CERN has a long history in superconducting radio frequency (SRF) technology. What started with a few SRF cavities in the 1980s has now become a major field of activity. Today CERN is not only running a variety of superconducting RF installations and projects but is also preparing for a new...

Cryogenic thermal engineers are familiar with multilayer insulation (MLI), developed in the late 1950s as lightweight insulation for cryogenic propellants. MLI is used as high performance thermal insulation for launch vehicles, spacecraft, cryogenic tanks, dewars and spaceborne instruments. MLI operates in high vacuum, where its performance exceeds other insulations by...

After five years of large-scale upgrade work, Japan's High Energy Accelerator Research Organization (KEK) began test operations on SuperKEKB, an electron-positron colliding accelerator. SuperKEKB represents a major upgrade from the previous KEKB accelerator and is the culmination of years of construction that started in the second half of 2010. Commissioning...

Discovery's "Telescope" documentary, highlighting the high-stakes mission to build NASA's James Webb Space Telescope, premiered on Feb. 20 and is now available for streaming on the TV channel's website. The Webb telescope, which is the scientific successor to—and 100 times more powerful than—Hubble, will peer back over 13.5 billion years...

The US Department of Energy’s Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility, or Jefferson Lab, will hold an open house for the public on Saturday, April 30, from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. It is an opportunity for people of all ages to spend the day exploring this world-class research facility. Visitors...

Scientists on the DZero collaboration at the US Department of Energy’s Fermilab have discovered a new particle—the latest member to be added to the exotic species of particle known as tetraquarks. Quarks are point-like particles that typically come in packages of two or three, the most familiar of which are...