CERN makes hotter quark-gluon soup

Every year, as Christmas approaches and the bankers of Geneva sit around their fondues yodelling festive tunes and melting cheese with holes in it, the Large Hadron Collider switches from protons to lead. But this year is a bit special

As CERN Director General Rolf Heuer puts it

It is a tradition to collide ions over one month every year as part of our diverse research programme at the LHC. This year however is special as we reach a new energy and will explore matter at an even earlier stage of our universe.