Cern | The Guardian (original) (raw)

March 2026

Science Weekly
Transporting the most expensive and volatile substance on Earth – podcast
What happened when scientists took antimatter on a world-first drive, and why did they do it? Madeleine Finlay hears from the Guardian’s science editor, Ian Sample, and the Cern physicist Dr Christian Smorra

Scientists discover heavier version of proton with upgraded detector

Snappily named Xi-cc-plus, Cern physicists spotted the particle in shower of debris that lit up Large Hadron Collider

Please drive carefully: scientists plan to transport volatile antimatter for first time

Cern researchers are testing traps capable of moving antimatter, which explodes into energy as soon as it comes into contact with regular matter

February 2026

double quotation markThese cuts to physics research will be a disaster for UK scientists – and for our standing in the world

Jon Butterworth
If plans by the UK’s science funding body go ahead, we won’t be able to benefit from Britain’s membership of Cern and other large international projects, says Jon Butterworth, professor of physics at University College London

December 2025

The man taking over the Large Hadron Collider – only to switch it off

Next head of Cern backs massive replacement for world’s largest machine to investigate mysteries of the universe

September 2025

Herwig Schopper obituary

Director general of Cern in the 1980s who went on to establish the Sesame laboratory in Jordan

March 2025

Just a big toy – or key to the universe? Row over even Larger Hadron Collider

Ambitious project could soak up funding for subatomic physics for decades, say opponents

December 2024

The most dangerous delivery truck? How a lorry-load of antimatter will help solve secrets of universe

Fantastically expensive and hard to handle, the substance holds the key to a holy grail of science. And experts at Cern now know how to transport it

November 2024

Ian Shipsey obituary

Physicist whose silicon devices helped to unlock the secrets of the earliest fractions of a second of our universe

April 2024

The big idea
The big idea: are we about to discover a new force of nature?

Science Weekly
Remembering physicist Peter Higgs – podcast

February 2024

Cern aims to build €20bn collider to unlock secrets of universe

Research lab submits plans for next-generation model at least three times size of Large Hadron Collider

October 2023

double quotation markSome Nobel winners are great intellects, others are lucky. There’s more to science than these prizes

Martin Rees
The flaws of the awards, seen by the public as the only game in town, are hindering the pursuit of innovation, says astronomer royal Martin Rees

September 2023

Scientists find antimatter is subject to gravity

Tests at Cern refute suggestion that antigravity might apply to antimatter, showing instead it also falls downwards

February 2023

Science Weekly
How has the Russia-Ukraine war disrupted science? – podcast
As we approach a year since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Ian Sample talks to physicist Professor John Ellis, and Arctic governance expert Svein Vigeland Rottem, about how the world of science has had to adapt

January 2023

Splitting the atomic scientists: how the Ukraine war ruined physics

At Cern and elsewhere, a reluctance to give Russian researchers authorship credit on new papers has led to stalemate

July 2022

Book of the day
Elusive by Frank Close review – the brilliance of physicist Peter Higgs