CERN — M&J

A bus ride from the Geneva train terminal, we visit CERN and the 'Universe of Particles' exhibit hosted in this giant dome called the Globe of Science and Innovation. The exhibit is made of spheres containing either objects or an interactive display, and the large circular screen displays a video recounting the history of the Universe. This exhibit is meant to address the great questions of contemporary physics being explored via the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) accelerator and detectors (the LHC is the world's highest energy particle accelerator). Scientists use the LHC to recreate the conditions that existed within a billionth of a second after the Big Bang by colliding beams of high-energy protons or ions at almost the speed of light. And this is all occurring about 330 feet under Geneva and France.

After gaining an understanding of the LHC, we tour the 'Microcosm' exhibit in the main CERN building to see full scale installations of the machine, discovered how the experiments work and follow the path of particles through the machine. Other coolness included interacting with a cloud chamber (one of the first particle detectors used) and seeing decommissioned parts of the LHC. If we had been able to obtain tour passes, we would have been able to go underground and see the real deal.

https://home.cern

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CERN