Particle accelerators propel matter toward small targets at high speed

Particle accelerators allow physicists to create controlled nuclear experiments

Before the 1930s, scientists relied on naturally radioactive substances to learn about atomic nuclei. The first atom was split in 1932 when John Cockcroft and Ernest Walton fired a beam of accelerated protons at a lithium atom, producing alpha radiation.

Cathode-ray tube televisions are examples of electron accelerators

CRT TVs work by converting electricity into heat, which causes electrons to be emitted from the rear of the device in three beams responsible for the colors red, green, and blue. Electromagnets direct electrons to phosphor molecules on the screen, which emit light and illuminate the pixels.

The most common type of particle accelerator is a linear electron accelerator

Known as linacs, these devices fire particles in a straight line, making them useful for the intense, targeted beams needed in cancer treatment. Circular accelerators, such as synchrotrons and cyclotrons, can achieve extremely high particle speeds through repeated exposure to electromagnetic fields.

Explore five of the largest particle accelerators on Earth

Unlike traditional linear accelerators, the CBETA energy recovery linac reduces waste by capturing and recycling residual energy from the acceleration of electrons. The SuperKEKB collides electrons and positrons—the antimatter version of electrons—to search for abnormal physics beyond the standard model.

As of 2023, the world's smallest particle accelerator is smaller than a penny

The prototype is an example of a photonic accelerator, which utilizes tiny lasers to accelerate electrons rather than relying on oscillating electromagnetic fields to move them. It can deliver about 1 electron per second with energies equivalent to those found in cathode-ray tube televisions.

Collisions between cosmic rays and atmospheric particles dwarf particle accelerators

According to Einstein's model of gravity, confining immense energy into a sufficiently small region would warp space-time enough to create a black hole. If accelerators actually did create black holes, then trillions more would be produced daily in the atmosphere, where collisions are millions of times more energetic.

The first circular particle accelerator was narrower than the average cereal bowl

The 1939 Nobel Prize in physics was awarded to Ernest Lawrence for inventing the cyclotron. By comparison, the Large Hadron Collider is 5 miles in diameter and is the largest cryogenic system in the world, cooling its electromagnets to temperatures colder than those found in outer space.

Supercollider particles lag behind light by just 10 feet after 14 minutes of travel

The circular shape of the Large Hadron Collider allows particles to be repeatedly accelerated and redirected via electromagnetic fields rather than building equivalent energy in a linear chamber hundreds of miles long. The latter would require 5 trillion D batteries to achieve equivalent near-light speeds.

Cyclotrons move particles in spiral paths of increasing radius

After particles are injected into the center of the device, an alternating electric field and a constant magnetic field energize the particles as they spiral outward toward a target. Cyclotrons are common in hospitals that perform molecular imaging, which relies on radioactive components that decay within hours.

Electron accelerators are used to create X-ray lasers

In an X-ray free-electron laser, electromagnetic fields are used to accelerate and move electrons in wiggling patterns, causing them to emit synchronized, high-energy X-rays. This resulting light beam can strike targets up to 120 times per second to create movies of changing molecular structures and phenomena.

Particle accelerators detect subatomic particles using millions of sensors

Calorimeters measure the energy of particles. Tracking devices can measure momentum and charge from the trajectory of particles, which is determined by recording tiny electrical signals. Time-of-flight detectors provide particle velocities directly and particle mass indirectly, giving physicists a suite of properties to compare with those of known matter.

It may be possible to create dark matter in particle accelerators

In high-energy collisions, exotic forms of matter can be produced by directly converting energy into mass according to *E = mc*². Even though a dark matter particle would not be directly observable, its creation would result in unaccounted-for mass, which can be compared to potential dark matter candidates for indirect detection.

How the Antimatter Factory works, and why antimatter transport is so difficult

At CERN, protons are accelerated to 99.93% the speed of light and collide with iridium to create antiprotons. These particles are then slowed and sent to various research experiments. Moving the antimatter to other locations for study requires trapping it in electromagnetic fields to prevent contact with normal matter, which would cause annihilation.

More than 97% of the world's particle accelerators are used for commercial purposes

Only a few hundred of the over 30,000 particle accelerators worldwide are used for research. Most are involved in medical imaging and treatment, food sterilization, semiconductor processing, cargo screening, and radioisotope production. They're also used to modify the properties of polymers.

Explore the components of the linear particle accelerator at Los Alamos

Located at the site of bomb design and development for the Manhattan Project, LANSCE features an injector system for hydrogen ions, a series of tanks with alternating electric fields for proton acceleration, and an isotope production facility that creates radioisotopes for medical treatments.

Take a 360-degree tour of the particle detector at the Large Hadron Collider

The ATLAS experiment integrates concentric layers of sensors to analyze the properties of particles that emerge from the collisions of accelerated matter. More than 3 petabytes of data—equivalent to 600 years of music—can be expected to be collected from this experiment yearly (VR device-compatible).

Particle beams can be used to alter the surface properties of artificial joints

Surface hardening and embedding specific elements or coatings can improve the biocompatibility and bone tissue integration of these implants. Particle accelerators are significant sources of the radioisotopes needed in medical diagnostics, and microwave linear accelerators are used in the majority of cancer irradiation treatments.

Scientists turn alchemists, transforming transform lead into gold

Fulfilling alchemists' dreams, scientists at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) transmute lead into gold. While the 86 billion gold nuclei produced were short-lived, the experiment sheds light on how electromagnetic fields can play a critical role in nuclear transmutation.

