CERN
Bulletin

In the theory of the Standard Model, the masses, interactions and physical states of quarks – the basic constituents of matter – are described mathematically by a matrix known as the Cabibbo-Kobayashi-Maskawa (CKM) matrix. Three angles enter into the definition of the elements of the matrix. If their sum is not 180°, new physics might be the reason. >>

Over recent months, you might have noticed a crisp new look beginning to appear at CERN, our vehicles carry uniform branding, signage is being refreshed and slowly but surely, everything from letterheads to websites is coming into line with CERN’s new graphic charter, which we’re now giving an official launch. >>

The third LHC Technical Stop of five days took place in the week of September 17. Getting back to normal operation after a technical stop  can sometimes be difficult, with debugging, testing and requalification required on the systems that have seen interventions. Folding in a selection of other problems can make for a frustrating time. >>

During the week of 17 to 21 September 2012, the European Grid Infrastructure Technical Forum was held in Prague. At this event, organised by EGI (European Grid Infrastructure), grid computing experts set about tackling the challenge of opening their doors to a still wider community. This provided an excellent opportunity to look back at similar initiatives by EGI in the past. >>

Today the European Southern Observatory is celebrating its 50th anniversary. This article retraces the story of one of Europe's greatest laboratories, which came into being with CERN's support and assistance. >>

In 1970, CERN and ESO signed a collaboration agreement for the construction of the Observatory’s first telescope. That same year, ESO’s Telescope Division and Sky Atlas laboratory settled on the CERN site in Meyrin. Let’s turn back to the beginnings of this lasting and fruitful alliance. >>

On 12 September, thirteen PicoSEC researchers met in Lyon for the first time, at the project’s kick-off meeting. The meeting was the opportunity for them to get to know each other and start building a fruitful working and human relationship. A hard task awaits them: reaching the 200-picosecond-limit on time resolution in photon detectors.  >>

The fourth international conference on Particle and Fundamental Physics in Space (SpacePart12) will take place at CERN from 5 to 7 November. The conference will bring together scientists working on particle and fundamental physics in space and on ground, as well as space policy makers from around the world. >>

To mark the European Researchers Night on Friday 28 September 2012, many scientists from the LHC and its experiments came to share their knowledge with young enthusiasts from the local area and further afield. >>

Have you ever seen those black-wide squares (picture below) called “Quick Response Codes”? Such QR tags are the two-dimensional forms of EAN codes (International Article Number, the black-white bars scanned at Migros’ check-outs) encoding a web address. Scanning those codes with your smart phone can lead you to a webpage, send an SMS or an e-mail depending on the contents of the tag. Beautiful, isn’t it? But wait. Can you trust that QR tag? What if the QR tag leads to something malicious? Just to add more fun, we have recently heard about a vulnerability for Android devices prior to version 4.1.1 on its so-called “USSD code handling”. >>

The ambition of a state-of-the-art research library is obviously to shape its collections to meet the needs of the different communities of readers that it serves. >>