To celebrate the 140 395 kilometres pedalled by the CERN teams taking part in Bike2Work 2017, many of the participants took part in a parade around the CERN site on 16 June. (Image: Max Brice/CERN)
Once again, the Swiss Bike2Work competition brought together a large number of CERN cyclists – no fewer than 214 teams (831 participants), 72 teams more than in 2016! – putting CERN in fourth place in the 2017 competition in terms of the number of teams, behind the MIGROS group (376 teams), the Swiss post office (287) and the City of Zurich (250), but ahead of the ETHZ (212) and EPFL (191) universities in Zurich and Lausanne respectively.
Bike2Work is a healthy living initiative invovling companies across Switzerland, and in May and June this year it inspired 54 780 participants from 1 885 companies to take to the saddle for their daily commute, while simultaneously promoting a sustainable approach to transport.
Reyes Alemany Fernandez and her son Daniel, who attends the CERN Kindergarten. At just 5 years old, Daniel was the youngest participant in Bike2Work 2017. (Image: Max Brice/CERN)
This year, the CERN teams smashed the 2016 record (97 091 km) by cycling 140 395 kilometres (three times the circumference of the earth and the equivalent of 20 217 kg of CO2!). More than 25% of CERN’s employed members of personnel took part, putting the Laboratory in first place among companies comprising between 1 000 and 5 000 employees. Congratulations to the CERN cyclists, who have set the bar very high for next year! Bike2Work 2018 is going to be a real challenge...
And of course, the cycling season at CERN doesn’t end after May and June, but carries on all year round with the Bike to CERN challenge. Sign up now!
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Bike2Work: facts and figures for 2017
Participating companies/organisations: 1 885
Teams: 14 547
Participants: 54 780
Kilometres cycled: 12 697 250
CO2 equivalent (kg): 1 828 404
You can find all the results from Bike2Work 2017 here.
Did you know that about 83% of all messages destined for CERN are flagged as spam and rejected? The IT department’s e-mail service works hard to overcome the permanent wave of spam messages trying to pour into CERN… just recently, we deployed a dedicated appliance that automatically analyses our e-mails for malicious content. But in the end, some spam, particularly the most sophisticated messages, makes it though. At this stage, it is up to you to identify it. Here are some ideas to make your lives easier.
Of course, there is our usual advice: “STOP – THINK – DON’T CLICK” (“Protect your click”) and our campaigns for spotting malicious e-mails (“One click and BOOM… (Reloaded)”). On the other hand, why not reduce e-mail traffic in general and make our lives easier when we are trying to identify genuine and valid e-mails?
* First of all, let’s stop spamming ourselves over and over again (see also “Save our inboxes! Use e-mail wisely”). While the “CC” and “BCC” fields leave plenty of space to fill up, do we really need to add everyone and his or her dog? Shouldn’t we limit ourselves to sending e-mails to those that have a need-to-see? Do we really need to click “Reply All” just to say “Thank you” to the sender – in particular if you “Reply All” to an e-group with hundreds of members! Also, 100 people in the “To” or “CC” boxes does not make any sense and might be an invasion of privacy. Here, the “BCC” box is better. And, is the e-mail (and any ping-pong e-mail exchange!) necessary at all or wouldn’t it just be nicer to visit the recipient and buy him or her a coffee?
* Signing e-mails using your CERN certificate would help too. On the basis of your digital signature, the CERN recipient can be assured that the e-mail has really been sent from your CERN e-mail address and not been spoofed by a malicious attacker… You can easily enable e-mail signing by following these instructions. The only limitation is that, as CERN certificates are currently not recognised outside CERN, this signature only works for CERN mailboxes…;
* Finally, if you manage a system for sending automatic e-mails (on behalf of CERN), don’t make them look like spam! The sender should clearly point to your service (and not be an obscure tag). Ideally, the sender should be listed in CERN’s phonebook; the subject should be clear and precise; the introduction should directly address the recipient by his or her name used at CERN (as listed in the phonebook); the message text should be flawless, contain no typos, and be precise; embedded URLs and web links should be written out in full and should point to websites hosted at CERN (starting with “HTTPS://cern.ch/...”); attachments should also have clear titles and should be introduced in the text; and your e-mail should have a signature that makes it clear from whom and why this e-mail has been sent.
While these steps won’t eradicate external spam, they could reduce internal “spam” and allow us to focus on “real” e-mails. If you still receive spam, please report it to spam-report@cern.ch (or submit a ticket).
Do you want to learn more about computer security incidents and issues at CERN? Follow our Monthly Report. For further information, questions or help, visit our website or contact us at Computer.Security@cern.ch.
The new LHCb spokesperson, Giovanni Passaleva. (Image: Sophia Elizabeth Bennett/CERN)
Giovanni Passaleva of the National Institute for Nuclear Physics (INFN) in Florence, Italy, is the new spokesperson of the LHCb experiment, taking over from Guy Wilkinson. During his three-year mandate, which started on 1 July 2017, he will lead a collaboration of about 1200 people from 72 physics institutes across the globe.
After graduating from a high school specialising in classical studies, Passaleva studied physics in Florence in the 1980s, when the discovery of the Z and W boson – for which the Italian physicist Carlo Rubbia was awarded the Nobel Prize in physics –raised a wave of enthusiasm in the Italian physics community. He completed his PhD on the L3 experiment at the Large Electron-Positron Collider (LEP) in 1994, working on the design and construction of the L3 vertex detector. He has been a member of the LHCb collaboration since 2000, when he started working on the construction and commissioning of the multi-wire proportional chambers for the LHCb muon system. After becoming the muon system project leader in 2008, in 2014 he became the LHCb Upgrade Detector Coordinator.
Passaleva takes the reins in a successful period for the collaboration, which in recent months has recorded many interesting results on flavour physics measurements. But it is also at a delicate historical moment, where the current experiment operations must be carried out alongside all the activities for the LHCb upgrade. “We are in a transition phase: after the R&D, we will be moving to construction, and the installation phase is approaching fast,” says Passaleva. “However, 2018 will still be a data-taking period: more data are needed to complete several fundamental physics analysis streams. Run 2 data are a gold mine that must be exploited fully,” he remarks. “Being forced to deal with both activities at the same time, the collaboration is in a ‘superposition of states’. High on my priority list is the optimisation of the organisation of the collaboration so that we will be prepared to take on all the challenges and opportunities that are facing us in the near future.”
