CERN, the European Center for Nuclear Research, opened its doors to the public last weekend. CERN is the biggest particle physics laboratory in the world, where you can find the hottest and the coldest place in the universe. The thousands of physicists who work at CERN constantly conduct numerous experiments to “explore the fundamental components of nature and to study the forces that shape our universe”.
The event was very well organized, Swiss efficiency, but the view of the ATLAS – which is the biggest detector ever constructed – was quite disappointing:
It was fun to see the “backstage” of the largest and most advanced research center in the universe. Beside discovering the Higgs boson, they seem to have issues keeping out the cleaning staff from radioactive areas!
Sabrina Bresciani, Ph.D. 