D. Zakoucky

A charged particle beam is like a jet of water from a hose: it can be narrow or diffuse, steady or curved. To know exactly where particles are headed, you need a sensitive screen. In the WISArD experiment at ISOLDE, CERN's accelerator, that screen is a compact detector based on microchannel plates.

The atomic nucleus is not just a ball of protons and neutrons. Inside it, like a tiny magnet, there is its own distribution of magnetization. Until now, it has been difficult to see: nuclei live for tiny fractions of a second, and their magnetic field is weak. Now physicists at CERN have found a way to look inside.