Trip to CERN

CERN is one of the largest scientific organisations in the world. With over twenty European Member States contributing to the project, it specialises in high-energy physics research. The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) cost £2.6 billion, constructed 100 metres underground with purpose made technologies to allow it to do its work. Seventeen Year 13 Physics students along with Mr Hammond and Dr Thomson, flew to Geneva in the first week of the Easter holidays to visit the site. After landing in the late afternoon, we took the opportunity to explore the city’s winding streets and settle down for an evening meal. Up early the next day, we travelled by public transport to the CERN site, taking a full advantage of a tour and interactive exhibition. After a long lunch in the canteen, brushing shoulders with some of the brightest minds in science, we were given a lecture about the history of the centre and the experiments that occur there. This was followed by a detailed tour of some of the smaller synchrotrons and other physical experiments which fitted in perfectly with the A2 physics course. As part of this, we got to see the individual components that make up the accelerator, some costing millions of pounds to build and to keep maintained. A couple of years ago, one of the accelerators broke down, and the tour guide showed us how one very small part that overheated caused the entire system to be shut down at considerable expense and time. After our intensive visit, we had one more evening to eat out and explore before travelling home the next morning, happy in the knowledge we had visited the most important institute in modern Physics.

Mathew Chandy
Head boy