CERN

NA50 is one of CERN’s seven experiments part of the heavy-ion programme, which provides evidence for the existence of the quark-gluon plasma.

Find out more about how scientists use heavy-ion collisions at the LHC: home.cern/news/news/ph...

#ThrowbackThursday to 1995 ✨

Here we see one of the six hodoscopes, made of 48 scintillator counters, used in the NA50 experiment.

#DidYouKnow: hodoscopes are instruments used in particle detectors, to determine the particle’s trajectories.

This play is part of the Binôme project, created by the French theatre company Les sens des mots in collaboration with Château Rouge – Scène conventionnée d'Annemasse.

Discover more: home.cern/news/news/kn...

When theatre and physics collide 🎭🧑‍🔬

"Collision(s)", a play exploring the meeting of a playwright and a CERN particle physicist, was performed at the “Avignon Off” Festival on 18 July, offering a deep dive into the interactions between poets and scientists.

#FunFact: during this year’s edition, the ISS could be noticed in the sky while the Miss Proper and the Moving Targets band was playing.

CERN summer nights, mid-July 🎸

This #PhotoOfTheWeek brings you to the Hardronic Music Festival, which took place #AtCERN earlier this month. The Hardronic Music Festival was created in 1989 by Silvano de Gennaro and has been taking place for the last three decades.

From black-hole evaporation to neutron-star interiors, extreme environments and complex dynamics often outpace even the most powerful supercomputers.

Find out more in #CERNCourier about how quantum computing will change that: cerncourier.com/a/quantum-si...

Quantum simulators in high-energy physics 💫

Here we see:
1️⃣Quantum simulator at the University of Innsbruck (📸C. Lackner/Innsbruck)

2️⃣Neutral atom experiment at Standford University (📸Standford/Choi Research Group)

3️⃣Vacuum chamber of a trapped-ion quantum computer (📸E. Brucke/PSI)

Find out more about magnets at the #LHC: home.cern/science/engineering/pulling-together-superconducting-electromagnets

The water canals at Laboratory II were used to cool the magnets of the SPS – the second-largest machine in CERN’s accelerator complex.

Magnets are essential for guiding particles through the tunnel and focusing the beams before collision, and their cooling was crucial to ensure proper operation.

#ThrowbackThursday to the construction of water canals in the 70s

At the time, CERN’s Laboratory II was the site of numerous experiments and accelerator construction projects.

A quantum leap for antimatter measurements

The demonstration of first antimatter quantum bit paves the way for substantially improved tests of nature’s fundamental symmetries.

📸 Physicist Barbara Latacz working in the BASE experiment.

Find out more: home.cern/news/news/ph...

Watch until the end for a special message from CERN’s own astronaut, @astro-slawosz.bsky.social Sławosz Uznański-Wiśniewski, who connected to STELLAR from quarantine to deliver a very special message.

Sławosz, CERN engineer and an @esa.int astronaut, returned from a space mission on 15 July.

YouTube video by CERN STELLAR, A voyage across the Universe

The event offered engaging talks, live music, an APOLLO simulator, book signings, meet-ups with astronauts, and engaging hands-on activities for all ages.

Watch the livestream: www.youtube.com/watch?v=dAFv...

Today’s #PhotoOfTheWeek gives a nod to last week’s event STELLAR, where, together with astronauts, @nobelprize.bsky.social winners and other world-class scientists, we discovered how astrophysics and particle physics are shaping the future.

...and powering privacy-preserving diagnostics and prognostics for brain pathologies in hospital environments.

This award highlights CERN’s commitment to leveraging fundamental research for the benefit of society.

Find out more: cafein.web.cern.ch

CAFEIN has found impactful applications, such as supporting global supply chain resilience with @who.int .int, enabling cancer risk prediction models with the IARC - International Agency for Research on Cancer / World Health Organisation...

🏆 CERN’s CAFEIN™ has won the Innovate for Impact in Healthcare Award at the #AIforGood Summit

CAFEIN™, developed at CERN, is an AI-driven infrastructure and framework designed for federated, sustainable, and privacy-preserving algorithm training.

ATTRACT celebrates successes at final conference

The initiative helped develop breakthrough detection and imaging technologies and tested a model for innovation in Europe.

Find out more: home.cern/news/news/kn...

In these graphs, you can see the horizontal and vertical position of the two beams (B1 blue and B2 red), the knobs (=functions) moving them, the luminosity changing when they’re moved, and the current of the magnet circuits used to move them.

The so-called “Van Der Meer” method allows physicists to find the optimum point of collision between the two beams circulating in the LHC and better calibrate the number of collisions per second and per crossing area – also known as luminosity.

Here we see four graphs – from @atlasexperiment.bsky.social, @cmsexperiment.bsky.social, ALICE Expeirment, and @lhcb.bsky.social, respectively.

Threading the beam at the #LHC 📈

These are not knitting patterns, but rather Van der Meer scans done at the Large Hadron Collider. We do wonder what they would look like knitted… 🤔

Curious to know what they represent?

Find out more about klystrons and their application in industry: home.cern/news/news/ac...

CERN launched the High-Efficiency Klystron (HEK) project ten years ago, aiming to make the accelerators of tomorrow more sustainable and efficient.

High-efficiency klystrons developed for the High-Luminosity LHC are now outperforming industrial klystrons by 10% in terms of efficiency. #HiLumiLHC

Here we see a klystron, an electronic component used to amplify high-frequency radio waves by a factor of up to a million. In particle colliders, they can be used to power radiofrequency cavities and thus play a key role in accelerating particles.

A science festival #AtCERN🌌☄️

Join us this Saturday, 19 July, at 16:00 CEST for STELLAR, your chance to explore space from CERN.

Watch live: www.youtube.com/watch?v=dAFv...

On view until 31 December 2025, Soft Robots brings together fifteen artists who reflected on and reimagined the increasingly intertwined relationships with technology.

Find out more: home.cern/news/news/kn...

From #quantum communication and the paradoxes of black holes to climate futures and synthetic images, the CERN artist residents explore the frontiers of scientific research.

Arts at CERN residents in Copenhagen 🎨

The exhibition "Soft Robots" at Copenhagen Contemporary features artworks developed in collaboration with CERN’s scientific community as part of Arts at CERN’s Collide residency programme.