The LHCb upgrade involves running at higher luminosity and a complete change of the trigger system and, as a consequence, a complete overhaul of the readout electronics and the redesign of several sub-detectors including innovative solutions. The new trigger will be fully software-based and will process all the data, which is sent 30 million times per second by the detector. “This improvement truly represents a paradigm shift for high-energy physics experiments, where the classical sequence of detector – trigger– data on tape – event reconstruction – analysis will be substituted with a detector – trigger - analysis approach,” he adds. “We are leading the way with a new method of doing particle physics, which will most probably be adopted by future high-luminosity experiments.”
“Many of the concepts developed for the LHCb upgrade can be tested with the existing experimental setup,” explains Passaleva. “It’s very rewarding seeing people excitedly proposing innovative ideas about how to apply new analysis methods, or developing and testing revolutionary trigger selection strategies,” he notes happily.
Passaleva pays tribute to his distinguished line of predecessors: “I’m taking over from Guy Wilkinson, who did a tremendous job in keeping the collaboration active and healthy. Together with Monica Pepe-Altarelli, they put in place many fruitful initiatives and I definitely want to embrace their managerial style. I am especially determined to maintain and further improve the ‘LHCb style’, where people with new ideas, especially young members of the collaboration, are provided with guidance and the necessary organisation to grow and succeed. I am counting very much on Chris Parkes, LHCb’s new deputy spokesperson, to help me in this formidable endeavor.”
Exciting times ahead: “In current high-energy physics, the development of modern computing techniques has become as crucial as building faster and more sensitive detectors. More efficient software algorithms are bound to become integral parts of future high-luminosity detectors, and I will work to make sure that LHCb becomes a pioneer in this field.”
The new MERIT scheme was introduced in 2016, following the recommendation of the five-yearly review. It has been developed as a lighter performance appraisal process, with four performance qualifications: insufficient, fair, strong and outstanding. The suggested CERN-wide distribution of these qualifications is 6-12% fair, 57-63% strong and 27-33% outstanding and HR are pleased to report that this distribution has been met for 2017 (9%, 62% and 29%). HR has analysed the distribution across several axes and some of the results (by contract type and gender) can be found below.
Distribution by gender
Figure 1 Distribution by gender.
We were pleased to observe no gender bias in this exercise, and the results for men and women are very close. The overall ratio of men to women at CERN is 80:20 (more information on CERN’s overall demographics may be found in the CERN Personnel Statistics at this link, which were presented to the TREF delegates in May).
Distribution by contract type
Figure 2 Distribution by contract type.
Concerning the distribution by contract type we see that the total percentage of outstanding and strong between staff members with LD and IC contracts is almost identical. There is however a higher proportion of ‘outstanding’ among the LD population, which is consistent with previous observations under the MARS, MAPS and MOAS systems.
Better cartography of our staff
The introduction and initial mapping of Benchmark Jobs (BMJ) has produced a more accurate picture of the Organization and HR has analysed more than 400 requests to change BMJ, the majority from supervisors and relating to a BMJ in the same grade span. As a result, our personnel database is now more up to date and will better reflect reality when we next report to our Member States.
Change of grade (promotions)
This year some 127 interviews were carried out regarding potential changes of grade. Overall, around 10% of eligible staff have been proposed for a change of grade.
Better precision (rounding)
Not surprising for a Laboratory whose core business is precision measurements: some of you have reported that while your salary is correct, the third decimal of the percentage shown on your pay slip does not correspond to your own calculation from the MERIT exercise. This is because the percentage is derived from the rounded salary figure. HR would like to reassure you that while salaries are rounded to the nearest Swiss franc, behind this figure the unrounded figure is stored for future use to avoid any long-term cumulative effects of rounding.
Your feedback is key
As this is the first exercise under the new MERIT system, your feedback will be essential to get a real view as to what worked well and what could be improved, and to feed into a global review of the process. Please send your feedback and suggestions to your MERIT coordinator, your hierarchy, your HRA, or directly to james.purvis@cern.ch. HR will consolidate all the feedback received, including further analysis at September’s SCC, for follow-up of the 2017 MERIT exercise with the Extended Directorate this autumn.
And meanwhile, back in HR…
The implementation of the first MERIT exercise is just one of the key areas on which HR has been working. In the past months, we have been listening to people from all corners of the Organization, and have been able to identify a number of areas that are now top priority, including:
Recruiting the 80 additional staff described in the Green Paper submitted to Council in December,
Working on an effective, viable and transparent Internal Mobility process,
Providing a supportive work environment, monitoring and mitigating stress to create a healthy work place for all,
Reviewing Investigation Procedures,
Devising a clear External Mobility policy,
Reviewing the induction programme to make it an inclusive experience for all categories of newcomer.
There is much more, including the validation of skills acquired through experience; developmental conversations; streamlining administrative processes such as travel and school fee reimbursements; upgrading many of the HR informatics tools (Learning Management System, Applicant Tracking System, HR software and reporting capabilities); and last, but not least, ensuring proactive and sustainable workforce planning across the Organization.
The CERN Staff Association are actively involved in the key working groups for the majority of these projects.
CERN is respected and recognised not just as a successful, world-renowned physics laboratory but also as a great place to work, and its mission and values make for an exciting and challenging work environment. Ultimately, we are all responsible for fostering and preserving this great work environment and I would therefore like to thank each and every one of you for your commitment and drive in achieving this together.
Langevin-Joliot at the Globe talking about her exceptional family and the current status of women in science (Image: Julien Ordan/CERN)
At the beginning of the twentieth century in Thoiry, a small village close to CERN, there was a very talented chef, Hermann Leger. People came from all over Europe to taste his dishes and enjoy his warm welcome, and well-known scientists were no exception.
On 25 July 1930, the International Commission for Intellectual Cooperation (from the Societé des Nations), which included Albert Einstein and Marie Curie, took an afternoon off to go there for dinner.
On 25 July 1930, the International Commission for Intellectual Cooperation (from the Societé des Nations) visited the Hotel Leger in Thoiry. The delegation included Marie Curie (seated far left) and Albert Einstein (seated third from the left). (Image: Marie-Pierre Soulard Léger)
When the “Thoiry se transforme en musique” concert was announced for 1 July 2017, I hoped to invite some special guests who had been part of Thoiry’s history. Hélène Langevin-Joliot (a physicist, Emeritus Research Director in Fundamental Nuclear Physics at the CNRS in Orsay, France, the granddaughter of Pierre and Marie Curie, and the daughter of Frédéric Joliot and Irène Curie) came to my mind. I asked if we could have the honour of her presence at the concert and also take her on a visit to CERN’s laboratory and its experiments and you cannot imagine how thrilled I was when she accepted.
