This podcast is produced by volunteers at Accelerator Media, a nonprofit educational media organization. Our work is supported by listeners and viewers like you. If you’d like to help us ignite curiosity and inspire long-term thinking about our shared future, please consider making a donation: https://acceleratormedia.org/donate/In this episode of Go! For Launch, we meet Dr. Jessica Esquivel, a particle physicist working at a national lab who’s on the front lines of unlocking the secrets of the quantum realm. From studying muons and magnetic fields to dreaming about teleportation and time travel, Jessica shares what it’s like to be part of some of the most complex and collaborative scientific efforts in the world.Jessica takes us inside the Muon g-2 experiment—an ambitious collaboration involving a massive magnetic ring, intense particle beams, and hundreds of scientists all working together to test the limits of the Standard Model of particle physics. She also opens up about her unconventional path into science, the importance of representation, and how asking so-called “stupid” questions might just lead to world-changing discoveries.In this episode, you’ll learn:1. How muons may hold clues to undiscovered particles and new physics2. Why failure and curiosity are essential tools for scientists3. How quantum physics connects to futuristic ideas like time travel4. What it’s really like to work on large-scale, interdisciplinary experiments5. How high-energy physics and AI are working together to push discovery forwardTimestamps:00:01:49 – What it means to be a particle physicist00:03:16 – The power of representation and sci-fi inspiration00:05:56 – Building and working with massive detectors00:08:00 – Busting the lone genius myth in science00:09:03 – The next generation of neutrino experiments00:11:27 – Why physics is getting more interdisciplinary00:13:25 – What is a muon—and why study it?00:16:43 – Quantum fluctuations and virtual particles00:18:09 – The three frontiers of high-energy physics00:21:30 – Could this research lead to time travel?00:23:28 – The role of failure in scientific discovery00:26:22 – How AI and quantum computing are reshaping physics00:30:23 – Redefining success in experimental physics00:32:24 – What comes after Muon g-2?00:37:21 – Why the future of physics is all about neutrinos00:40:06 – Transferable skills and careers beyond the lab00:43:12 – How particle physics tools could transform everyday life00:45:33 – Final thoughts from JessicaHelpful Links:Careers in national labs: https://www.energy.gov/science/careersMuon g-2 experiment: https://muon-g-2.fnal.gov/Intro to particle physics: https://www.fnal.gov/pub/science/Follow Accelerator MediaX (Twitter): https://x.com/xceleratormediaInstagram: https://instagram.com/xcelerator.media/LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/company/accelerator-media-orgWebsite: https://acceleratormedia.org/#GoForLaunch #ParticlePhysics #MuonG2 #QuantumPhysics #ScienceCareers #JessicaEsquivel #NationalLabs #Neutrinos #Podcast

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