CERN Courier – November 1998
News
Astrowatch
New eye on the sky
A new satellite is nearing completion that will give astronomers an unprecedented view of the violent activity around black holes, starquakes and other strange phenomena. The International Gamma Ray Astrophysics Laboratory (Integral) will have a resolution 10 times better than current facilities of its kind.
Features
HERA strikes it RICH at DESY
At the German DESY laboratory in Hamburg, two major new experiments for the HERA electronproton collider HERA-B and HERMES are being equipped with ambitious Ring Imaging Cherenkov (RICH) detectors for particle identification.
Particles for export
With CERN's site straddling the FrancoSwiss frontier near Geneva, exporting particle beams is an everyday occurrence. Now a new proposal foresees CERN particles also being exported to Italy, for use in the Gran Sasso underground laboratory, 730 kilometres away.
MACRO-scope
The Monopole, Astrophysics and Cosmic Ray Observatory (MACRO) is an underground muon detector at Gran Sasso, which is now adding to the evidence for neutrino oscillations.
Neutrino oscillations NOW
Neutrinos are never far from the physics headlines. Neutrino oscillations when different types of neutrinos transform among themselves has emerged as the big talking point of 1998. A topical workshop in Amsterdam surveyed the latest results and looked to the implications.
Applied superconductivity in Russia
A school on applied superconductivity held near the Russian proton accelerator at the Protvino Institute for High Energy Physics (IHEP), near Moscow, provided a valuable snapshot of this important field and highlighted a long tradition of Russian expertise in this area.
Twenty-five years of neutral currents
In the summer of 1973, an experiment at the Gargamelle bubble chamber at CERN discovered a new physics effect. Gordon Fraser looks back at how confirmation of the existence of neutral currents ushered in a new understanding of physics.
25 years of asymptotic freedom
A quarter of a century ago, several theorists published an unexpected result which opened the door to quantum chromodynamics (QCD), the unusual field theory that describes quarks and gluons. This year's international QCD conference was able to look back as well as forward.
The prospects for particle physics
The second of two articles, in which as his five-year mandate as Director-General of CERN nears its end, Chris Llewellyn Smith reflects on what particle physics has achieved, and where it may be going. The focus is on conceptual advances building on the Standard Model.
Making a song and dance about physics
Who needs the Spice Girls? What physicists want (what they really, really want) is science entertainment from Les Horribles Cernettes and the physics chanteuse Lynda Williams.
Regulars
Spreading high-energy physics culture
Alessandro Pascolini looks at the problems of conveying the thrill and excitement of frontier research and discovery in quantum physics.
Perseus Books takes over Advanced Book Classics
Advanced Book Classics are graduate-level texts and monographs by influential physicists that have been re-released in paperback. Formerly published by Addison Wesley Longman, Advanced Book Classics are now owned and published by Perseus Books.
Faces and Places
More news from CERN and around the world of people and events of interest to the community.