Once Langevin-Joliot arrived, she was given a whirlwind tour of CERN and Thoiry, visiting ATLAS, AMS, NA62 and, later in the week, ISOLDE, CMS, the synchrocyclotron and LHCb. She also accompanied me to visit what remains of the Hotel Leger, and into the centre of Geneva, where we sought out places her grandmother had mentioned in letters to her daughter when she came to Geneva every July, from 1922 until her death.
After agreeing to share some more of her stories and memories, Langevin-Joliot gave a fascinating talk on her life and some of its more interesting moments at the Globe of Science and Innovation. Her story inspired many, and the Globe was so full that many people could not get through the doors.
Paola Catapano (left) interviews Hélène Langevin-Joliot in Thoiry about the reasons why her grandmother came to Geneva and Thoiry around 1930. The Echo du Reculet band is in the background (Image: Giorgina Brown)
Musicians from the village of Thoiry, the Echo du Reculet, had the honour of starting the evening with a musical sonification of the famous photo of Marie Curie and Albert Einstein, made possible by the sonification algorithms of Domenico Vicinanza and Genevieve Williams, and accompanied by a slideshow explaining the context.
During her trip, Langevin-Joliot (middle) visited much of CERN and even managed to fit in a trip to the underground caverns of LHCb (pictured) and CMS (Image: Sophia Bennett/CERN)
The next day we held the concert, with Langevin-Joliot as the guest of honour. It was an incredible event: the hall was packed with people excited to hear how Thoiry sounded when transformed into music. Vicinanza and Williams had sonified several images and stories, from the Jura landscape, the village and the history of Thoiry, to the famous meeting and dinner at the Hotel Leger between Briand and Strasemann in 1926 (both Nobel Prize winners), and two poems celebrating Thoiry.
Chiara Mariotti (left) and Hélène Langevin-Joliot under the street sign dedicated to her grandmother (Image: Sophia Bennett/CERN)
For the grand finale, the orchestra played a sonification of the movements of the director (recorded a few months before), while the director simultaneously generated music with accelerometers, creating a very special and never-before-heard duet.
It was a very intense week, full of emotions. What a woman! What vitality! I was touched by what my children told me when she left: “We liked her very much, she is a very nice lady. We were really impressed that you two were talking as if you had known each other for a long time!”
Paola Catapano interviews Hélène Joliot Langevin about the differences she has heard and seen about working in science from her grandmother, Marie Curie, through her own career and today. (Video: Julien Ordan/ Paola Catapano/CERN)
The microscope is located in a climate-controlled room in order to maintain a constant temperature and humidity and to minimise vibrations induced by noise. A Faraday cage is also used to reduce the influence of neighbouring magnetic fields. (Image: CERN)
XB540 – it may look like the code name of a secret agent, but in fact it is a scientific tool used for nanoscale investigations at CERN. For the past year, this extraordinary machine – a focused ion beam scanning electron microscope (FIB-SEM) – has been digging beneath the surface to answer some long-standing questions in material science.
The XB540 FIB-SEM is an electron microscope and a 3D nano-machining workstation in one. While the high-resolution-scanning electron column can identify features as small as one millionth of a millimetre (10-9 m), or just about the size of ten atoms, it only shows the surface of a sample. The additional FIB column, on the other hand, uses an ion beam to cut through the matter and gives an insight into what lies underneath.
The machine makes 3D reconstructions of regions of interest in a process that resembles conventional tomography. The ion beam sequentially removes nanoscale slices of the material and an image of every new layer is made. Combining thousands of these images results in a precise 3D reconstruction of the internal structure of a sample.
The CERN logo at the microscale. The microscope’s ion beam milling capabilities have been used to reproduce the CERN logo on a silicon wafer at a milling depth of 50 nm. (Image: Alexander Lunt/CERN)
“There was a real need for this microscope. It helps us understand phenomena that otherwise would have remained unexplained, either because of difficulties in preparation of the sample or due to limited resolution,” says Stefano Sgobba from the Engineering department, leader of the Materials, Metrology and NDT section managing the scanning electron microscopy laboratory.
So far studies have been done on a diverse range of samples, including thin films, pressure vessels, structural materials, bulk assemblies, electrical components, insulating materials and beam-interaction samples.
The thin film experts from the Vacuum, Surfaces and Coatings group have been among the first to put the results to use. “For a long time, they wanted to associate different production parameters with the impact they have on the film. Up until now it has been very difficult to quantify this behaviour. They produced multiple samples with different parameters and we gave them an insight into the microstructure, the thickness and the porosity of each of them. Thanks to this information, they now know more about which production parameters are the most suitable,” explains Alexander Lunt, who is responsible for managing and operating the FIB-SEM laboratory.
In addition to its milling and imaging functions, the microscope was also designed to perform different analysis techniques like elemental characterisation. Designated detectors inside are able to identify the elemental composition of the sample. “We know precisely what the material is made of, with very high resolution,” says Floriane Léaux, who is responsible for electronic microscopy activity at CERN.
Another analysis technique is the production of a lamella – a small slice of the material, less than 200 nanometres thick. It allows the researchers to look through the sample at a resolution of 0.9 nanometres. “In a lamella we can see a plane of atoms that have become misaligned in the crystal and have formed a dislocation. This tells us what has to be optimised in the production technology to improve the final product,” explains Alexander.
Nanoscale resolution elemental mapping in a thin cross section of a V3Si superconducting thin film. Ion milling can be used to generate thin (less than 200 nm) cross sections of regions of interest in order to enable high resolution elemental mapping. In this study, the suitability of a tantalum barrier coating between a copper substrate and a superconducting film was assessed and was determined to be unsuitable due to the diffusion observed. (Image: Alexander Lunt/CERN)
The Mechanical and Materials Engineering group drew up a specification and procured the FIB-SEM with support from other CERN departments and the Accelerator Consolidation project. Stefano adds: “We would like to thank everybody who supported us in this achievement. This situation clearly shows that there is a single unified community at CERN working to reach our specific scientific goals.”
