CERN congratulates the winner of the 2026 @NobelPrize in #Physics 👏
Francis Halzen was awarded the #NobelPrize in Physics for his outstanding contributions to the IceCube Neutrino Observatory and to the discovery of high-energy neutrinos originating from astrophysical sources.
BREAKING NEWS
The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences has decided to award the 2026 #NobelPrize in Physics to Francis Halzen “for decisive contributions to the IceCube Neutrino Observatory and the discovery of high-energy neutrinos of astrophysical origin.”
François Englert (1932 – 2026)
It is with great sadness that we announce that Belgian theoretical physicist, François Englert, has passed away at the age of 93.
Read more: home.cern/francois-englert-1…
ALT François Englert during a visit to CERN in 2014 (Image: CERN)
Congratulations to the Muon g-2 collaboration
Congratulations to the Muon g-2 Collaboration @CERN @BrookhavenLab @Fermilab, winners of the 2026 Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics, for multi-decade, groundbreaking contributions to the measurement of the muon’s anomalous magnetic moment, pushing the boundaries of experimental precision and igniting a new era in the quest for physics beyond the Standard Model.
breakthroughprize.org/News/9…
Join us #AtCERN for a galactic journey where science and music collide 💫
Young pianists from Haute école de musique de Genève - Neuchâtel (HEM) will be playing pieces from inspirational composers, with stunning scientific films of subatomic particles, the solar system and the Universe as a background, produced by Emmy-nominated astronomer and filmmaker José Francisco Salgado.
This event will be co-created by CERN, the HEM and KV 265, a non-profit organisation whose mission is the communication of science through music and the visual arts.
📍CERN Science Gateway, Auditorium Sergio Marchionne
📆 31 March 2026, starting from 19h30
🔗Register here: indico.cern.ch/event/1606882…
Featured this #TeachingTuesday: teachers learning 👨🏫
Every year, CERN offers various professional development programmes for teachers. Last month, it was the turn of French teachers, who came to CERN to keep up-to-date with the latest developments in particle physics, and experience a dynamic research environment.
Organised with @CNRS_IN2P3 Nucléaire & Particules and @Sciences_Ecole.
Find out more: teacher-programmes.web.cern.…
‘Tis the season of heavy ions
Last Friday at 3.40 pm, a new #HeavyIon run began at the Large Hadron Colliderthe fourth of #LHCRun3. Usually at the end of each proton run, CERN physicists collide heavy ions to free quarks and recreate the conditions that existed in the early #Universe just after the Big Bang.
Find out more about the primordial state of matter studied in heavy-ion collisions at the LHC: youtube.com/watch?v=mBfJAcPO…
@TIME has chosen the #LHC as one of the 25 most iconic inventions from the past 25 years.
Since beginning operations, the LHC observed the highly sought-after #HiggsBoson in 2012 and has discovered a bestiary of exotic hadrons. Today, it continues to probe ever deeper into our understanding of the building blocks of our Universe, known as the #StandardModel.
Read more: home.cern/news/news/knowledg…
For the past 25 years, TIME editors have compiled an annual list of the most innovative inventions. From the world’s biggest roller coaster to a humanoid robot that loads the dishwasher, see what made the 2025 list here: time.com/collections/best-in…
CERN congratulates the winners of the 2025 @NobelPrize in #Physics 👏
John Clarke, Michel H. Devoret, and John M. Martinis were awarded the #NobelPrize for their experiments with an electrical circuit, in which they demonstrated both quantum mechanical tunnelling and quantised energy levels in a system big enough to be held in the hand.
BREAKING NEWS
The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences has decided to award the 2025 #NobelPrize in Physics to John Clarke, Michel H. Devoret and John M. Martinis “for the discovery of macroscopic quantum mechanical tunnelling and energy quantisation in an electric circuit.”
#ICYMI here’s a recap of #OpenScience Fair 2025 💫
This #PhotoOfTheWeek features the highlights of last week’s event, which took place at #CERNScienceGateway.
From 15 to 17 September, innovators, researchers, and policy leaders came together to explore how diverse forms of collaboration can accelerate discovery, enhance knowledge accessibility, and create a more transparent and equitable research ecosystem.
The autumn issue of #AcceleratingNews is out 🍂
In this issue, we take a look at the successful completion of the #LHC Injectors Upgrade, highlight the benefits for industry of collaborating with large-scale research projects, and deep dive into how the Particle Accelerator MasterClass project has been inspiring thousands of young people to get involved in #Physics, among other news.
Read the full issue: acceleratingnews.eu/issue-52
#ThrowbackThurdsday to June 1980 🏃♂️
That summer, Leon Van Hove (CERN’s Director General at that time) kicked off the traditional annual relay race, a tradition that still takes place to this day #AtCERN.
Twice Director of the Theory Division, Leon Van Hove oversaw the official unification of the two sites of the Laboratory – Prévessin and Meyrin – and led the early groundwork for what would become the Large Electron-Positron Collider (LEP), the largest electron-positron accelerator ever built.
Summer students #AtCERN 💻
Today’s #PhotoOfTheWeek features a lecture given by CERN’s Director General Fabiola Gianotti to the 2025 class of summer students in the audience.
The CERN Summer Student Programme offers STEM students pursuing bachelor’s or master’s degrees the unique opportunity to join in the day-to-day work of CERN’s experiments and attend lectures specially prepared for them by scientists from around the world.
Find out more: careers.cern/summer
Here we see the recently-inaugurated control room of the @CMSexperiment, where the physicists carry out the monitoring and supervision of the experiment’s operations around the clock.
The interior of this control room is twice as large as the previous one. Located next to the detector, this room was upgraded to support the ever-increasing demands of the experiment in preparation for #HiLumiLHC operations.
Find out more: cms.cern/news/cms-inaugurate…
#ThrowbackThursday to August 1970 🔙
Here we see the first large units of the magnetic shielding designed for the European hydrogen bubble chamber, arriving #AtCERN from the ‘Forges et Ateliers de la Loire’ (France).
The European hydrogen bubble chamber, also known as the Big European Bubble Chamber (BEBC), was a large particle detector that was used in particle physics research from 1973 until 1984.
The first images feature the first unit, a lower disc weighing 48 tons. Swipe to the last picture to see BEBC finalised. 👉
Sun is up 🌞
Today’s #PhotoOfTheWeek features some summer moments #AtCERN.
From welcoming summer students to hosting festivals, outdoor workshops, science shows and community events, the summer time at the Laboratory is filled with a vibrant atmosphere.
Are you planning to visit CERN this summer? If so, plan your visit here: visit.cern/
Today we feature equipment of the future #HiLumiLHC, the successor to CERN's Large Hadron Collider, which aims to increase the number of particle collisions for further discoveries to be made.
Here we see the installation of a so-called “corrector package” in the IT string – a place where many novel components are being tested collectively – back earlier this year.
A corrector package helps finetune the beam parameters and compensate for alignment and field errors of adjacent main quadrupole and dipole magnets.
#FunFact: The transport of the CP cryomodule from a test bench to the IT string required the use of several transport means: a Rocla vehicle, a crane, and two translation tables.
#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.
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/physics/…
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.
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)
From black-hole evaporation to neutron-star interiors, extreme environments and complex dynamics often outpace even the most powerful supercomputers.
Find out more in the @CERNCourier about how quantum computing will change that: cerncourier.com/a/quantum-si…
#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. The water canals at Laboratory II were used to cool the magnets of the Super Proton Synchrotron – 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.
Find out more about magnets at the #LHC: home.cern/science/engineerin…
