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The artist and the proton smasher

By Kat Austen

12 October 2011

Will the artists who are moving into CERN be a distraction or an inspiration?

WEARING a black T-shirt and jeans, and a ring that he made himself, Michael Doser belies the stereotypical view of his vocation as an antimatter physicist. “The public image of scientists is of boffins in lab coats working unimaginatively in their labs, but that’s only half of the story,” he says.

Doser’s position at the prestigious CERN laboratory, near Geneva, Switzerland, is one that qualifies him to comment on creativity in physics research. “You have to work [very diligently] to tease out the subtle signals…

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