Pictures showing the structure of matter and the organization of subatomic particles in different categories abound. Indeed, cataloging and classifying entities subject of study is a powerful means of grasping their essence and infer their properties. The most striking example I can offer is the Mendeleev table of elements (which allowed its creator to spectacularly deduce the existence of elements not yet discovered); but there are many others, like the Hertzsprung-Russell diagram of star classification, or the one for galaxies, or the cataloging of animal species...

Now that the Higgs has been found, the current hype in popular science magazines suggests that the most pressing question in fundamental physics research is whether new particles will be found at the Large Hadron Collider: Is Supersymmetry the right extension of the standard model? Or are there new extra dimensions of space-time ? Can microscopic black holes be created in particle collisions ? I think all of you have heard some of these questions enough times by now.

The T2K Collaboration released today an analysis of their data in the Cornell Arxiv. T2K searches for electron neutrinos appearing in a muon neutrino beam produced by the J-PARC accelerator facility in Tokai-Mura, using a near detector located 280 meters downstream of the proton target, and a far detector (SuperKamiokande) at 295 km from the source.

The appearance of electron neutrinos in a muon neutrino beam is a very important oscillation signal of neutrinos, that allows the measurement of the parameter theta_13, one of the so far less-well known parameter of the neutrino mixing matrix.

The mediatic effect of the Higgs boson discovery of last July is clear to everybody. And CERN has been very good at exploiting it, making fundamental physics a familiar topic and creating interest worldwide. Yet I think we can do more. The gap between basic research in physics and the public is wide, and we are doing still too little to fill it.