CERN scientists cool antimatter with lasers for the first time

Scientists at CERN have used lasers to cool down antimatter for the first time. The milestone could help unlock some of the secrets of this weird substance, including why it didn’t annihilate the universe soon after the Big Bang.Continue ReadingCategor… Continue reading CERN scientists cool antimatter with lasers for the first time

CERN is building containers for storing and transporting antimatter

In a move that would please the fictional Star Trek engineer Mr. Scott, CERN is working on ways to store and transport antimatter. Sorry, this isn’t to power any starships secretly under construction, but as a way to better study antiprotons to learn m… Continue reading CERN is building containers for storing and transporting antimatter

CERN anomaly hints at new particle physics Standard Model can’t explain

CERN’s Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is designed to probe the fringes of known physics, and now the facility has found particles not behaving as predicted. While it’s still early days, the discovery hints at the existence of new particles or forces beyon… Continue reading CERN anomaly hints at new particle physics Standard Model can’t explain

New quantum particle may have been accidentally discovered

By definition metals and insulators are very different – but now Princeton physicists have accidentally discovered an unexpected quantum behavior in an insulator that was thought to be unique to metals. The find suggests a brand new type of quantum par… Continue reading New quantum particle may have been accidentally discovered

Neutrino detector finds new type of “ghost particle” from the Sun

Borexino, a huge underground particle detector in Italy, has picked up a never-before-seen type of neutrino coming from the Sun. These neutrinos confirm a 90-year-old hypothesis and complete our picture of the fusion cycle of the Sun and other stars.Co… Continue reading Neutrino detector finds new type of “ghost particle” from the Sun

CERN scientists design trap to transport antimatter between facilities

Antimatter is a tricky substance to store and transport, mostly because of its habit of annihilating any container you try to put it in. Now, researchers at the BASE collaboration at CERN have outlined a new antimatter trap designed to safely carry the… Continue reading CERN scientists design trap to transport antimatter between facilities

Proposed dark matter detector watches a billion tiny pendulums swing

Despite hunting for it for decades, scientists have so far been unable to detect any definitive signs of dark matter. But a new detector design, using an array of billions of tiny pendulums, could finally break the silence by searching for the effects … Continue reading Proposed dark matter detector watches a billion tiny pendulums swing

Shortest event ever measured lasts mere sextillionths of a second

Physicists in Germany have measured the shortest timespan ever recorded. The team measured the time it takes for a photon of light to travel the length of a hydrogen molecule, and found it to occur in just trillionths of a billionth of a second.Continu… Continue reading Shortest event ever measured lasts mere sextillionths of a second

Rare-earth element upgrade to help observatory detect ancient neutrinos

The Super-Kamiokande neutrino observatory in Japan has received a relatively simple upgrade that should allow it to look further back in time. A rare-earth element called gadolinium has been added to the water in the huge underground facility, which wi… Continue reading Rare-earth element upgrade to help observatory detect ancient neutrinos