One of my favorite parts of this trip was going to CERN. I learned a lot about the Large Hadron Collider and the four particle detectors within it: ATLAS, CMS, ALICE, and LHCb. I think this machine is incredible. Not only is it the highest energy particle accelerator in the world, it’s also THE largest machine in the world. I was bummed out that we couldn’t see the LHC in person, but seeing the replicas of some of its parts and the cross section showing its superconducting electromagnets was still super cool. Something I learned was that in order to operate properly, these magnets have to be cooled to -271.3 degrees Celsius, nearly absolute zero.
Aside from the LHC itself, I also learned a lot about the discoveries and advancements that took place at CERN. For example, the World Wide Web was invented by a scientist at CERN to allow physicists to share information internationally. Additionally, the existence of the Higgs Boson was proven using the ATLAS and CMS detectors within the LHC at CERN. The interactive displays in the Universe of Particles building did a great job of explaining how to comprehend the size and scale of things ranging from quarks to the largest known parts of the universe. The exhibit even explained the String Theory and showed cool phenomena like muon detection. Overall, CERN is super cool and I’ll likely be going back tomorrow to absorb more information.
I was also a little disappointed that we couldn’t actually see the LHC. However, because it is such an enormous machine, I understand that they don’t want tourists/ the general public to have physical access to it.
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