Fermilab has announced a wacky shipping plan for a huge magnetic ring used to study subatomic particles. It’s coming to the suburbs of Chicago from Long Island on a 3,200-mile route.
On a rainy day in September, a crowd gathered outside the Wrigley Building in downtown Chicago. They were waiting in line to take advantage of a rare opportunity: A chance to ask a Nobel Laureate anything and everything they ever wanted to know about science.
Scientists have caught a faint whiff of the Higgs boson, the most sought-after prize in particle physics. But the findings are sketchy, dashing rumors that the particle has actually been found.
In pop culture, we tend to pigeonhole scientists into a few stereotypes: out-of-touch nerds (Jerry Lewis’ Nutty Professor), bumbling head-in-the-clouds types (Doc Brown) or obsessed madmen (Dr. Frankenstein/Moreau/Jekyll/Strangelove).
In the last installment of Clever Apes we visited a unique physics lab at the University of Chicago that studies the properties of granular materials. One area they’re investigating is the behavior of “oobleck,” which is nothing but cornstarch and water.
From industry to pop culture to the military, we’ve long been captivated by robots. We tend to imagine them as our mechanical mirror images – reflections of our most efficient, coldest selves.
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