Read article 'The changing world of EPJC'
As the field of high-energy physics moves inexorably towards full open access, under the SCOAP3 agreement (CERN Courier November 2012 p6), it is worth noting a fact that is often overlooked by the sci...
Read article 'The incomprehensibility principle'
Educators and psychologists invented the term “attention span” to describe the length of time anyone can concentrate on a particular task before becoming distracted. It is a useful term bu...
Read article 'Charting the future of European particle physics'
The original CERN convention, which was drafted nearly 60 years ago, foresaw that the organization should have a role as co-ordinator for European particle physics, as well as operating internati...
Read article 'ESO and CERN – 50 years later'
1948: The 5 m Hale telescope is inaugurated in Palomar, California. 1954: At the instigation of Jan Oort and Walter Baade, a group of renowned European astronomers meets to discuss how, by poolin...
Read article 'An important day for science'
On 4 July 2012, particle physics was headline news around the world thanks to a scientific success story that began over 60 years ago. It was a great day for science and a great day for huma...
Read article 'From ionization of air to beyond the LHC'
In August, some 100 physicists will gather at Bad Saarow in Germany to celebrate the centenary of the discovery of cosmic rays by the Austrian scientist, Victor Hess. The meeting place is close t...
Read article 'It’s good to blog'
It all started a year ago over dinner with a good bottle of wine in front of us. Steve Gourlay of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Stuart Henderson of Fermilab and myself talked about the future...
Read article 'Authors and supporters'
The first “high-energy” accelerators were constructed more than 80 years ago. No doubt they represented technological challenges and major achievements even though, seen from a 2012 p...
Read article 'Towards a more confident future'
Gloom and despondency about the economic climate fill the newspapers to saturation point. The eurozone is, once again, destined to fragment and disappear – there is a depressingly strong sensati...
Read article 'Trends in isotope discovery'
It all started innocently enough with a review article I wrote in 2004 about the nuclear driplines, which described the exploration of the most neutron- and proton-rich isotopes (Thoennessen 2004). Th...
