Abstract

After a short historical excursus through the milestones in the study of strangeness production as a QGP signature, the latest measurements with ALICE will be presented. Results include energy- and multiplicity-dependence of strangeness production from small to large systems, discussed in comparison with model predictions. As the observed strangeness enhancement adds to a set of previous measurements showing that pp collisions exhibit characteristic features known from high-energy heavy-ion collisions, the questions are open: is it strangeness enhancement not a unique feature of QGP formation? Can high-multiplicity pp collisions provide information on the onset of deconfinement?