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On A Roll

What? Another boring chess game?Buzz off, this is my blog, and if I feel like posting a chess game...

When The Attack Plays Itself

After a very intense day at work, I sought some relaxation in online blitz chess today. And the...

Toponium Found By CMS!

The highest-mass subnuclear particle ever observed used to the the top quark. Measured for the...

The Problem With Peer Review

In a world where misinformation, voluntary or accidental, reigns supreme; in a world where lies...

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Tommaso DorigoRSS Feed of this column.

Tommaso Dorigo is an experimental particle physicist, who works for the INFN at the University of Padova, and collaborates with the CMS and the SWGO experiments. He is the president of the Read More »

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More Ideas For Muon Tomography

More Ideas For Muon Tomography

Mar 07 2023 | comment(s)

Muon tomography is an application of particle detectors where we exploit the peculiar properties of muons to create three-dimensional images of the interior of unknown, inaccessible volumes. You might also want to be reminded that muons are unstable elementary particles; they are higher-mass versions of electrons which can be found in cosmic ray showers or produced in particle collisions.
Airline Crashes: Your Odds Of Going Down In Flames

Airline Crashes: Your Odds Of Going Down In Flames

Feb 21 2023 | comment(s)

During my long trip to South America, which just ended (leaving me fighting with a record pile of unanswered emails, an even higher pile of laundry, and a headache for jetlag-induced sleep deprivation), I had the real pleasure to make acquaintance with a Colonel of the British army (Guy Wood) during a cruise of the Galapagos archipelago. One of the recurring topics of our evening chats was of course international travel - the cause of our encounter - and in one occasion he pointed out that Air France is the airline with the worst record in terms of plane accidents.
Vacations Of A Scientist

Vacations Of A Scientist

Feb 05 2023 | comment(s)

I am currently spending some time in South America, where I came to join my wife who was performing in Santiago in a contemporary opera (Sun and Sea) featured in the Centro Cultural de la Moneda, in the city center -and in a place that 50 years ago was the theatre of the brutal subversion of democracy by the hands of the fascists led by dictator Augusto Pinochet.
Two Possible Sites For The SWGO Gamma-Ray Detector Array

Two Possible Sites For The SWGO Gamma-Ray Detector Array

Feb 03 2023 | comment(s)

Yesterday I profited of the kindness of Cesar Ocampo, the site manager of the Parque Astronomico near San Pedro de Atacama, in northern Chile, to visit a couple of places that the SWGO collaboration is considering as the site of a large array of particle detectors meant to study ultra-high-energy gamma rays from the sky. 

SWGO and cosmic ray showers
The Interest Of High-School Students For Hard Sciences

The Interest Of High-School Students For Hard Sciences

Jan 24 2023 | comment(s)

Yesterday I visited a high school in Venice to deliver a lecture on particle physics, and to invite the participating students to take part in an art and science contest. This is part of the INFN "Art and Science across Italy" project, which has reached its fourth edition, organizes art exhibits with the students' creations in several cities across Italy. The best works are then selected for a final exhibit in Naples, and the 24 winners are offered a week-long visit to the CERN laboratories in Geneva, Switzerland.
Collaborative Science In Times Of War

Collaborative Science In Times Of War

Jan 17 2023 | comment(s)

I just finished reading a very nice piece on the Guardian, written by my friend and ex colleague Eleni Petrakou, who collaborated with me in the CMS experiment at CERN and is now a scientific writer. The topic is the disruptive effect that the war in Ukraine has caused to scientific collaboration. I urge you to read it if the matter is of any interest to you.