I have three email inboxes, for UCL, CERN and personal stuff. Catching up on some CERN bulk mails of the last few weeks, three interesting articles I thought worth sharing. One is a report from the “Future Circular Collider” (FCC) meeting in Brussels. This one of the options being considered in the ongoing update of the European Strategy for Particle Physics (see tag below) and it’s interesting to see how the project is developing.

The sustainability of research infrastructures and the assessment of their societal impact were the two key themes of the “Economics of Science” workshop held during the FCC week.

Future Echoes (Red Dwarf) via Wikipedia

One of the issues we are taking into account in those discussions is the environmental impact and sustainability of any new colliders. In that light it was interesting to see this article about waste heat from the LHC being used to heat a district of Ferney-Voltaire.

“The hot water leaving the circuit can reach a temperature of 30°, which is very useful in the context of energy recovery.”

Finally, I enjoyed a look through the history “future project” decisions as seen through the pages of CERN Courier back issues. Worth a read, partly to see how much of the current discussion finds echoes in the past (and how many do not). Which sort of suggested the title, and therefore the otherwise random picture accompanying this post.

Not that this paradigm shift is much apparent when flicking through issues of the Courier from the period; only hindsight can produce the neat logical history that most physics students learn.

PS And then there’s this, as reported back at my old home:

PPS See also this from Jim Baggott.