Elemental distribution inside a heat treated stainless steel weld. The video shows the elemental distribution of three different elements – Molybdenum (red), Manganese (green) and Chromium (blue) – within a 20 μm × 20 μm × 20 μm region of a heat treated stainless steel weld. This data has been collected using the FIB-SEM microscope and an elemental characterisation analysis technique called Energy Dispersive X-ray Spectroscopy. High resolution (75 nm) mapping is necessary to gain insight into the distribution of regions with distinct elemental composition (phases), which are shown in purple (sigma) and yellow (delta ferrite) in the video. These features have important implications for the toughness and the magnetic properties of the weld, especially at cryogenic temperatures. The video shows the individual slices which were collected in a direction perpendicular to the weld bead direction, followed by a 3D representation of the volume. (Video: Alexander Lunt/CERN)
UK artist Racheal Nee has been working with international teachers on the CERN High School Teacher programme to develop the Potato Powered Cosmos, an art-meets-science installation that demonstrates how CERN works, but not as you might expect.
“This is CERN,” says Rachael pointing to 25kg of par-boiled potatoes, sliced and sandwiched between thin sheets of zinc and copper held together by elastic bands, wired in series to make an energy source, and connected to a theremin and loud speaker. There’s a camera suspended above the speaker, connected to a screen.
“It represents CERN as an interrelated system of experiment, machine, energy and people,” she explains.
Essentially, the voltage created by the potatoes is connected to the speaker which converts the electrical energy into kinetic energy through the vibrations. By covering the speaker with a sheet of latex and some water, you can see the vibrations as movement on the surface of the water. As the voltage changes, the interference pattern on the water changes.
And that’s where the theremin comes in. By moving your hand around the wand of the theremin, you can change the voltage, simultaneously creating a change in the frequency of the sound from the instrument and the interference pattern on the water. The camera records the changes and the screen enables you to view the pattern.
Rachael and her teacher colleagues have set the experiment up in one of CERN’s main thoroughfares. Throughout the day it attracts a steady stream of curious passers-by.
“Nothing happens unless someone interacts with the theremin,” explains Rachael. “It’s that same at CERN; nothing would happen without the people.”
Rachael and her teacher colleagues have prepared a comprehensive guide for other art and science teachers to set up the installation in their own schools. It’s intended to be an interdisciplinary spark for curious minds.
Of course, there’s some serious science underpinning the artistic concept, but it’s also great fun; who knew that watching a group of physicists attempting to play Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star on a theremin could be so entertaining?
As part of the Art@CMS initiative, UK artist Rachael Nee worked with a group of international teachers taking part in the 2017 High School Teacher Programme to produce an art installation. The Potato Powered Cosmos represents CERN as an interrelated system of experiment, machine, energy and people. The installation emphasises the importance of CERN’s community - it doesn’t work without human interaction. Art@CMS has produced a ‘how-to’ guide for other art and science teachers who would like to recreate the Potato Powered Cosmos with their students. (Video: Hugo Chemli/CERN)
Around 500 people attended the Hardronic Festival 2017 (Image: Noemí Caraban Gonzalez/CERN)
The Hardronic Festival 2017 is over and it has been a very successful 26th edition. Eleven of the finest CERN bands offered their best throughout the day to an enthusiast crowd (peaking at around 500 people). The MaNaGe DJs closed the party after midnight, bidding farewell until 2018 with an energetic set.
Thanks to a great collective effort and with really good weather, it has been a wonderful evening* that gave an opportunity to many cernois to enjoy a great time among colleagues, family and friends on-site, while also supporting a charity fund-raise at the food and drinks stands.
The organization would like to thank everybody that took part in the organization of the festival, one way or the other, CERN Management, the Staff Association, plus our sponsors and supporters. You can find a complete thank-you-all statement on the Hardronic website.
*Of course, nothing is perfect, so if you would like to make any complaints or suggestions, please send an e-mail to contact-hardronic and the organization will do its best to make next year's an even better edition.
Having “intelligent” devices at home is nothing really new. Aren't our washing machines, robot vacuum cleaners, coffee machines, etc. all sufficiently smart to serve our needs? Apparently not, as the consumer electronics market is now going full steam towards the “Internet-of-Things” (IoT): home appliances that are fully interconnected and, by using central cloud service computing power, able to help you improve your life. Seriously?
To give you a few examples of what I mean: the thermostats developed by Google build up a complete home automation system to manage the temperature of every room. They learn your daily room usage so that you don't even have to adjust the temperature settings anymore. Some “smart” thermometers easily surpass standard healthcare thermometers, as do smart toasters: control them via a smartphone app, share your settings with friends, upload information to Facebook, etc. The new generation of voice-controlled intelligent personal assistants come with a webcam that allows you to rate your outfit. For the best hairstyle ever, a smart hairbrush can optimise your look, taking weather reports, i.e. humidity and temperature, into account!
So what could go wrong? With the advent of the IoT at home, “privacy” is at stake:
The manufacturer of the most famous doll in the world had a similar idea with its latest doll, but this was badly received by privacy advocates;
Once, a smart voice-controlled smart assistant even created some unwanted online orders when a TV news anchor said “Alexa, buy me a doll house”. The voice-activated assistant Alexa simply complied… Data registered by a smart assistant have even been subject to a legal case where “Alexa” might have been a witness to a murder and recorded everything that happened. Similarly, do not commit a crime if you happen to be wearing a fitness wristband – it might be used against you;
…and this list is not exhaustive.
In addition, from the "security" perspective, readers of the CERN Bulletin might recall "IoTs: The Treasure Trove at CERN", outlining a few security risks related to such devices that are part of the Internet-of-Things, and there are many more examples. In October 2016, the Mirai botnet affected close to a million customers of Deutsche Telekom by misusing poorly secured IoT devices. However, it will be much more difficult to keep all those devices up-to-date, so broader protection, like your wireless access router at home, or CERN's outer perimeter firewall, once again become the last and only line of defence… So, we have interesting times ahead. How much "security" and "privacy" are we prepared to trade for more convenience?
It is up to you to make a conscious choice as to how much "privacy" you want to hand over to companies. Check whether you can control which aspects of your personal data you want to expose. When it comes to "security", don't expect too much. As shown by our treasure trove tests, but also by many other reports like those from the last "BlackHat" conference, IoT devices cannot be expected to be secure. The important thing is that, as much as at CERN, your personal firewall at home (usually part of your wireless access point and router) is fully locked down so that no incoming traffic can try to exploit your devices.
