Physics Colloquium

Over the past decade RHIC has provided many surprises in the field of QCD physics, and measurements in the forward rapidity region have been among the many surprises. Observations of a large suppression of forward rapidity particle production in d+Au collisions have led some to speculate whether the first explicit signs of gluon saturation have been observed. Additionally, large single spin asymmetries in transversely polarized p+p collisions have led to excitement that one can use these data to probe the three-dimensional structure of the proton, and therefore gain a more complete picture of the proton wavefunction. We will discuss some recent results from PHENIX which provide some further insight into the novel QCD physics behind these effects.