Although nuclear physics is not my strongest side, ? the visit provided at least some idea of what it is all about, and it’s an absolutely amazing world to discover!
If ever visiting Geneva, I highly recommend a visit to CERN. The CERN Laboratory was established in 1954 and the name is originally an abbreviation of Conseil Européen pour la Recherche Nucléaire.
Their work helps to uncover what the universe is made of and how it works. They do so by providing a unique range of particle accelerator facilities to researchers, to advance the boundaries of human knowledge. And if I borrow some more information from their website: CERN’s convention states: “The Organization shall have no concern with work for military requirements and the results of its experimental and theoretical work shall be published or otherwise made generally available.” That’s nice and wise!
When you hear about CERN, I guess most people think about the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), the world’s most powerful particle accelerator, smashing particles together at unprecedented energies. These collisions enable physicists to study the phenomena that govern particles and forces. We got to visit an older model that has now been taken out of service, but with the help of a fantastic light and video show, the visit was very rewarding.
The researcher who led our guided tour was inspired by the story of the infant universe and all the research they conducted on the subject. We listened and were amazed, listened and were taken aback, listened and were amazed again … And in that way the tour continued.
Mysterious Neutrinos, The Higgs Boson, Antimatter, Dark Matter…“The possibility that dark-matter particles may interact via an unknown force felt only feebly by Standard Model particles motivated LHCb to search for “dark” photons, setting tight new constraints on the coupling strength between dark and conventional photons. Also exploring the dark universe is the CAST experiment, in which a large superconducting magnet is pointed towards the sun to search for dark-matter axions as well as solar chameleons (candidates for the dark energy sector) “…. WOW!
Their website is very readable! There is a universe to discover for you too!
Even if you do not have time or manage to get a guided tour, their permanent exhibitions are so good that they provide value for the visit. It also describes some small side projects that happened to be created in connection with their research, such as computed tomography and the World Wide Web.
