Accelerators 2012

The discovery of long-sought Higgs particle at the Large hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN near geneva in July 2012 is certainly one of the top scientific highlights of the last years. While celebrating this success, we should also remember that one hundred years ago, in 1912, two other discoveries dramatically influenced the scientific world: the observation of cosmic rays by Victor Hess and the discovery of X-ray diffratction by Max von laue. Both physicists were pioneers in their respective field. While the study of cosmic radiation stimulated many developments in particle and astroparticle physics, X-Ray diffraction opened a new gateway into the world of molecules and atoms.