Particle Physics News Explained for Pupils

Recent particle physics discoveries, accelerator results and matter-building-block stories explained for school physics.

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Particles archive

Week beginning 2 November 2026

Rare Particle Decay at CERN: What LHCb's One-in-Ten-Billion Result Means

What would count as evidence for something that happens about once in ten billion decays? LHCb's new result is a useful way into quarks, antiparticles and the problem of finding a small signal in a huge amount of data.

Particles Quantum Engineering 9 min

Week beginning 26 October 2026

How Does the Large Hadron Collider Work? A Guide for Physics Pupils

The Large Hadron Collider gives particles energy, brings them into collisions and measures what comes out. Follow a proton around the machine to see how electric fields, magnets and detectors make that possible.

Particles Engineering Energy 9 min

ATLAS Observes a Rare Way to Make Top Quarks at the LHC

ATLAS has identified a rare way of producing a top quark in earlier Large Hadron Collider (LHC) data. The useful questions are what a top quark is, what makes this interaction different and how researchers know the signal is there.

Particles Quantum Engineering 8 min

Week beginning 5 October 2026

Nobel Prize in Physics 2026 Explained: What Are Neutrinos and How Does IceCube Detect Them?

A neutrino is a tiny particle with no electric charge that rarely interacts with matter. Francis Halzen won the 2026 Physics Nobel for helping turn these elusive particles into a way of studying space. Here is how the detector works.

Particles Space Engineering 7 min

Week beginning 7 September 2026

Has Dark Matter Been Detected? What the LUX-ZEPLIN Result Really Means

One unusual event in an underground detector has put dark matter back in the headlines. Here is what was measured, what remains uncertain, and how school physics helps us judge the evidence.

Particles Space 8 min

NASA Finds 84 Mysterious X-Ray Sources: What Are Hypersoft X-Ray Objects?

These objects stand out in one X-ray image and almost disappear in another. Their unusual light may help astronomers understand exploding stars and the gas between them.

Space Particles 8 min

Week beginning 3 August 2026

Nuclear fusion in metal foils: why quantum tunnelling matters at low energies

Experiments with deuterium-loaded palladium and titanium foils found that fusion yields stopped falling as expected below about 2 keV. The result suggests that a solid material can change the environment in which nuclei tunnel and react, although the absolute fusion rate remains far too small for power generation.

Energy Particles Quantum Materials 11 min

Week beginning 20 July 2026

CERN sees a wake in quark-gluon plasma

CMS scientists at CERN have observed a diffusion wake left by fast quarks and gluons in quark-gluon plasma, giving physicists a new way to study matter that filled the Universe shortly after the Big Bang.

Particles Space Engineering 12 min

Week beginning 29 June 2026

Quantum computer simulates quark string breaking with 104 qubits

A 104-qubit IBM processor has reproduced string breaking in a simplified particle-physics model, showing how quantum hardware could eventually help physicists calculate the formation of hadrons after collisions.

Particles Quantum Engineering 11 min

Week beginning 22 June 2026

Superallowed alpha decay seen for the first time

Physicists have directly observed the extremely fast alpha decay of tellurium-104, giving pupils a clear example of nuclear decay, half-life and quantum tunnelling.

Particles Quantum 10 min

Week beginning 15 June 2026

CERN finds the missing member of a doubly charmed particle family

Physicists working with the LHCb experiment have observed a new particle made from two charm quarks and one strange quark.

Particles 8 min

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