Particle detection has evolved from cloud and bubble chambers to digital 3D displays

As invisible particles passed through cloud and bubble chambers, they disrupted supersaturated vapor and superheated liquid, respectively, creating trails that served as proxies for cosmic rays. The transition from photographed events to digital sensors enhanced data collection and accuracy.

While atoms are normally made of protons, neutrons, and electrons, exotic ones have been built with antimatter—alternate versions of normal matter that live for fractions of a second and are about a billion times as rare.

Explaining the Higgs boson, also known as the 'God Particle'

The Higgs boson is a long sought after fundamental particle that—within the framework of high-energy physics—gives other particles their mass. Having captured public attention when it was discovered in 2012 at the Large Hadron Collider, and its...

Leptons do not experience the strong nuclear force that binds quarks together

Particles like electrons can exist in isolation, enabling them to move more freely. Within circuits, this allows electrons to carry energy across wire surfaces quickly. Contrastingly, light created in the sun's core is delayed by a million years on its way to Earth due to collisions with free electrons.

Why did the Big Bang produce something, rather than nothing?

One of the more remarkable things—among many remarkable things—about the big bang is how matter seemingly won out over antimatter. Int that initial moment of creation and annihilation, it turns out, neutrinos may well have pushed the universe toward forming matter over antimatter. This New York Times article delves deeply, asking several scientists for their input.

NASA uses a specialized plasma wind tunnel to test heat shield technology

The ArcJet Complex ionizes compressed air that fires onto shields at hypersonic speeds, replicating the conditions of high-speed, planetary reentry. An enhanced facility incorporates lasers to mimic the radiant heating experienced during high-energy atmospheric traversal.

Neutron star types, categorized by the presence of strong magnetic fields and radiation beams

Magnetars have magnetic fields about 1,000 times stronger than the average neutron star—roughly a trillion times stronger than Earth's. Pulsars emit beams of radiation from their magnetic poles, which appear as flickering radio wave signals as the object spins.

Lightning rods provide a conductive pathway to safely steer massive electric currents

The device is positioned higher above the ground to "catch" one of the many branching filaments of electrons from clouds before they make contact with other surface structures, which have been induced to have a positive charge by overhead storm clouds. The current is then sent to a conductive grid buried underground.

Neutron stars, the remains of some massive stars after they explode in a supernova, are the densest directly observable objects in the universe.

Planeterrellas create artificial auroras that mimic the atmospheric displays of light by setting up an electric field between two metal balls in a jar filled with a small amount of air.

How fusion—which releases energy when two lighter atoms combine to form a heavier atom—differs from fission

Radioactive elements can introduce software errors because the ionizing radiation they produce can detach electrons from atoms, and computer code relies on the distribution of electrons.

The history of many kitchen appliances involves unexpected discoveries and applications, including wartime radar turned hamster defroster and replacing an 'ice king' with heat-stealing boxes.

Shooting stars, or meteors, are fragments of asteroids and comets that burn up as they enter Earth's atmosphere, creating streaks in the sky called meteor showers.

In 1984, Operation Smash Hit intentionally crashed a 239-ton train into a nuclear waste canister at 100 miles per hour to prove the canister's safety, which remained completely intact and lost just 0.29 of its 100 pounds of pressure.

Learn how your body is, scientifically, like a firework with its own slow, controlled burn.

Objects can be 3D printed with light by projecting 2D computerized tomography (CT) scans onto rotating cylinders of resin, which solidify upon exposure.

Sony set the standard for cylinder-shaped batteries when it repurposed manufacturing equipment used to make rolls of magnetic recording tape.

The first image of a black hole was captured by creating an Earth-sized virtual observatory from a network of eight radio telescopes.

Visualize how CRISPR-Cas9—a type of immune system used by single-celled organisms to attack invasive viruses—targets and makes precise changes to a gene's DNA.

Larger animals like giraffes, elephants, and blue whales have developed a unique defense against cancer, a phenomenon known as Peto's Paradox

The deadliest aspect of volcanic eruptions is often not lava, but pyroclastic flows—avalanches of ash, gas, and rock that can move more than half the speed of sound.

When caught in the mouths of cardinal fish, seed shrimp release glowing, bioluminescent chemicals, which alert predators of the cardinal fish, prompting the shrimp's ejection.

As of 2025, the most cited papers in science include a review of graphene, methods to improve image recognition, streamlining electron density calculations, and optimizing protein studies.

Children are now three times more likely to say they want to be a YouTuber when they grow up than an astronaut, with some even attending 'YouTube camps' that teach kids how to create content for the platform.

Before humans, the Soviet Union and the United States sent animals—including apes, dogs, and cats—to space during the Space Race.

For centuries, Niagara Falls has been a magnet for daredevils seeking to conquer one of nature's most powerful wonders, with its 200-foot drop and water rushing at 32 feet per second with 280 tons of force.

Chaos theory—informally known as the butterfly effect—is the reason why weather forecasts are presented with probabilities rather than certainties.

Electrical grids worldwide must double their power delivery capacity by 2050 to meet surging demand from AI and electric vehicles.

Exploring the Larry Bird punch that almost changed March Madness

Explore what it's like inside a patient isolation unit, used in situations such as treating a patient or suspected patient with Ebola.

After her fellow cult members tried to kill her with an LSD-infused hamburger, one member of the Manson Family, the murderous cult led by Charles Manson, decided to testify against the group's leader.