Collider exhibit offers crash course in universe
A PIECE of one of the famous CERN colliders, the machines designed to unlock some of the fundamental secrets of the universe, has been acquired by Scotland’s national museum.
The 1.5 tonne copper cavity, from the CERN’s Large Electron Positron (LEP) collider, will go on display next year at the Na t i o n a l Mu seu m of Scotland’s new science and technology galleries.
The copper cavity has been donated to the museum in Chambers Street, Edinburgh by CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research.
It resembles a diving helmet from Victorian science fiction.
However, despite its size and weight, it was only a “tiny” part of the collider used for experiments between 1989 and 2000.
LEP was constructed in 1989, in a 27km-long circular tunnel 100m underground at CERN’s research centre near Geneva, Switzerland.
Tacye Phillipson, senior curator of Modern Science at National Museums Scotland, said: “CERN is at the forefront of current research into some of the most fundamental questions of physics, the very building blocks of the universe.
“The science and technology collections at National Museums Scotland reflect our efforts to understand these questions, and so we are delighted to be able to present a tangible link to this remark- able work in the forthcoming new galleries.
“What this particular object illustrates above all else is the quality of engineering required to enable the kind of scientific experiments carried out at CERN.”
Peter Clarke, from the University of Edinburgh School of Physics and Astronomy, who worked on experiments carried out on LEP at CERN, said the cavity would help explain to the public what the LEP did.
“While most people will have heard of CERN, it can be quite difficult to explain what a particle collider actually does, but this cavity can illustrate this very easily.
“To have one on display at the National Museum of Scotland can only be positive for scientific understanding and engagement.”