Physicists in Scotland are planning pioneering experiments to create tiny, artificial black holes in the laboratory which will be able to suck in light or sound waves. The researchers hope that the desktop black holes will provide important information about the fundamental behavior of matter and energy and help resolve some of the apparent contradictions that lie at the heart of theoretical physics.

High-energy physicists from across the United States are meeting to consider and refine a proposal for a major new U.S. particle collider, the Electron-Positron Linear Collider. Many believe such a collider could help confirm a theory known as supersymmetry, resolving many of the unanswered questions in their present understanding of elementary particles and the forces that act on them.