Frank Linde gives a VIP tour of CERN to the Dutch minister of Education, Culture, and Science. It goes so well that he promises to vote in the next national election.

Makoto Fujiwara writes that his group is dismantling the retired ATHENA experiment at CERN, whose production of antihydrogen was named the No. 1 physics news story of the year in 2002.

All eyes on the Holy See
How are Quantum Diarists reacting to the election of a new pope? A few have taken the opportunity to write about the intersection of religion and science.

Ursula Bassler writes about her disillusionment with the Church, which she thinks discourages independent thought. "I believed in God, before I felt it to be incompatible with Science," she writes.

Bryan Dahmes, a devoted Christian, disagrees. "I don't think that science, in its purest form, excludes God. I think that it's very easy for science to become a sort of religion itself, where people take what has been said about our universe, and then conclude that science has defeated, or killed, God," he writes. "I don't see the leap."

Tommaso Dorigo takes a lighter approach. He reports that the new pope's used car is for sale on eBay. "Hurry, I am sure you cannot get a better deal if you are a fervent Catholic," he writes.