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n Russian former military scientists will be putting their expertise into the investigation of the nature of matter in a ground-breaking Pounds 4.8 million contract signed with the European particle physics laboratory Cern.

The Cern deal, the largest gained by the International Science and Technology centre, will require the Russian scientists to deliver lead tungsten crystals and support structures for two of the experiments linked to the Large Hadron Collider, the laboratory's main new project.