By Anthony White, 6.2 and Physics Don

On 24 January, 6.2 Physics students were fortunate enough to travel to the largest laboratory for particle research to date – the Conseil Européen Pour La Recherche Nucléaire (CERN) in Geneva. It provides physicists with the ability to accelerate particles to approximately 1.08 billion kilometres per hour, while then observing the results of their collisions.

The first day saw us visiting the Red Cross Museum, an exhibition dedicated to the international humanitarian organisation that brings relief to people in the event of war or natural disaster. In the evening, we visited the History of Science Museum in Lake Side Park. On display were over 800 instruments, mainly used by Swiss scientists, dating back to the 17th century.

On the second day, we caught a 40-minute tram to CERN, where we started by visiting the Universe of Particles, a permanent exhibition dedicated to particle research the beginning of the universe. Following that, we viewed Microcosm (then CERN Museum), which detailed the workings and functions of the accelerators and detectors located at the facility. Finally, we took a tour of CERN, which was overall very interesting and gave us a first-hand insight into the work the takes place to further our study of physics.

It was an amazing trip and a huge thanks to Tobias and Allen for organising it and taking us.                `