Last Friday 4th July we had the pleasure of receiving a visit from the children taking part in the summer camps organized by ONCE (Spanish National Organisation for the Blind), which this year focused on Science. During their time at the LSC, our outreach team offered them an introductory workshop about the fascinating world of neutrinos and the detection techniques used in low-background experiments. The day ended with an exciting tour of our underground facilities. Thank you for coming and sharing your curiosity with us!

The first article from the collaboration of researchers involved in the heavy water bacteria experiment at the Canfranc Underground Laboratory (LSC) has recently been published. This publication presents the first identification of bacterial communities capable of evolving in an environment considered hostile for most organisms.

In April, we successfully completed the installation of the new Clean Room in Hall C of the underground facility. The design and construction were carried out entirely by our team, and the levels of airborne particles meet the ISO 7 standard, ensuring an ultra-clean and controlled environment. This room already houses one of the lowest-background Germanium detectors and is prepared for the installation of two additional detectors in the coming years.

Ali Dastgheibi-Fard, researcher at the Laboratory of Subatomic Physics & Cosmology, presented in his seminar a study on the mechanisms of radon implatation and its impact on detector components. He also discussed methods for measuring, preventing, and cleaning contaminated surfaces, with the goal of reducing background radiation in rare event experiments. This type of research is key to improving the sensitivity of detectors used in astroparticle physics.

At the LSC, we organize informal talks where our staff share the progress of their research, always accompanied by a coffee. On April 1st, our colleague Enrique Roig presented the latest advances from his PhD thesis on cellular aging, focused on the development of an epigenetic clock, a bioinformatics tool capable of predicting age based on methylation patterns. Bioinformatics is beginning to make its way into experiments at the LSC.