CERN hopes you know what these things are, cause it has no idea
Scientists, we're told, need to be very good at record keeping in order to make sure that others can follow their logic. It's just a shame that whoever was running the photography archive at CERN wasn't paying attention during that lesson. The European research outfit is digitizing its archive of around 120,000 photos taken between 1955 and 1985. Unfortunately, some of the images aren't labelled, which makes it hard to identify the scientists in the pictures, or the equipment that they're using. That's why CERN is asking that if anyone does know the people or hardware, that they email in and help get the database up to date. In order to help, we've had a go ourselves, although we're sure that you out there can do a much better job.
[Image Credit: CERN]
Update: CERN's Alex Brown got in touch to say that he now knows what the device is in our lead image. It's designed for weaving wires in spark chambers. So, one down, several thousand to go.
