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After a very fast switchover from protons to lead ions, the LHC has achieved performances that allowed the machine to exceed both peak and integrated luminosity by a factor of three. Thanks to this, experiments have been able to produce high-profile results on ion physics almost immediately, confirming that the LHC was able to keep its promises for ions as well as for protons.
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Since this is the last Bulletin of 2010, this will be the last word from the Director-General for this remarkable year. I’d like to use it to share some of my reflections on how important it is for CERN, and for science, that the LHC has worked so very well. The scientific results are remarkable, but it’s the political legacy of the LHC’s first year of running that I’d like to talk about here.
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A long and successful period of beam operation came to an end as scheduled on Monday 6 December . Since the first beam of 2010 was injected into the LHC on 28 February, a huge amount of progress has been made. After a technical stop of a few weeks coinciding with the end-of-year break, the LHC hardware systems will be restarted in January to be ready for the first beam of 2011 around 21 February.
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The “Neutron Time Of Flight” facility ( n_TOF) has recently turned ten. A simple ceremony marked the date of the anniversary and provides a nice opportunity to retrace the successful history of this unique facility, whose scientific activity spans a range from astrophysics to the study of nuclear-waste transmutation processes.
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On 2 December, the new OpenAIRE portal was launched at Ghent University (Belgium) in the presence of the Vice-President of the European Commission, Dr Neelie Kroes. OpenAIRE will be a central point for the publications of EC-funded researchers. One pillar on which OpenAIRE is built is CERN’s Invenio, the digital library system software that also powers CDS and INSPIRE.
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A new cultural policy is to be unveiled at the beginning of 2011. Although CERN has been inspiring the works of artists for decades, the new policy represents the first official framework for CERN's engagement with the arts.
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The Geneva-based Application of Detectors and Accelerators to Medicine (A.D.A.M. SA) has recently completed the first unit of an innovative linear accelerator for hadron therapy applications. The design of the new unit is based on pioneering studies carried out by the TERA Foundation a few years ago. Assembled at CERN in the framework of a partnership agreement with the company, this first module is now ready to leave Switzerland for Rome, where it will undergo some important performance tests.
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On 15 December, an airport bus will be transformed in the image of CERN. The bus will be seen by the thousands of travellers arriving in Geneva, informing them of the possibility to visit CERN.
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The well-known science historian, Dominique Pestre, gives his insight into CERN's history and changing trends in the perception of fundamental research.
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The MU-RAY project has the very challenging aim of providing a “muon X-ray” of the Vesuvius volcano (Italy) using a detector that records the muons hitting it after traversing the rock structures of the volcano. This technique was used for the first time in 1971 by the Nobel Prize-winner Louis Alvarez, who was searching for unknown burial chambers in the Chephren pyramid.
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If you've been on a stroll through Restaurant No. 1 or walked through the corridors of Building 600, a colourful poster - with spotlights, a QR code and the words “Coming soon...” - might have caught your attention. This has been brought to you by the team at iSGTW (International Science Grid This Week), the CERN-based grid computing newsletter, and signifies that the publication is being transformed... into The Digital Scientist.
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The winning photos from Photowalk 2010 will feature in a 2011/2012 calendar, which will be on sale in the Reception from 15 December. You can already download it free of charge.
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From 23 to 26 November CERN played host to an unusual group of visitors, who arrived in a red-and-white striped camper. On the tenth anniversary of " Les Zèbres”, a children’s broadcast on Swiss radio, the show’s makers invited 8th and 9th grade pupils from Swiss schools to conduct a live broadcast from CERN.
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Our daily work almost always involves writing - articles, reports and documents of all kinds. And even if CERN's core activity is hard science, this doesn't mean our writing style and the language we use are not important. The CERN Library is here to help.
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On Thursday 9 December 2010, at the second part of the Induction Programme, members of the CERN Management welcomed recently-recruited staff members and fellows (photographed here with Jean-Marc Saint-Viteux, Deputy Head of HR Department, and Vincent Vuillemin, CERN Ombuds).
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