Do you want to learn more about computer security incidents and issues at CERN? Follow our Monthly Report. For further information, questions or help, visit our website or contact us at Computer.Security@cern.ch.
The second CERN network hub, located near the CERN Control Centre in Prévessin, was inaugurated on 19 July 2017 (Image: Sophia Bennett)
The day-to-day operation of CERN is heavily reliant on IT services and preventing their potential long-term interruption is hence crucial. To this end, a project to create a second network hub was approved in 2014 and, three years later, building 773 has been handed over to the IT and EN departments. Its inauguration took place on 19 July 2017 in the presence of the CERN Director-General Fabiola Gianotti, the Director for Research and Computing Eckhard Elsen, the Engineering department head Roberto Losito, the Information Technology department head Frédéric Hemmer as well as many of the people involved in the project. Located close to the CERN Control Centre in Prévessin, the building houses a computing room for IT equipment, a storage room, a fibre room operated by EN/EL, and a main cooling room relying on cost effective and very energy efficient technologies. Building 924 close by provides additional technical rooms such as electrical rooms as well as a cooling room.
Internal and external network communications are essential for CERN – imagine a day without access to email or the web! – and used to rely heavily on equipment and fibre concentrated in building 513.
This second network hub, with fibre connectivity to the outside world, the CERN data centre and its extension in the Wigner Research Centre for Physics in Hungary, the CERN Control Centre, as well as all the major star-points, provides redundancy for the CERN data network. Henceforth, should there be any major incident in the CERN data centre, CERN network connections will continue to work. This project required extensive work, planning and coordination: many thanks to all the departments and services that contributed to its completion!
Evolution of the LHC peak luminosity over the past seven years. The green dotted line is the design luminosity.
A new LHC luminosity record was established in the middle of July, just two weeks after the first fill with 2556 bunches delivered luminosity to the four experiments on 28 June. This record was achieved in spite of some anomalous losses observed while ramping up the beam intensity.
Following the re-commissioning of the LHC with beam in May, the number of bunches circulating in each beam was progressively increased during an intensity ramp-up, culminating on 28 June when two beams, each with 2556 bunches, collided. However, as the intensity was increased, unexpected losses were observed for both beams in a number of fills near a magnet interconnection in the arc between ATLAS and ALICE, eventually leading to beam dumps. The presence of nuclei in the passage of the beam, most likely in the form of a gas, could be a possible explanation for such localised beam losses. Verifications of the vacuum chamber aperture at injection did not reveal any obstacles.
In the past, LHC operation has been affected significantly by events nicknamed UFOs (Unidentified Flying Objects), which are now believed to be due to dust particles of around ten micrometres in diameter that fly into the beam. The resulting interactions between the beam protons and the dust particle nuclei are able to generate losses, resulting in quenching of the LHC superconducting magnets when the dust particles are large enough. In most cases, the beam loss monitors installed around the circumference of the LHC detect the losses before a quench occurs and dump the beam preventively. In previous years, up to around 20 LHC fills were lost per year due to large UFOs. Fortunately the rate of UFO events is decreasing steadily and their impact on operations is diminishing.
After the first long shutdown in 2015, an object given the nickname ULO (Unidentified Lying Object) was detected. This object is lying on the bottom of the beam two vacuum chamber between LHCb and ATLAS. Fortunately the vacuum chamber is sufficiently large and the ULO sufficiently small that the steering magnets can be used to 'bump' the beam around the ULO. With this measure in place, the ULO does not affect LHC operation even at the highest intensities.
The newly observed losses share some similarities with UFOs and the ULO, but the exact mechanism is not yet understood. Data on beam observables are collected parasitically to physics operation to characterise the losses and define mitigations. In the week of 20 July, it was observed that the introduction of a sufficiently large magnetic field in a nearby steering dipole mitigates the losses. This technique is currently being applied to provide stable physics production in the presence of this effect. Despite this issue, a new LHC luminosity record was set at 1.67x1034 cm-2s-1 in the second week of July.
The three days from Wednesday, 26 July to Friday, 28 July were dedicated to measuring the absolute scale of the luminosity at 13 TeV. The luminosity of a collider is a very important parameter because the precision obtained in measuring the production cross-section of a given physics process depends critically on the accuracy with which the luminosity is known. Luminosity is also the usual figure used to benchmark the efficiency of the collider's operation.
Special beam optics and parameters are necessary to perform this task; both are tailored to obtain the smallest possible uncertainty in the measurement. The method was pioneered by Simon van der Meer in 1968 at CERN's Intersecting Storage Rings. The inelastic proton-proton collision rate is monitored by dedicated luminosity detectors at the experiments as the beams are moved across each other, first in the horizontal and then in the vertical direction. This "VdM scan" provides a measurement of the beam-overlap area, which is proportional to the transverse beam size, the first ingredient needed to solve the luminosity equation. The second main ingredient is the simultaneous precision measurement of the bunch currents, which is performed using various devices from the machine and the experiments. This information, combined with the total number of bunches per beam, provides a direct calibration of the experiment's luminosity detectors. Following a day of preparation, two fills lasting between 8 and 14 hours were dedicated to these “VdM” scans at each experiment.
Audric Husson working on GBAR’s antiproton decelerator, which his team developed and installed and is now commissioning. (Image: Max Brice/CERN)
If matter falls down, does antimatter do the same? GBAR (Gravitational Behaviour of Antihydrogen at Rest), the experiment that will give us the answer, has just had a brand new part installed – an antiproton decelerator.
Located in the Antiproton Decelerator (AD) hall, GBAR will measure the freefall acceleration of antihydrogen atoms within Earth’s gravitational field. To do that, something special has to be created first – antihydrogen ions, each consisting of one antiproton surrounded by two positrons. While these particles are very hard to produce, they are significantly easier to manipulate than antihydrogen atoms thanks to their positive charge.
The first ingredient of the antihydrogen ions – the antiprotons – will be supplied by the new ELENA (Extra Low Energy Antiproton) deceleration ring. The lower their energy, the bigger the probability that antihydrogen ions will form, so the beam coming from ELENA at 100 KeV will be further slowed down to just 1 KeV by the newly installed GBAR antiproton decelerator.
The second ingredient – the positrons – will be created with the help of the GBAR linear accelerator installed earlier in 2017.
