In the mid-1960s, the Nobel Prize–winning physicist Luis Alvarez had a wild idea. He proposed using muons, highly penetrating ...

Muons, similar to neutrons, are subatomic particles that travel at almost the speed of light and can penetrate deep into matter. They allow scientists to comprehend the atomic scale without destroying ...

In a muon tomography detector, cosmic-ray muons interact with an object and strike scintillators that emit photons. Wavelength-shifting fibers transmit the photons to photodetectors that digitize the ...