Don Lincoln

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Don Lincoln

don lincoln

Dr. Don Lincoln is a Senior Scientist at Fermilab, America’s leading particle physics laboratory, who has coauthored over 1,500 scientific papers. He was a member of the teams that discovered the top quark in 1995 and the Higgs boson in 2012.

Dr. Lincoln is also an avid popularizer of science. He has written several books for the public, most recently Einstein’s Unfinished Dream. He also writes for many online venues, such as CNN and Scientific American. He appears frequently on the Fermilab YouTube channel and has made several video courses available through The Great Courses company.

Dr. Lincoln is a recipient of the 2013 Outreach Prize from the European Physical Society and the 2017 Gemant Award from the American Institute of Physics. He is a Fellow of the American Physical Society and the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

You can learn more about Dr. Lincoln on his home page, and you can follow him on Facebook. 

Everything Articles
Nasa's finely-tuned image of a cluster of galaxies.
Hard Science
Why does the Universe appear fine-tuned for life to exist?
The question of why the Universe is the way it is is an ancient one, and none of the answers we have come up with are satisfying.
Don Lincoln
The study of antimatter.
Hard Science
Particle physicists prove that antimatter doesn’t “fall up”
Sci-fi enthusiasts have long hoped that a substance called antimatter might experience gravity opposite that of ordinary matter. It doesn't.
Don Lincoln
An artist's rendering of the earth and a spacecraft in space.
Hard Science
How the Moon is helping us confirm Einstein’s relativity
This measurement is crucial to confirm that one of the assumptions of Einstein’s theory of gravity is valid.
Don Lincoln
A black and white image of a quantum wave particle on a blue background.
Hard Science
What is a quantum particle really like? It’s not what you think
Is it like a tiny ball — or what?
Don Lincoln
A blue background with a lot of blue lights is the worst prediction.
Hard Science
The worst prediction in all of science
When it comes to predicting the energy of empty space, the two leading theories disagree by a factor of 100 googol quintillion.
Don Lincoln
A man in a white coat is analyzing positron emissions on two monitors.
Hard Science
How antimatter helps doctors fight cancer
Positron emission tomography (PET) scans use positrons — the antimatter equivalent of an electron — to locate cancer in the body.
Don Lincoln
Gamma rays in the milky way.
Hard Science
“Ghostly” neutrinos help us see our Milky Way as never before
As Marcel Proust said, “The real voyage of discovery... consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes.”
Don Lincoln
A swirling wave captured in black and white.
Hard Science
“Muon g-2” experiment hints that a mystery is bubbling inside the quantum foam
There may be unknown particles lurking inside the quantum foam.
Don Lincoln
An image of a blue object in a blue box depicting axions.
Hard Science
Researchers attempt to create dark matter
The hunt for the elusive particles continues.
Don Lincoln
Hard Science
Is Star Trek’s warp drive possible?
The concept of the warp drive is currently at odds with everything we know to be true about physics.
Don Lincoln
an artist's rendering of a black hole in the sky.
Hard Science
Solved: Astronomers identify origin of mysterious flares in galaxy OJ 287
In a distant galaxy, a cosmic dance between two supermassive black holes emits periodic flashes of light.
Don Lincoln
a black and white photo with a yellow background.
Hard Science
What is it like to be a photon traveling at light speed?
From a photon's viewpoint, the Universe is timeless and dimensionless.
Don Lincoln
Hubble view of galaxy containing GRB 221009A BOAT
Hard Science
Explaining GRB 221009A, the greatest cosmic explosion humanity has ever seen
The brightest gamma-ray burst ever observed, GRB 221009A behaved in unexpected ways that might help us understand how they occur.
Don Lincoln
Artist’s impression of a gamma-ray burst
Hard Science
Scientists are exploring how deadly gamma-ray bursts could sterilize — or vaporize — the Earth
Gamma-ray bursts are so powerful they could vaporize the Earth from 200 light-years away. Recreating them in the lab is not easy.
Don Lincoln
an image of a colorful object with a black background.
Hard Science
Quarks and leptons are the smallest particles we know. Does something smaller exist?
Particle physicists use gigantic accelerators to investigate the infinitesimal.
Don Lincoln
a black and white photo of a tree in a field.
Thinking
If ghosts are real, then they aren’t supernatural
If something exists, it is by definition natural.
Don Lincoln
a bright star surrounded by stars in the sky.
Hard Science
Astronomical archaeologists get a peek of the first stars in the Universe
Archaeologists can learn how societies lived by studying what they left behind when they died. Astronomers are doing much the same thing.
Don Lincoln
Hard Science
Is our Universe standing still? Examining Einstein’s key theory through the cosmic “yin-yang”
The cosmic microwave background offers clues.
Don Lincoln
an abstract image of a circular object surrounded by lines and dots.
Hard Science
LHC, the world’s most powerful particle accelerator, emerges from hibernation
The LHC has a long, productive life ahead of it. An upgraded version, called the “High Luminosity LHC,” will be available in 2028.
Don Lincoln
a silhouette of a person with a rainbow in the background.
Hard Science
Each of our bodies is proof of Einstein’s equation
You are an energy field — but not the “chakras” or “auras” kind.
Don Lincoln
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