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Rencontres de Moriond QCD 2012: Clearing up for the Higgs

Taking a hint from the name of the conference, Thursday’s sessions focused on QCD studies. Among the many analyses presented were new measurements that may improve background in Higgs events. >>

Rencontres de Moriond QCD 2012: Probing the nature of heavy-ion collisions

Wednesday began with presentations by experiments worldwide on their investigations into the intriguing nature of the Quark Gluon Plasma (QGP). >>

Rencontres de Moriond QCD 2012: Direct and indirect searches make the whole picture

Tuesday saw presentations on heavy flavour physics and heavy-ion physics. Among the highlights were an updated scenario for supersymmetry and the latest results on the properties of the quark-gluon plasma. >>

Rencontres de Moriond QCD 2012: Searches for Dark Matter, SUSY and other exotic particles

The fact that SUSY and other new physics signals do not seem to hide in “obvious” places is bringing a healthy excitement to Moriond. Yesterday’s presentations confirmed that, with the 2012 LHC data, experiments will concentrate on searches for exotic particles that might decay into yet unexplored modes. In the meantime, they are setting unprecedented boundaries to regions where new particles (not just SUSY) could exist. The limits of what particle accelerators can bring to enlighten the mystery of Dark Matter were also presented and discussed. >>

Rencontres de Moriond QCD 2012: Uncertain signals from the Higgs boson

Some of the most recent analyses of the Higgs searches were presented on 11 March at the Moriond QCD conference, together with other Standard Model measurements relevant to the Higgs. >>

Rencontres de Moriond EW 2012: Addressing symmetry breaking and mass hierarchy

Last Friday at the Moriond conference in La Thuile in Italy, Lisa Randall from Harvard University reminded the audience how all fields are related: electroweak symmetry breaking must take into account flavour physics for example. Every good model should address this intrinsic connection. >>

Rencontres de Moriond EW 2012: Impact of a Higgs boson on supersymmetry

Yesterday at the Moriond conference, several theorists addressed the consequences of the current Higgs boson searches on models going beyond the Standard Model. >>

Rencontres de Moriond EW 2012: Seeing less would be just as good

Seeing less than the value predicted by the Standard Model for rare B decays branching ratios would still open the door to new physics. This is the reassuring message David Straub delivered to a relieved audience yesterday morning at the Moriond conference. >>

Rencontres de Moriond EW 2012: Theorists disprove one claim against DAMA/LIBRA

Josef Pradler, a theorist from the Perimeter Institute in Canada presented today at the Moriond conference new calculations that could disprove the main criticism of the DAMA oscillation data: the phenomenon cannot be produced by cosmic muons. >>

Rencontres de Moriond EW 2012: New physics further constrained by LHCb results

Today, at the Rencontres de Moriond EW conference, the LHCb Collaboration presented a few important results. They confirm the Standard Model predictions with an unprecedented precision and put limits on possible deviations due to new physics. >>

The winning alliance

The ICTR-PHE 2012 conference, which closed its doors today after five busy days, sealed the alliance between the physics and medical communities. We have come a long way since 1977, when physicist David Townsend took the first PET images of a small mouse. Today, physicists are developing new detector techniques that medical doctors can transfer to the clinic in fields that are no longer confined to cancer treatment. Several powerful and innovative solutions for better healthcare are on their way. >>

Opportunity and obligation

As anyone in the press or VIP offices can tell you, CERN is in the spotlight like never before. In the first two months of 2012, we welcomed some 56 VIP visits and 144 media visits on site. Not long ago, those were the kind of numbers we’d have had in six months, and 2012 is not a one-off. >>

LHC Report: Heading towards the 4 TeV

The giant is waking from its slumbers. For about a week now, protons have been in the injectors: first passing through the LINAC, Booster and PS; and, since last weekend, passing through the SPS. The beam is now knocking at the doors of the LHC. >>

Open heart surgery at the LHC

On 17 January this year there was a race against time in the CMS cavern. In order to replace a faulty LHC component, members of the Vacuums, Surfaces and Coatings (VSC) Group, in collaboration with the CMS experiment team, had to extract and then reinsert a 2-m long section of vacuum chamber. And they had one hour to do it. >>

