Students from 17 African countries took part in the first African School of Fundamental Physics and its Applications (ASP2010), which took place this month in South Africa. The school, organized by several physics laboratories including CERN, not only met but in some cases far exceeded the students’ expectations. Their enthusiasm made the organizers’ efforts worthwhile. >>

The first African School of Physics draws to a close tomorrow, and I’m proud that CERN has been a part of it. From an initiative launched by Fermilab scientist Christine Darve, the African School of Physics has grown to involve institutes and universities from all over Europe and the United States. >>

Over the past two weeks the LHC operations team has focused on pushing the LHC’s performance into new territory in terms of stored beam power. Moving to 25 bunches per beam with almost nominal bunch intensities at the end of July implied operation with a stored energy in each beam of more than 1 MJ. This corresponds to the current record for stored beam energy in existing hadron accelerators (e.g. CERN’s SPS and Fermilab’s Tevatron) and it marks an energy regime where a sudden loss of beam or operational errors can result in serious damage to equipment: an energy of 1 MJ is sufficient to melt 2 kg of copper. Extreme care and a thorough optimization of all operational procedures are therefore required in making this important transition in the machine’s performance.   >>

There's no question that playing with mercury or handling radioactive cadmium with your bare hands is a risky business. But understanding how these and other toxic metals interact with biomolecules within the body is a challenging feat; one for which the ISOLDE IS488 collaboration hopes to provide valuable insight. >>

Davide Pagnani, a team leader in the CERN Fire Brigade, is a Swiss Federal expert and instructor in the field of interventions involving radioactivity. Firemen from throughout the French-speaking part of Switzerland come to CERN for training exercises supervised by Davide. >>

The Computerized Maintenance Management System (CMMS), which has been in use at CERN for many years, has recently been enhanced with an innovative new feature for managing and exploiting existing information regarding the LHC: a system to read the barcodes on the LHC components and easily obtain data and information on the many thousands of items of equipment that make up the accelerator. The feature will eventually be made available for any other scientific instrumentation located at CERN. >>

This year marks the start of a new phase between CERN and Morocco with the arrival of the first two Moroccan students. >>

Renowned landscape architect and designer Charles Jencks recently visited CERN along with the architect of the Globe, Hervé Dessimoz, to investigate the possibility of creating a cosmic-inspired garden at the entrance to the Laboratory. >>

Felicitas Pauss, Head of International Relations at CERN, greets Members of the Board of Trustees of the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, KAUST, who visited CERN on Friday 6 August. >>

On Saturday 7 August, over 200 amateur photographers took part in the first “Particle Physics Photowalk”, a photo contest organized by CERN in collaboration with DESY in Germany, Fermilab in the USA, KEK in Japan and TRIUMF in Canada. As of mid-September you will be able to discover on a dedicated website the five particle physics laboratories as seen through the lenses of the participants. >>

With the LHC running smoothly since March this year, the World LHC Computing Grid, WLCG, is proving itself well up to the task of serving the particle physics community. It has also played an increasingly important role in other areas of science through the Enabling Grids for E-sciencE project, EGEE-III. >>

The drift chambers of the former NA48 experiment have recently left CERN to be installed in the MPD experiment at the future NICA accelerator in Dubna, Russia. As a counterpart, the JINR Laboratory will produce drift chambers for the new NA62 experiment. This operation is a fruitful exchange of technology that profits both laboratories and enhances their collaboration. >>

The CERN Bookshop and CERN Library invite you to attend the 2010 CERN Book Fair, a two-day scientific event offering you the opportunity to meet key publishers and to browse and purchase books at significant discounts. >>

Matey Mateev and his wife Rumiana died in a car accident on 25 July. Mateev, who was born in 1940, was a major figure in Bulgarian physics and had very close ties with CERN. The Mateevs had two children –Dragomir and Iliana- and a granddaughter, born three days before they died. >>

Former CERN Director Robert Lévy-Mandel passed away on 3 July at the age of 87. >>