Upper Sixth Physicists Explored The Fundamentals Of The Universe At CERN

Highlights from their trip to one of the most fascinating laboratories open to the public, included a 90-minute laboratory workshop, during which students used liquid nitrogen to achieve superconducting properties in special alloys to levitate permanent magnets using quantum pinning. They also enjoyed a three-hour tour which visited the CERN Control Centre and included an informative briefing on how the accelerator produces charged ions, accelerates them in bunches through a LINAC (Linear Accelerator) before inserting them into consecutive circular accelerators called the Proton Synchrotron, Super Proton Synchrotron and finally the Large Hadron Collider, where they are smashed together in high energy collisions with the aim of creating rare particles to help physicists understand more about the Universe and world around us. Due to the size and scale of the experiment, the students had to board a bus to visit one of the four main detectors called ALICE (A Large Ion Collider Experiment) detector, where they discovered how the particles that are created in the experiment are detected, the engineering challenges involved in making this possible and the computing power required to record, filter, analyse and store the huge quantity of data extracted.

Then, Dr Muhammad Alhroob, a researcher for the University of Warwick's Department of Physics, also met with Princethorpe’s students to talk to them about how his career in physics came about and some of the interesting projects he had worked on at CERN. Upper Sixth student, Jamie, commented “We loved the talk from Dr Alhroob - it was both informative and entertaining.”

The Sixth Formers also spent several hours in the exhibitions that included a 30-minute video on the history of CERN and several interactive galleries explaining the development of particle accelerators and technological advancements as a result of the research and experimentation carried out at CERN.

Outside CERN, the students also enjoyed cultural highlights, including a walking tour along the shoreline of Lake Geneva, the Christmas markets and the cobbled streets and the striking architecture of the historic old town. They even fitted in a brief visit to the Museum of the History of Science and a quick stop at IKEA en route back to the airport.

Trip leader, Mr Lee, judged the trip to have been a resounding success.  “It was an excellent trip. CERN hosts 10,000 physicists trying to unlock the secrets of the universe and their work with complex scientific instruments such as the Hadron Collider is revolutionising our understanding of the universe. We enjoyed a very busy two days, and our Sixth Formers were impeccable ambassadors for the College.”