The extraction line connecting ELENA to GBAR’s newly installed decelerator. (Image: Julien Ordan/CERN)
In the coming months, the first antiprotons will fly out of ELENA into GBAR, which will be the first of five experiments in the AD hall to receive a beam from ELENA.
In the meantime, both the decelerator and the linac will be carefully prepared for the first phase of the experiment, which is dedicated to the creation of the first antihydrogen ions. “Beam path, energy and the efficiency of the system are the three things we will measure to make sure that the antiproton beam behaves the way we expect. We need to know the exact number of antiprotons in the bunch and how their energy diminishes while passing through the decelerator’s chambers,” explains Audric Husson, a member of the team that developed and installed the new part, and currently in charge of its commissioning.
The rest of the equipment needed to measure the freefall of the antihydrogen atoms will be installed by the end of 2018. The first data might even be taken before Long Shutdown 2, due to start in January 2019, during which the accelerator complex will be closed for upgrades.
Each of the four boxes houses five detector modules. 128 modules will make up the new scintillating fibre (SciFi) tracker, part of the major upgrade of the LHCb detector (Image: Christian Joram/ CERN)
The very first detector elements of the LHCb upgrade, early pieces of the scintillating fibre (SciFi) tracker, have arrived at CERN. Four boxes housing the first 20 of 128 modules were unloaded from trucks after an international tour: the scintillating fibres from Japan had been verified at CERN months ago before travelling to either Aachen, Dortmund, Lausanne or Moscow and then being assembled into modules in Heidelberg, Germany. Today they arrived at their final destination, CERN LHC Point 8.
In the coming weeks, the modules will be checked and reworked ahead of installation next spring. The 128 modules – containing 11 000 km of scintillating fibres – will make up the new SciFi tracker, which will replace the outer and inner trackers of the LHCb detector as part of the experiment’s major upgrade during Long Shutdown 2 (LS2).
Successful cyberattacks always start with the compromise of a PC. Once the attacker “owns” that PC, he or she can install additional software to spy on the user, extract data and passwords, enable the microphone and webcam, and manipulate any software, application or transaction by the user. Hence it is reasonable to try to prevent this initial compromise as thoroughly as possible. And while Windows PCs remain the most susceptible, here is what CERN is doing to “harden” the Windows PCs and laptops managed by CERN’s IT department.
Of course, not only Windows PCs are under attack. Linux, MacBook, Android and iOS devices are also vulnerable. But Windows still has a big market share and many attack vectors are aimed at it. In addition, Windows is used widely in CERN’s administrative sector, which manages lots of sensitive data. And, finally, a large fraction of Windows systems are still centrally managed by CERN’s IT department. They can easily help to protect end users from cyber threats but, due to CERN’s academic environment, for most other platforms the paradigm is “bring your own device” (BYOD) – and with your freedom to do so, you also inherit the responsibility to deploy adequate protection measures. At CERN, in the first instance you are responsible for the security of your own devices…
But if you run a centrally managed Windows PC or laptop, the IT department is ready to help you with that responsibility – in particular if you are working in an environment dealing with lots of sensitive data or are often required to access “random” webpages or open unsolicited e-mails and attachments (like our colleagues in the administrative sector, in procurement, in senior management, or in the secretariats). Our “hardened Windows PC” configuration provides you with a more secure and protected Windows PC.
The first rule for a hardened PC is the use of Windows 10 instead of Windows 7. Windows 10 comes with enhanced and state-of-the-art security (and, admittedly, a few privacy concerns still to be resolved), as well as additional protective measures. Full hard disk encryption is enabled by default (but don’t worry, at no performance cost!). Dedicated anti-exploit tools protect against malicious links and the (hidden) download of malware from infected websites. The local firewall is configured so that some malicious payloads using Windows Powershell are inhibited, and we have enabled additional logging and traceability options just in case an attacker makes it through.
Furthermore, we are locking down program execution rights to prevent the execution of malicious macros so that, for example, malicious Word or Excel files cannot create havoc. Using an alternative PDF reader and limiting (or even disabling!) Adobe Flash will remove two often used attack vectors, as vulnerabilities in Adobe Reader and Adobe Flash are often used by adversaries to gain unauthorised access to Windows systems (as well as to MacOS devices). We are even considering introducing some “fake” processes to make malware think the PC is a security researcher’s “honeypot”: a lot of malware avoids such honeypots in order not to reveal its internal workings...
On the user side, administrator rights for regular users will be removed and execution of software from the user profile will be restricted (no software usually needs to run from this location and it is often abused by malware). For browsing the Internet, reading unsolicited e-mails and opening unknown attachments, it is also possible to use a hardened PC configuration in an additional – virtual – environment so that neither browsing nor opening e-mails can be a vector for infecting the primary PC.
Of course, we are trying to make these PCs as convenient and transparent as possible for you and your everyday work. The more “standard” your usage is, the easier it will be for you to have a “hardened PC”. Some of these measures will certainly also make it into the configuration of normal Windows PCs managed by the IT department. Some other measures might also be deployed, to our Mac community for example. So, please stay tuned. If you want to participate in our pilot programme, please contact us at Computer.Security@cern.ch.
Do you want to learn more about computer security incidents and issues at CERN? Follow our Monthly Report. For further information, questions or help, visit our website or contact us at Computer.Security@cern.ch.
Many believe that the 21st century will be the century of women; that we will see unprecedented progress in gender equality and female participation at all levels in our societies. Initiatives are multiplying all around the world to promote equality and propel women to be leaders in their fields. CERN’s Women in Technology (WIT) community was born in early 2016 in the same spirit and now invites you all to a film screening of CODE - Debugging the Gender Gap in September.
The idea for a CERN WIT group began when several new members of the IT department realised that the Women in Technology networks from which they had benefited at university and in industry did not exist at CERN, or even in the Geneva area. After speaking with like-minded colleagues, they decided to found a group at CERN where colleagues could exchange ideas on common topics and share career advice and experiences. In February 2017, WIT established its Steering Committee, which organises events such as “WIT Talks” (see below), lectures and collaborations with external groups.
An increasing amount of research is being done on the importance of diversity and the positive impact it has on productivity and culture, and conversely on the damage that a lack of diversity and inclusion can cause. WIT provides an environment in which women are not in the minority when interacting with technology, allows them to build a network and enables male allies to support the cause.
