The muon is going mainstream. The particle, a heavy version of the electron that rains down on every square centimetre of Earth, is little known outside particle physics — and last year it helped archaeologists to make a stunning discovery of a previously unknown chamber in Egypt’s Great Pyramid1.
Volcanologists and nuclear engineers are also finding new uses for the same technique, called muography, which harnesses muons to probe the innards of dense structures. The first companies are looking to cash in.
“The discovery in the pyramids last year has really put muography on the map,” says David Mahon, a physicist at the University of Glasgow, UK, who co-organized an international a meeting called Cosmic-ray Muography, sponsored by the Royal Society and held on 14–15 May in Newport Pagnell, UK.
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