Science: Compact, cheaper, laser-powered particle accelerators get real

 

• News
• Physics

Compact, cheaper, laser-powered particle accelerators get real

Little powerhouses might someday replace billion-dollar, kilometer-long behemoths at major x-ray facilities

• 27 Jan 2025
• 2:10 PM ET
• ByAdrian Cho

An elegant new concept may be about to revolutionize the technology of particle acceleration, which animates huge atom smashers and x-ray sources. For decades, some physicists have strived to develop an accelerator powered by laser light that would be much smaller and cheaper than existing machines. Recent progress suggests laser plasma accelerators (LPAs) may soon realize that bright promise.

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https://www.science.org/content/article/compact-cheaper-laser-powered-particle-accelerators-get-real

Science: Banished from world’s biggest physics lab, Russian scientists look inward—and to China

• ScienceInsider
• European News

Banished from world’s biggest physics lab, Russian scientists look inward—and to China

Breakdown of collaboration with CERN forcing many physicists to reorient work

• 29 Jan 2025
• 2:10 PM ET
• ByScience News Staff

 In the dead of the Russian winter, many of the nation’s physicists are feeling a particular chill. Banished since late last year from Europe’s CERN, the world’s largest particle physics laboratory, and increasingly isolated by trade sanctions that have complicated purchases of scientific equipment, many Russian physicists are having to dramatically reorient their work—with some looking to China for collaboration.

read more:

https://www.science.org/content/article/banished-world-s-biggest-physics-lab-russian-scientists-look-inward-and-china