End of an era at HERA accelerator

Fifteen years of scientific discovery came to an end on June 30th when the electrons and protons in the HERA accelerator made their final lap of the 6.3 km ring. The HERA ring has provided these particles and their anti-particle equivalents for use in particle and nuclear physics experiments, but is now being shut down to make way for new scientific facilities at the DESY Laboratory near Hamburg in Germany.