TinWiki: CERN

CERN is an European organization who researches the basic constituents of matter, the fundamental particles. CERN is located west of Geneva on the border of France and Switzerland.

About 6500 Scientists (from 500 universities and 80 different countries) work on the many experiments done at CERN. The main purpose of these experiments is getting insight into how matter is built, from which particles matter is formed, and what powers keep these particles together.

At the moment, the main project at CERN is the largest particle accelerator (atom smasher) ever created. It is called The Large Hadron Collider - LHC, and will be activated in August 2008. With the LHC they hope to find the Higgs-Boson, which is thought to give the mechanism by which particles acquire mass. It has yet to be observed to this day and is once predicted by Peter Higgs.

Large Hadron Collider - LHC

The Large Hadron Collider - LHC is an underground particle accelerator. The LHC is built by CERN and will be activated mid-August. With the super colliders in the LHC, protons will be accelerated almost to the speed of light. When these subatomic particles, such as protons and neutrons smash together, they will break apart and hopefully give scientists more insight in how matter is made. One of the goals of the research is to find evidence of the Higgs boson, which is thought to give the mechanism by which particles acquire mass. The LHC is the big brother of the Large Electron-Positron Collider and has been constructed in the same underground tunnel the LEP was once used in.

International Linear Collider (ILC)

The international Linear Collider (ILC) is a particle accelerator which is planned to be ready for use around 2015-2020. ILC will take the place of the current particle accelerator, the LHC.

Contrary to the LHC, which accelerates Hadrons, the ILC will be accelerating Electrons.

CERN And The World Wide Web

The World Wide Web (WWW) was created at CERN in 1991 by the software developer Tim Berners-Lee and his project manager Robert Cailleau. The original purpose of the WWW was to make it easier for the scientists who worked at CERN to share information with each other.











ATS Discussion Threads

ATS: I think CERN is lying
ATS: CERN
ATS: CERN and black holes, J.Titor was right
ATS: LHC Q&A

External links

European Organization for Nuclear Research
CERN will not destroy earth
LHC official Website