Over the Easter holidays, a group of Oundle School pupils travelled to Geneva to visit CERN (The European Organization for Nuclear Research), a European research organization that operates the largest particle physics laboratory in the world.
Lower Sixth Form Physicist, Honor Murison (17) commented, “On the first morning we were shown a video and light display of the history and development of the research that went on at CERN. This proved fascinating and explained how the pion (one of the fundamental particles) was discovered through collision experiments.”
First on the agenda in the afternoon was a talk by a physicist at CERN explaining the physics behind early and current particle experiments, sparking a curiosity amongst many as to things such as the properties of the little known dark matter. After this talk the pupils were met by a computer technologist who works on Atlas, the largest of the four detectors in the large hadron collider. She showed them the control rooms for Atlas and explained how this massive structure (taking up a space which is as big as St. Paul’s Cathedral and 100m underground) was created and constructed, with everything being assembled below ground in the tunnels.
The group was then shown where the giant magnets responsible for making the particles collide were made and tested. Here the pupils saw different sections of the tunnel and learnt about how the colliders were constructed to be as efficient as possible using materials such as superconductors to decrease wasted energy due to resistance.
Finally the pupils visited the UN and were given the chance to see famous and impressive conference rooms whilst learning about the history of the UN.
Honor added, “Following the UN visit we split into teams and were given a quiz which took us on a tour of Geneva with the final location being a charming Italian restaurant where we had dinner.”