E. Rossi

A silicon wafer as thin as half a human hair catches a passing particle the way a palm catches a raindrop. But if that drop is a proton accelerated to enormous energy, the palm can get burned. Inside the detector, an avalanche of charge is born, and sometimes it's enough to burn a microscopic hole. This is called single-event burnout.

Deep inside the ATLAS detector, like in a giant thermos, liquid argon sloshes — a transparent liquid at minus 184 degrees Celsius. When a particle flies through it, a weak electrical signal is born, like a quiet splash.