WIT Talks are interviews with women in leading roles at CERN, in industry or in academia about their careers and backgrounds, giving them the chance to inspire fellow women and share their views on how to improve the gender balance with the whole CERN community. These talks prompt positive discussion among both women and men at CERN interested in equal opportunities. We have had the chance to listen to many interesting and inspiring women including Maite Barroso (IT Deputy Department Head), Charlotte Warakaulle (Director for International Relations) and Sudeshna Datta Cockerill (Ombud), to mention only a few. More talks are scheduled to take place in the next few months! Also keep an eye out for our planned series of interviews with male colleagues around why gender diversity is important to them, starting with physicist John Ellis.
To broaden our network beyond CERN, WIT is also in touch with similar groups at other organisations, like Google and HP. Thanks to these relationships, we visited Google in Zurich in March and have visited HP’s local offices several times. WIT has also collaborated with other initiatives at CERN including the Cine Club, the Running Club and Arts at CERN.
WIT is open to all CERN colleagues. People interested in learning more about WIT can visit the webpage cern.ch/wit and join the e-group wit-matters, through which upcoming events are advertised and interesting reading material is shared.
On Monday, 11 September at 12 noon, in collaboration with the CERN diversity office and the IT department, WIT will be hosting a screening in the Council Chamber of the award-winning documentaryCODE - Debugging the Gender Gap. The screening will be followed by open discussions, during which finger foods will be provided. We look forward to seeing you there!
A short magnet model for the High-Luminosity LHC project was tested in the newly-commissioned vertical test station in hall SM18. (Image: Noemi Caraban Gonzalez/CERN)
There is no break for the team developing the magnets for the High-Luminosity LHC (HL-LHC) project. During the summer, the third in a series of short, 1.5-metre-long magnet models was successfully tested. This model is made up entirely of coils constructed at CERN and containing an Nb3Sn conductor, which is manufactured using a technology called Powder In Tube (PIT). The PIT process was developed in Europe with strong support from CERN. These magnets are test models for the main quadrupole magnets that will sit in the insertion regions on either side of the ATLAS and CMS detectors to squeeze the beams before collisions.
The short model was tested in the newly-commissioned vertical test station in hall SM18. The magnet rapidly reached its nominal gradient, corresponding to a magnetic field of 11.4 Tesla. It then smoothly went up to the ultimate performance, corresponding to a proton energy in the LHC of 7.5 TeV, and to a magnetic field in the coil of 12.3 Tesla. The short model was then heated up and cooled down again in order to test its “memory” – it demonstrated its ability to pick up from the exact level of magnetic field that it had reached in the last quench of training before the thermal cycle. “This is very important,” says Paolo Ferracin, the engineer in charge of this magnet development and production. “A good memory is an essential feature for magnet operation in the accelerator!”
The next step in the development programme for the main magnets of the HL-LHC project is the testing of the first four-metre-long quadrupole magnet in the US. This will be the first full-length Nb3Sn magnet. “CERN and the US branch of the HL-LHC project proceed hand in hand in the challenging task of building accelerator magnets operating in the range of 12-Tesla peak fields,” says Ezio Todesco, who is in charge of the insertion region magnets for HL-LHC. “The magnet has reached a field value that is 50% higher than that reached with the current LHC magnets, and it is an essential step in paving the way for the future of CERN.”
This graph shows the current integrated luminosity compared to previous years. Despite less LHC running time in 2017 due to EYETS, the target integrated luminosity for 2017 is 45 fb^-1.
Recent CERN Control Centre (CCC) meetings have been dominated by "16L2". But why? The majority of recent beam dumps can be traced back to this cell and a likely hypothesis is the presence of gas in the vacuum pipes – there seems to be something in the nothing.
The name "16L2" refers to a group or "cell" of three dipoles, one quadrupole and some corrector magnets, sitting 16 cells to the left of point 2 of the LHC. Even during the LHC restart this spring there appeared to be issues in this part of the machine and, as the last LHC report explained, an applied magnetic field had been helping to mitigate cell losses so that the machine could run with 2556 bunches.
But despite this mitigation, physicists were keen to investigate. A likely hypothesis was that air had entered the cell’s vacuum pipes during the Extended Year-End Technical Stop (EYETS) and had become trapped around the beam screen. If so, warming the beam screen from its usual 20 Kelvin to a temperature of 80 Kelvin should evaporate the gas from the beam screen and let it condensate on the surrounding 1.9 Kelvin vacuum chamber. On 10 August, this "flushing" of the beam screen was attempted. It didn’t work as expected, nor as had been experienced previously elsewhere in the machine. What’s more, the mitigating magnetic field no longer worked and 2556 proton bunches no longer circulated as before. Operators reduced the number of bunches down to 600 and then gradually stepped up to around 1700 bunches, producing physics at or around the design luminosity of 1x1034 cm-2s-1. They varied the beam intensity but still encountered issues with 16L2. Despite these setbacks, machine availability has remained high and long fills have still allowed for increases in integrated luminosity.
But with pressure to deliver luminosity for the experiments, on 16 August, the LHC machine committee established a task force, led by José Miguel Jiménez, to investigate the 16L2 issues and propose a solution. On the basis of current statistics, there appears to be no direct correlation between the number of bunches and the number of beam dumps, so the task force is now planning tests with beams of up to 2200 bunches (last year’s maximum) to evaluate the situation. The task force are now moving forward with their tests, mindful of this year’s target for integrated luminosity, set at an ambitious 45 fb-1, an increase from 40 fb-1 in 2016.
This cross-section of a prototype LHC beam pipe shows the beam screens housed within. Slits in the screens allow residual gas molecules to be pumped out and be frozen to the walls of the 1.9 Kelvin beam pipe (Image: Patrice Loïez, Peter Rakosy, Laurent Guiraud/CERN)
A team of experts from CERN shared their expertise on machine learning with Sanofi Pasteur, the vaccines business unit of Sanofi, a global life sciences company.
This was achieved by means of a four-day training course tailored to address topics specifically of interest to Sanofi-Pasteur, with the aim of improving vaccine production. The course was built around ROOT, the data analysis framework used to analyse HEP data, and the Toolkit for Multivariate Data Analysis (TMVA), a library of associated machine learning algorithms. ROOT was developed by CERN and various collaborating institutes and is used by physicists around the globe to analyse data.
