It's hard to explain the significance of CERN. It's the birthplace of the World Wide Web and the home of the largest machine ever built, the Large Hadron Collider. The bit that's hard to explain is, well, I mean, look at it!
Charlotte and I visited CERN in 2019, nestled in there between Switzerland and France, and descended into the mountainside where we saw the world's largest particle accelerator firsthand. I can't explain this! The physics are just mind-bending.
A few months ago, we headed back there and saw even more stuff I can't explain:
How on earth do you make antimatter?! I know there's a lot of magnets involved, but that's about the limit of my understanding.
But what I do understand a little better is the importance of CERN. They're working to help humanity understand the most profound questions about the universe by exploring fundamental physics—the very building blocks of nature. And closer to my heart (or at least to my expertise), their role in the World Wide Web and the contribution CERN has made to the internet as we know it today cannot be overstated. It's also staffed by passionate individuals with a love of science that transcends borders and politics, including many from parts of the world that don't normally see eye-to-eye. This passion was evident on both our visits, and perhaps that's an extra poignant observation in a time with so much conflict.
In relation to HIBP and our ongoing support of governments, CERN is similar yet different. It's an intergovernmental organisation operating outside the jurisdiction of any one nation. However, they face the same online threats, and just like sovereign government states, their people sign up to services that get breached and end up in HIBP. And, like the governments we support, services that can be provided to help them tackle that threat are always appreciated. I was surprised to hear on our last visit that the sum total of contributions from their member states amounts to the price of a cup of coffee per person per year! For the work they do and the contribution they make to society, onboarding CERN as the 41st (inter)government was a no-brainer. They now have full and free access to query all CERN domains across the breadth of HIBP data. Welcome aboard CERN!