CERN at 70: Smashing Elementary Particles for Humanity
CERN has been an epicenter of scientific breakthroughs since 1954, including the discovery of the Higgs boson.
CERN has been an epicenter of scientific breakthroughs since 1954, including the discovery of the Higgs boson. Scientists there hope a new, larger particle smasher will lead them to more discoveries for years to come.The European Organization for Nuclear Research — better known as CERN — is a place of scientific breakthroughs.
Since 1954, thousands of the world's best scientists and emerging minds have converged on Switzerland to explore how the universe works. On September 29, CERN will celebrate its 70th anniversary.
CERN has been the seat of some of the most important discoveries in science — from the confirmation of the elusive Higgs Boson in 2012, to more practical innovations like the invention of the World Wide Web.
The Large Hadron Collider
CERN is perhaps best known for its extensive underground particle accelerator known as the Large Hadron Collider(LHC) — a 27-kilometre-long tube built beneath the Swiss and French borderlands near Geneva.
Scientists have been accelerating particles around the LHC since September 2008.
The LHC works by sending separate, highly energetized particle beams in opposite directions through a 27-kilometre-long tubular vacuum.
The particle beams consist of a type of particle called protons, which are guided by superconducting electromagnets, making them collide at almost the speed of light.
The particles are so tiny that the task of making them collide is like firing two needles 10 kilometres (6 miles) at each other with the precision to make them collide.
The energy of the particles colliding is used to create new particles.
The LHC is one of eleven other particle accelerators based at CERN. Researchers them to help advance a range of technologies, including some that impact our daily lives.
Their research has helped construct more powerful computers and microchips, improve the quality of technology used in healthcare, energy and, of course, space.
Higgs Boson breakthrough in 2012
At the top of CERN's agenda using the LHC was the ambition to find the hypothetical Higgs Boson particle.
The Higgs Boson is a type of particle named after Nobel Prize physicist Peter Higgs. Higgs believed they created a field which fills the entire universe and gives other particles their mass.
In 2012, after decades of research, scientists at CERN finally found proof of Higgs' theory — they had found a Higgs Boson.
It was a colossal scientific breakthrough that opened a whole new field of particle physics research, and helped explained why particles bunched together at the formation of the universe.
CERN aren't trying to create black holes
Prior to the LHC being switched on, there were concerns that smashing protons together at sub-light speed would lead to the formation of tiny black holes.
We think of black holes forming only when massive stars implode, but some theories suggest that tiny 'quantum' black holes can form when particles collide.
These tiny black holes are nothing like the black holes that suck matter inside in a massive sacle. They would only last for fractions of a second and be completely safe.
In fact, such a theoretical black hole being formed inside the a particle accelerator would be welcomed by CERN's researchers, giving them a new opportunity to see how gravity behaves on a quantum scale.
What's next for CERN?
Scientists aren't finished with CERN's LHC just yet. Although its discovery of its initial ambitions of finding Higgs Bosons have been achieved, there are still many fundamental questions about the universe which remain unanswered.
A 'second-gen' High Luminosity LHC is being developed. This upgrade will enable the number of proton collisions taking place in the LHC to be increased by at least fivefold.
This LH-LHC will likely be operational around 2041. Scientists aim to perform detailed studies of Higgs Bosons, generating at least 15 million of these particles each year, according to CERN.
With the use of upgraded technology to generate more particles (and collisions), CERN hopes it will both learn more about the once elusive Higgs boson, and discover new particles as yet unknown to science.
Edited by: Fred Schwaller
(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Sep 25, 2024 12:30 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).