Experiments in the East Area received their first beams from the PS this week. Theirs is CERN's first accelerator-based physics since LS1 began last year. >>

The 2014 High School Teacher Programme (HST) is well under way, and this year it has a distinct Middle Eastern flavour, with eight teachers from the region among the 54 taking part. >>

A team from the TE Department is currently testing the secondary electrical network for the LHC’s main dipoles – that is, the power circuit used in the event of a quench (loss of superconductivity). This secondary network is essential for the safety of the machine and has been strengthened as part of the SMACC project (see here). >>

A portable gamma and beta radiation survey meter capable of operating in a strong magnetic field is the most recent subject of a CERN patent application. Developed by members of the HSE Unit, the new instrument may find applications not only in research laboratories but also in hospitals where radioactivity is managed in the presence of magnetic fields. >>

In 1954 – the year CERN was founded – another scientific journey began at what is now the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Beams of protons from a particle accelerator were used for the first time by John Lawrence – a doctor and the brother of Ernest Lawrence, the physicist after whom the Berkeley lab is named – to treat patients with cancer. For many years, Eleanor Blakely has been one of the leaders of that journey. She visited CERN last week and spoke with the Bulletin about her life in biophysics. >>

CERN hosted its first group of high-school students from India in a week-long programme in June, with lectures, visits and hands-on activities that brought them a little closer to the world of particle physics. Abhishek Anand, whose internship with CMS coincided with this programme, documented his experience for the CMS blog (see here). >>

More than 350,000 square metres to be maintained, two different cleaning companies due to CERN’s sites being in two different countries, underground installations where cleanliness is a question of safety… the CERN team in charge of supervising cleaning services overcomes all these challenges to ensure that our workplace remains clean and pleasant every day. >>

When the Internet opened its gates to academia in the late 80s and, together with the World Wide Web a few years later, to the general public, computer security was considered somehow irrelevant. People pointing to vulnerabilities and security risks (“hackers”) were labelled as paranoid. But they woke to reality during the outbreak of the “ILOVEYOU” virus in 2000, which caused large scale infections of Windows PCs (including many at CERN).  >>

In July and August, the Ombud’s Corner articles will be taking a holiday. They will resume in September. Meanwhile, the respect@CERN campaign continues so please keep on sending us your suggestions. >>

It was with great sadness that we learnt that our former colleague and friend Marco Grippeling was amongst the victims of the Malaysia Airlines crash. >>