The main objective of the course was to apply novel machine learning techniques to various vaccine production challenges that had proven hard to solve using conventional methods. Machine learning is all about finding patterns in data and the techniques can be exploited across completely different sets of information. Despite the fact that CERN has nothing to do with vaccine production, both organisations have plenty of data and many variables, making machine learning valuable.
“This training course gave us the opportunity to use and test new methods and understand in which cases they could be useful for us,” said a participant from Sanofi Pasteur. New opportunities came to light and several of the teams involved will test and explore machine learning tools further. The aim is that the techniques discussed during the training course could be deployed to improve vaccine production and consequently help even more people to access vital vaccines.
The course was prepared and delivered by Sergei Gleyzer and Lorenzo Moneta from the ROOT-TMVA development team in EP-SFT. It was emphasised that the relationship with CERN and the machine learning experts was just as valuable as the training course itself, which leaves the possibility for further knowledge exchange in the future, allowing CERN to continue to aid the creation of vaccines.
The training course was organised following a face-to-face conversation between representatives of Sanofi Pasteur and Nick Ziogas from CERN’s Knowledge Transfer group, about tools used at CERN for data analysis. As this illustrates, there are many opportunities to learn from CERN’s knowledge and expertise, but sometimes it takes more than an internet search to identify them.
Autumn conference season is fast approaching. Have you ever thought about how best to secure your laptop and smartphone — and with it your data and documents or your (private?) photos and videos — while travelling? See below for some recommendations…
Of course, the best option is just to leave your laptop at home. Take a break from Facebook, WhatsApp, e-mail, etc. for a few days, relax and enjoy your conference. Remember that Internet kiosks or terminals in the hotel lobby are not an option as these computers might already be compromised and able to sniff your password. If you can’t be without your laptop — and there are plenty of reasons why — the second best option is to bring along a “disposable” laptop which does not hold any important data and which you can completely reinstall once you are back. Any work-related data can be kept at CERN and remotely accessed through CERN DFS or CERNBox. This might be particularly useful if you travel frequently and run a higher risk of theft. Using a disposable laptop might not be an option either, but there is a third option: encrypt your laptop so that all data is properly protected. CERN provides centrally managed full disk encryption solutions for Windows laptops (“Bitlocker”) as well as for Macbooks (“Filevault”) and Linux CentOS (“LUKS”). Taking a backup from just before your trip is beneficial too. Just in case…
Similarly for your smartphone, the best option is to leave it at home and get a dumb brick-type mobile phone. That way you will remain available for emergency phone calls but cannot lose any data. And once again, if this doesn’t work for you, leave your phone completely switched off when not in use and make sure that it requires you to type a strong passcode (more than 4 digits!) every time you switch it on! Never connect your phone to a docking station that is not yours. An adversary might just suck up all your data via this means. Better to use your own charger and USB adapter. Alternatively, buy a so-called “Umbrella” stick which allows you to charge your phone from any USB port but physically blocks data exchange.
Finally, if you are on duty travel and carry a CERN device (laptop, iPad, smartphone), do not forget to put the “PROPRIÉTÉ CERN” sticker, which is a means to show that your device is a CERN property enjoying, as such, the inviolability (solely available for CERN devices at the CERN Stores Urgency Window). The latter applies on the territory of the CERN Member and Associate Member States only. This does not imply that the customs or police officials are aware of CERN’s international status. As a precaution, we recommend to completely shutdown your CERN device before passing through customs. If you are requested to switch it on, we recommend that you state calmly that it is protected by the inviolability granted to CERN property and that you disagree with any search. If you are obliged to disclose your password or PIN code, please inform the Computer.Security@cern.ch of this unauthorized access ASAP. Please also note that we need to be informed if your device has been taken away, even for a few minutes, or connected to another device. We will take the necessary measures to prevent any potential remote access and, if necessary, replace your CERN device.
Do you want to learn more about computer security incidents and issues at CERN? Follow our Monthly Report. For further information, questions or help, visit our website or contact us at Computer.Security@cern.ch.
Evolution of the beam intensities (top), head load to the cryogenic system (middle) and heat load normalised to the total intensity for the eight LHC arcs (bottom). ** (Image: G. Iadarola/CERN)
The "16L2" saga continues: as the last two LHC Reports explained, the LHC arc cell "16L2" has dominated recent discussions about the operation of the LHC. Since the beginning of the summer the majority of beam dumps have been initiated by local beam losses and beam instabilities associated with this part of the machine.
The mechanism that leads to the beam dumps is yet to be clarified. The current understanding is that air became trapped in that cell’s vacuum chambers during the Extended Year-End Technical Stop (EYETS), and an attempt to condense the gas on the 1.9K magnet cold bore by warming up the beam screen did not improve the situation.
The time structure of the beam losses suggests that a frozen particle of gas becomes detached from the chamber surface by the beam. The ice particle then falls into the beam where its interaction with the protons transforms it into gas. The subsequent interaction of the gas with the beam leads to beam losses and instabilities. Attempts to simulate such a configuration involving the protons of the beam, electrons and ionised gas are under way. Electron clouds produced by the densely packed LHC bunches are one of the mechanisms that may trigger such events, since the electrons in the cloud deposit energy on the chamber surface. Observations at injection were that such events were rare despite a very strong electron cloud, suggesting that another factor is needed to trigger a 16L2 event.
Last week, the standard LHC beam with a bunch spacing of 25 nanoseconds was replaced by a so-called "8b4e" beam. This acronym stands for "8 bunches" and "4 empty (slots)": instead of a continuous train of bunches spaced by 25 nanoseconds, this beam consists of mini-trains of eight bunches spaced by 25 nanoseconds and four empty bunch slots. This irregular beam pattern suppresses the formation of electron clouds compared to the standard beam. The price to pay is a lower number of bunches in the LHC due to the empty bunch slots. While the LHC operated with up to 2556 bunches in July, operation with "8b4e" limits the number of bunches to around 1920. As far as one can judge after a few days of operation with 8b4e, operation has become smoother with almost no dumps associated with 16L2 as long as the bunch population is not pushed beyond around 1.1x1011 protons. In this configuration, the performance is reduced but acceptable, which could see us through to the end of the year, towards the ambitious 45 fb-1 target for integrated luminosity for 2017.
**The reduction of the heat load with 8b4e (from Tuesday, 5 September) is clearly visible as a result of the much reduced electron cloud activity induced by the 8b4e beam.
