The European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) is celebrating Time magazine’s naming of its ATLAS spokesperson Fabiola Gianotti as runner-up for 2012 Person of the Year (an honor bestowed on US President Barack Obama) for her leading role in the endeavor to discover the Higgs-like boson. Shown is a mock cover from Time magazine's website featuring Dr. Gianotti.

Physicists at the Ludwig-Maximilians University Munich and the Max Planck Institute of Quantum Optics in Garching report that they have created an atomic gas in the laboratory that has negative Kelvin values.

An efficient, robust, and compact wind power plant with a 10 MW superconducting generator is being developed by partners from industry and science within the recently established EU project SUPRAPOWER (SUPerconducting, Reliable, lightweight, And more POWERful offshore wind turbine).

In January's Physics World, Steve Eales, a University of Cardiff astronomer who leads one of the telescope's largest surveys, explains how this space facility has advanced our understanding of star and galaxy formation.

Tim Wogan in physicsworld.com reports that the thermal Josephson effect, which occurs when heat is transported across a gap between two superconductors, has been measured in the lab for the first time.

In the interest of continuing coverage and ongoing dialogue about cryogenic treatment, Cold Facts took the opportunity to talk to several cryogenic treatment professionals about their companies’ successes, challenges and the state of the industry as a whole.

The European Spallation Source (ESS) is an intergovernmental project building a multidisciplinary research laboratory based upon the world’s most powerful neutron source. The facility will be built in Lund, Sweden. The ESS will use a linear accelerator (linac), which will deliver protons with 5 MW of power to the target at 2.5 GeV, with a nominal current of 50 mA. Three separate cryoplants are foreseen to guarantee the necessary cryogenic cooling capacity for the entire facility. This overview of the system was provided by Dr. Wolfgang Hees, Group Leader Cryogenics and Vacuum, European Spallation Source.

Held in Dresden, Germany, for the first time, September 11-14, the international Cryogenics conference attracted 150 participants from 23 nations with 54 lectures and 28 posters presented. The exhibition comprised 18 companies. Students from the European Course of Cryogenics, sponsored by TU Dresden, which was held in the city at the same time, also took advantage of the opportunity to attend.