CERN building numbers: no rhyme and little reason

Over the years, people at CERN have been trying to develop a single theory to explain CERN’s building numbers. Behind these seemingly random numbers there must surely be an ultimate solution: CERN’s second Standard Model, if you will. The CERN Bulletin finds out more… >>

SESAME: opening doors through science

Two Pakistani scientists arrived at CERN on 2 February at the height of the cold snap. They will spend the coming year working in collaboration with CERN’s magnet experts, learning the technology and contributing to ongoing projects. >>

Visit by the Prime Minister of the Slovak Republic

The Prime Minister of the Slovak Republic, Iveta Radicova, visited CERN on 28 February, meeting with CERN Director-General Rolf Heuer and going down to the ALICE cavern. >>

Local school children curious about CMS

Imagine the scene: about 20-30 schoolchildren aged 8-11 and about 1.25 m tall; a couple of adults, let’s say on average 1.75 m tall, and then one high-energy physics experiment 15 m tall. This is what you could have seen on 2, 6 and 9 February in the CMS cavern, as two local schools participated in the “Be a scientist!” programme. >>

Perfect symmetry between arts and science

“Symmetry,” a film about science, truth and identity, is the first arts project to receive the endorsement of the CERN Cultural Advisory Board, following a rigorous peer review process. It unites six artists from different artistic and cultural backgrounds - between their nationalities and current places of residence they cover six countries and three continents. The team visited CERN recently to get an impression of the Organization and to prepare for filming during the shutdown in 2013. >>

Bike 2 Work

Are you a CERN cyclist? If so, join the Bike 2 Work competition that has just started! The more kilometres you travel by bike, the closer you’ll get to winning… >>

Prevention is better than cure: a winning combination

In the 04/05 edition of the Bulletin, we teamed up with the HSE Unit's Safety Inspection Service to launch a “Spot the Mistakes” competition based on 7 mistakes.  You had to identify 7 major safety problems in the photo below. >>

Interview with Murray Gell-Mann, 1969 Nobel prize in physics

Nobel laureate Murray Gell-Mann paid a visit to CERN in January. In this video, he shares his views with Paola Catapano, member of CERN Communication Group. >>

How to get properly rid of confidential data?

Have you ever bought a used laptop on ebay? Try it and you might not only get (hopefully) functional hardware, but also a bunch of personal files, intriguing photos, sensitive documents, etc. Not everybody worries enough to clean the local hard disks properly before selling their equipment or giving it away. So the next owner of the hard disk can comfortably crawl through the remaining data, and use it at his or her convenience... >>

Ombuds’ corner: Workplace incivility

In this series, the Bulletin aims to explain the role of the Ombuds at CERN by presenting practical examples of misunderstandings that could have been resolved by the Ombuds if he had been contacted earlier. Please note that, in all the situations we present, the names are fictitious and used only to improve clarity. >>

News from the Library: Nucleonica - web-driven nuclear science

Most of us are familiar with the Karlsruhe Nuclide Chart. It spreads from wall to wall and tells you all about decay chains of all known nuclides and isotopes. >>

Paul Bouchardy (1937 – 2012)

It is with great sorrow that we announce the sudden passing of our former colleague and friend, Paul Bouchardy, on Friday 17 February. >>

Training and Development

E-groups training  
Safety Training: places available in March  

Announcements

Diversity in Action: Interactive Workshop  
CERN Phonebook evolution  
France at CERN – Industrial exhibition  
Changes in the CERN Firewall Openings  
Blood donation  
Geneva University - Silicon photomultiplier : features and applications  
CERN School of Computing 2012 - Registration is open!  
Geneva University - The AX-PET experiment : A demonstrator for an axial Positron Emission Tomography  

Events

95TH ACCU MEETING  
Hommage à Georges Charpak  

Staff Association

Editorial  
Solidarity  
Conference - Jean Ziegler  
Women's Club  
Cine Club  
Yachting Club  
GAC-EPA  
Interfon  
Music lessons  
Solidarity  
Orchestre des Nations Unies  
Théâtre Carouge  
Théâtre Le St Gervais