Teaching a particle detector new tricks

Scientists hoping to find new, long-lived particles at the Large Hadron Collider recently realized they may already have the detector to do it. Physicist Cristián Peña grew up in Talca, a small town a few hours south of Santiago, Chile. "The Andes run all the way through the country," he says. "No matter where you look, you always have the mountains." At the age of 13, he first aspired to climb them. Over the years, as his mountaineering skills grew, so did his inventory of tools. Ice axes, cr...