After more than 25 years of smashing particles, the massive Tevatron accelerator at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (Fermilab) in Batavia, Illinois, is being turned off for good today. You should read Nature’s recent news story about the Tevatron’s closure, and what will take its place (‘Fermilab faces life after the Tevatron’).
Watch the shut down LIVE.
And here’s a selection of Nature stories that tracked the Tevatron’s rise and fall:
1977: First mention of the Tevatron in ‘Elementary Particles – a rich harvest’
1983: Another flavour of quark?
1984: Opportunities in particle physics
1995: The top quark found at long last
1998: Fermilab faces up to uncertain future
2003: Below-par performance hampers Fermilab quest for Higgs boson
2005: Fermilab: High-risk physics
2006: US particle physics fights for survival
2007: Shrinking Higgs brings optimism to US lab
2007: Behind the hunt for the Higgs boson
2007: Colliders race for the Higgs
2008: Fermilab still playing Higgs hide-and-seek
2009: Muon collider gains momentum
2010: Momentum builds for Tevatron extension
2011: Tevatron faces final curtain
2011: Goodbye Tevatron