When you think of a particle accelerator, you usually think of some giant cyclotron with heavy-duty equipment in a massive mad-science lab. But scientists now believe they can create particle ...

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 ...

Some of the most fundamental questions about our universe are also the most difficult to answer. Questions like what gives matter its mass, what is the invisible 96 percent of the universe made of, ...

Plasma, the fourth state of matter, consists of a gas in which electrons are no longer bound to atoms, which allows electricity to flow freely. When beams of particles moving close to the speed of ...

Physicists at UC Santa Cruz and other institutes across California and New Mexico have developed a detection system that will ...

Nuclear waste sits in temporary storage for 100,000 years, but Jefferson Lab’s particle accelerators slash that to just 300 years while generating electricity. This isn’t theoretical physics-it’s a $8 ...

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 ...

Particle accelerators (often referred to as “atom smashers”) use strong electric fields to push streams of subatomic particles—usually protons or electrons—to tremendous speeds. Accelerators by the ...

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 ...