Week in Review: When physics and IT collide

CERN's Large Hadron Collider goes live

The physics experiment to end all physics experiments went live this week, with the first particle beam sent through the Large Hadron Collider. Although no collisions will take place until October, scientist are looking to slam particles together to approximate what happened in the Big Bang. IT-wise this is a massive feat of engineering, and we have photos of what could be a world changing scientific feat.

New Apple iPod Touch and iPods revealed

Although there was no announcement of a new Macbook, this week's Apple Let's Rock event showed us changes to the iPod Touch and the iPod Nano. We have exclusive photos from the post-event press reception.

Fibre rollout could cost as much as 28.8 billion

Next-generation broadband is vital for the future competitiveness of the UK in the global business world, but it looks like huge investment will be needed for fibre to be rolled out nationwide.

Government axes PA Consulting over data breach

PA Consulting faces up to its huge failure in keeping government data safe and loses a 1.5 million contract, with 8 million worth of others under some question. It's not the only data breach in the headlines this week either, as it was revealed that EDS had lost a hard drive containing the details of 5,000 prison workers, and a Ministry of Defence stick was lost on a night club floor.

HP claims laptop with 24 hour battery life

HP launches a new EliteBook, with a stunning claim that it can go 24 hours without having to be charged - possibly a godsend for remote workers on long haul flights or workers without any available power supply.

RIM launches first flip BlackBerry

Research In Motion continues its movement into the consumer market with the release of a clamshell smartphone. It will have a web browser and QWERTY keyboard, but unfortunately will not have the 3G speed of the BlackBerry Bold. RIM also marked new consumer-friendly partnerships this week.

Saving Bletchley Park and the National Museum of Computing

The campaign to save Bletchley Park and the computer museum it incorporates received a big boost with donations from US tech companies. IT PRO had a look at the museum this week, taking photos of computer history from years gone by.

And finally: The 50th birthday of the silicon chip

IT PRO celebrates the 50th birthday of the integrated circuit - a foundation of modern computing and the trillion pound tech industry we have today.