12 Dec 2008
Geneva 12 December 2008. The CERN1 council today thanked the organization’s outgoing management, and welcomed in the new. It was an occasion to take stock of the achievements of the past five years and to look forward to the next. Outgoing Director-General Robert Aymar, looked back on his five years at the helm, while new Director-General, Rolf Heuer, presented his vision for the future.
05 Dec 2008
Geneva, 5 December 2008. CERN1 today confirmed that the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) will restart in 2009. This news forms part of an updated report, published today, on the status of the LHC following a malfunction on 19 September.
"The top priority for CERN today is to provide collision data for the experiments as soon as reasonably possible," said CERN Director General Robert Aymar. "This will be in the summer of 2009."
21 Oct 2008
Geneva, 21 October 2008. Swiss President Pascal Couchepin and French Prime Minister François Fillon were joined at CERN1 today by science ministers from CERN’s Member States and around the world to inaugurate the Large Hadron Collider, the world’s largest and most complex scientific instrument.
20 Oct 2008
Geneva, 20 October 2008. Swiss President Pascal Couchepin and French Prime Minister François Fillon will be joined at CERN1 tomorrow by science ministers from CERN’s Member States and around the world to inaugurate the Large Hadron Collider. The world’s largest and most complex scientific instrument, the LHC circulated its first beam on 10 September 2008.
16 Oct 2008
Geneva, 16 October 2008. Investigations at CERN1 following a large helium leak into sector 3-4 of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) tunnel have confirmed that cause of the incident was a faulty electrical connection between two of the accelerator’s magnets. This resulted in mechanical damage and release of helium from the magnet cold mass into the tunnel.
03 Oct 2008
Geneva, 3 October 2008. Today, three weeks after the first particle beams were injected into the Large Hadron Collider—the world’s largest particle accelerator—the Worldwide LHC Computing Grid celebrates the start of its crucial data challenge: the analysis and management of more than 15 million Gigabytes of data every year, to be produced from the hundreds of millions of subatomic collisions expected inside the LHC every second. This data-handling feat marks an essential stage in the process of enabling researchers to discover new physics.
02 Oct 2008
Geneva, 2 October 2008. Following the successful circulation of first beam in the LHC on 10 September, the world’s largest and most complex scientific instrument will be officially inaugurated at CERN1 on 21 October 2008. Representatives of the governments of CERN’s Member and Observer States and other participating nations have been invited.
The LHC's start-up day went very smoothly, with the first beam being threaded around the ring to great acclaim in just under one hour.
26 Sep 2008
Geneva, 26 September 2008. Exactly 40 years ago today, the European Physical Society1 (EPS) was founded at CERN2 to promote physics in Europe. Today, the EPS represents over 100,000 physicists from 40 national member societies, thus reaching well beyond the geographical area covered by the European-Union. Maciej Kolwas, EPS President elect, stated that not only is physics the basis of much of today’s technology, it was indeed at the forefront of building a united Europe and remains an integral part of human culture.
23 Sep 2008
Geneva, 23 September 2008. Investigations at CERN1 following a large helium leak into sector 3-4 of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) tunnel have indicated that the most likely cause of the incident was a faulty electrical connection between two of the accelerator’s magnets. Before a full understanding of the incident can be established, however, the sector has to be brought to room temperature and the magnets involved opened up for inspection. This will take three to four weeks. Full details of this investigation will be made available once it is complete.
20 Sep 2008
Geneva, 20 September 2008. During commissioning (without beam) of the final LHC sector (sector 3-4) at high current for operation at 5 TeV, an incident occurred at mid-day on Friday 19 September resulting in a large helium leak into the tunnel. Preliminary investigations indicate that the most likely cause of the problem was a faulty electrical connection between two magnets, which probably melted at high current leading to mechanical failure. CERN ’s strict safety regulations ensured that at no time was there any risk to people.
