  The PHOBOS experiment has measured the properties of particle production in
heavy ion collisions between sqrt(s_NN) of 20 and 200 GeV. The dependencies of
charged particle yield on energy, system size, and both longitudinal and
transverse momentum have been determined over close to the full kinematic
range. Identified charged particles emitted near mid-rapidity have been studied
over about 2 orders of magnitude in transverse momentum. This broad data set
was found to be characterized by a small number of simple scalings which
factorize to a surprising degree. This study has recently been extended by the
addition of new data for Cu+Cu as well as new analyses of Au+Au data, including
more peripheral collisions. In addition, the exploration of global properties
has been expanded with the use of new techniques, including two-particle
correlations, more sensitive searches for rare events, and more detailed
studies of particles emitted at very forward rapidity. The characteristics of
particle production which are revealed by this extensive data set will be
described along with the implications for future data from the LHC.
