre Dame, Fermilab and 50 other research institutions will continue to mentor teachers in research experiences,...

April Flowers for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online The first block of what will be the largest, most advanced neutrino experiment in North America is now being installed in Minnesota. On track to come online in 2013, the NuMI Off-Axis Appearance experiment – NOvA for short – will study the properties of neutrinos, such as their masses, and investigate whether they helped give matter an edge over antimatter after both were created in equal amounts in the Big Bang. “This is a...

Lee Rannals for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online Tevatron scientists have made a lackluster announcement before Wednesday's big event, by admitting they are still uncertain about the existence of the God particle. Just two days before the highly anticipated announcement of the latest Higgs-search results come out from the Large Hadron Collider in Europe, the U.S. Department of Energy’s Tevatron collider scientists failed to announce a finding first, but did present more evidence....

After a short winter break, physicists working at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) on the French-Swiss border have set a new world record by successfully smashing two 4 teraelectronvolt (TeV) proton beams together producing a total of 8 TeVs, as they continue to search for the elusive Higgs boson “God particle.” Following the record-breaking smashup yesterday (April 5 at 12:38 a.m.), the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) scientists declared ‘stable beams,’ marking...

For the first time, a team of U.S. researchers have successfully used a beam of neutrinos--extremely low mass particles that can travel at the speed of light--to transmit a message through an obstacle. According to a Wednesday article from Ars Technica reporter Casey Johnston, the scientists, who were representing the University of Rochester and North Carolina State University (NC State), fired the neutrinos through roughly 780 feet of solid bedrock. When the particles emerged on the other...

A group of scientists led by researchers from the University of Rochester and North Carolina State University have for the first time sent a message using a beam of neutrinos – nearly massless particles that travel at almost the speed of light. The message was sent through 240 meters of stone and said simply, "Neutrino." "Using neutrinos, it would be possible to communicate between any two points on Earth without using satellites or cables," said Dan Stancil, professor of electrical and...

Scientists working at the US Tevatron particle collider near Batavia, Illinois on Wednesday said they have found the strongest evidence yet for the existence of the elusive “God particle.” They said their experiments mirror those from the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) in Europe that have narrowed the range where the Higgs boson particle could be hiding. The Higgs Boson is the missing link in the standard model of physics and is believed to be what gives objects mass, though scientists...

Fermilab broke ground on Friday on a new Accelerator Research Center, where physicists will work on the development and industrialization of particle accelerator technology. Once completed in 2013, the 48,000-square-foot complex will wrap around Fermilab’s orange Collider Detector Facility building. The State of Illinois is providing $20 million to design and build a part of the complex, while the U.S. Department of Energy will contribute $13 million to refurbish an existing building...

Italian scientists who had seemingly found further evidence that neutrino particles were in fact traveling faster than the speed of light based on experiments have been dealt a major blow over the weekend by another team working at the Gran Sasso laboratory in Italy that claims the evidence must be flawed, according to a recent Reuters report. An announcement in September by a team of scientists working on the OPERA (Oscillation Project with Emulsion-tracking Apparatus) experiment claiming...

The Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory's Tevatron particle accelerator is set to retire on Friday, ending its 25 year career in an Illinois prairie. The Tevatron has been outranked by the more powerful atom smasher Large Hadron Collider, built by the European Center for Nuclear Research (CERN). U.S. physicists will now have to work with CERN on high-energy projects instead of pursuing the research on their own turf. The American particle accelerator failed to raise enough funds to...