CERN Hits the Big 5-0
The European accelerator laboratory CERN is celebrating its 50th birthday. As a particle physicist I expect to hear about something like this, but I have been surprised at how many different ways it has cropped up.
I attended a meeting of the US government's advisory panel on high energy physics (HEPAP) last week, and the panel sang "Happy Birthday" after one of CERN's managers gave a presentation on the status of the LHC. This week at Fermilab there was a large birthday cake to celebrate the event. Even Slashdot noticed it.