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In high-energy physics, we are accustomed to dealing with paradoxes. We build huge detectors for tiny particles. Studying the infinitesimally small contributes to our understanding of the farthest reaches of the universe. But we have created for ourselves a paradox that produces internal friction and heat, yet precious little light. Although we are outstanding collaborators, we don’t communicate with a unified voice.

Miners of the S.A. Healy company are carrying out the final excavation work for a new underground facility at Fermilab that could easily store thousands of cars, neatly lined up and stacked on top of each other. Physicists will use the new caverns to build a research laboratory called Neutrinos at the Main Injector (NuMI).

Four years and more than 3,000 phone calls and e-mail contacts later, Argonne's "near-frictionless carbon" coating stands on the brink of commercialization. A sample of the coating on a sapphire substrate survived 17.5 million passes of a steel ball. After 32 days, the testing machine failed, but the ball left only a barely visible track on the coating.

Kayser, 63, is an overtly enthusiastic particle physics theorist whose eyebrows and voice rise in proportion to his excitement. He joined the staff of Fermilab's theoretical physics department in October 2001, with the title of Fermilab distinguished scientist. He brought with him more than a decade of academic research, and three decades at the National Science Foundation (NSF). As Fermilab undertakes its neutrino detection and oscillation experiments with MiniBooNE and MINOS, Kayser hopes for a confrontation with big questions.

FermiNews presents an ongoing series dedicated to issues and opportunities in communicating high-energy physics.

If hydrogen fuel cells are ever to replace gasoline engines in cars, they will need a cheap source of high-purity hydrogen -- and Argonne technology could provide one. Argonne's Energy Technology Division has developed a ceramic membrane that can extract hydrogen from methane, the chief component of natural gas.

This response to a Fermilab employee's email examines the reasons why particle physics research is done and how both Fermilab particle physicists and others perceive its value for our nation and the world.

Scientists at Fermilab are deeply involved in unraveling the secrets of this invisible universe. An experiment called the Cryogenic Dark Matter Search looks for new types of particles that could be building blocks of dark matter. The Sloan Digital Sky Survey has begun to record a detailed three-dimensional map of the sky, providing vast amounts of data on clusters of galaxies that seem to harbor black holes and dark matter.

Monica Charpentier, a junior at Dulaney High School in Timonium, Maryland submitted a question about the property of charge. "Just what is it?" she wanted to know. Her query found its way to Fermilab theorist Andreas Kronfeld, who welcomed the opportunity to follow her questions and insights to succeeding levels of complexity.

An agreement to build new biological research capabilities at Argonne National Laboratory’s Advanced Photon Source was signed today by Argonne officials and the directors of two institutes of the National Institutes of Health. The National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS) and the National Cancer Institute (NCI) will build the specialized user facility consisting of three new beamlines at the Advanced Photon Source, which produces the nation’s most brilliant X-rays for research.