Particle accelerators smash tiny particles together to reveal the universe's building blocks. These machines have grown dramatically in size and power over time, leading to major discoveries. The ...

With the help of carbon nanotubes and laser light, this machine can create immensely powerful X-rays on a microchip, effectively miniaturizing one of the most powerful tools in particle physics.

Particle accelerators are often framed as exotic machines built only to chase obscure particles, but they are really precision tools that use electric fields and magnets to steer tiny beams of matter ...

Scientists recently fired up the world's smallest particle accelerator for the first time. The tiny technological triumph, which is around the size of a small coin, could open the door to a wide range ...

A prototype section of the proposed Cool Cooper Collider beam tunnel. Credit: Emilio Nanni/SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory Ever since the discovery of the Higgs boson in 2012, physicists have ...

Twenty-five feet below ground, SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory scientist Spencer Gessner opens a large metal picnic basket. This is not your typical picnic basket filled with cheese, bread and ...

An unfortunate and little reported side effect of last year’s Japanese earthquake and tsunami is that thousands of acres of farmland were contaminated with seawater. Rice is a staple crop in Japan, ...

Every time two beams of particles collide inside an accelerator, the universe lets us in on a little secret. Sometimes it's a particle no one has ever seen. Other times, it's a fleeting glimpse of ...

Machines like cyclotrons and synchrotrons help scientists recreate the conditions of the Big Bang and probe the very edges of particle physics. They also tend to be very big. Now, a new study details ...