• Question: What is CERN

    Asked by to Thomas, Simon, Clara, Becky on 13 Mar 2014. This question was also asked by .
    • Photo: Clara Nellist

      Clara Nellist answered on 13 Mar 2014:

      CERN is a european organisation set up on the Swiss-French border in 1954 to keep european scientists in Europe. You can think of it like a huge university campus, where thousands of scientists come to work. It’s been used for particle physics research since the 1950’s, making new particles by smashing them together and looking at what comes out. The letters are French for “Conseil Européen pour la Recherche Nucléaire”, which in English means “European Council for Nuclear Research”. The council doesn’t exist anymore, now it’s the organisation, but they kept the name because it sounded cool and people already recognised it.

      There are lots of experiments that happen at CERN, including the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) which is a particle accelerator and the detectors that look at the particles made from the LHC, like ATLAS (that’s the one I work on). There are also other experiments, such as ISOLDE, but Thomas can tell you more about them!

    • Photo: Thomas Elias Cocolios

      Thomas Elias Cocolios answered on 13 Mar 2014:

      It is Europe’s particle physics laboratory. It stands for Conseil Européen pour la Recherche Nucléaire (European Council for Nuclear Research). That Council was disbanded in 1954, when the construction started, but we found that the name was cool so it was kept.

      It is a small town where 2,000 staff and up to 10,000 researchers, called users, gather to study particles, nuclei, materials, biology, … (Have you ever watched the TV show Eureka?! It is very much like that.) There are many particle accelerators, delivering beams to laboratories (like ISOLDE, where I do my research) or to big detectors at the LHC (like where @claranellist does her research).

      But most of all, it is a big platform where all those international engineers and scientists can exchange about science with no barrier. It is an amazing example of international cooperation.

      It is also an amazing place to visit (we receive >100,000 visitors per year!). You could ask your teacher to try and organise a trip there and I’m sure that both @claranellist & I would be happy to guide you and your class around our labs!

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