The trip to the CERN
5/24/2024
As a teenager with a passion for science and high-end technology, I have always dreamed and wondered about the secrets of the universe. A few months ago, thanks to my parents, I was able to catch a glimpse of what the universe was like in the first few milliseconds of its birth at the CERN (Conseil Européen pour la Recherche Nucléaire).
Stepping into the CERN building, I found myself standing in the middle of the lobby, feeling the atmosphere of scientific curiosity seeping from my surroundings. The walls held complex diagrams that I couldn't decipher, and people talked about the recent research findings as they walked by. In the center was an enormous drawing of the structure of the CERN, clearly displaying every building. Looking at the cut-away diagram of the CERN’s core, the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), I gained a deeper understanding of why this is one of the greatest engineering marvels in the world.
The LHC was the single highlight during my visit. I was able to see it firsthand, along with some of the data analysis offices. The LHC is an underground, airless 17-kilometer-long tube covered with superconductive materials, magnets, and sensors; a network with walls almost 5 meters thick that aid in the creation of magnetic fields. Thse fields are able to force an amount of energy comparable to the one released by the “Little boy” atomic bomb onto individual sub-atomic particles and making them collide. This process, occurring at more than 99.999% of the speed of light, tears apart protons and neutrons, quarks and bosons blast out, all revealing what it was like during the first moments of the Big Bang. Even though I had seen countless videos and explanations before this, I was still greatly fascinated by how sophisticated the particle accelerator was. Standing before this massive, extraordinary piece of machinery, I felt a surge of excitement and pride for humanity. This is where scientists discovered the Higgs Boson and created antimatter!
The data analysis offices were a place where technology, knowledge, and curiosity acted as one, pushing us further on the way of exploration. Here, among lines of computers and arrays of monitors, researchers were working on the task of digging through the mountains of data produced by the experiments. They explained how each collision held valuable clues about the fundamental nature of the universe, and how their analyses were crucial in uncovering new particles and phenomenons.
As we delved deeper into the science zone, I was greatly inspired by the dedication and passion shown by the scientists there. From their constant pursuit of knowledge, I understood that science is not just an icy, lifeless pile of numbers and symbols; it is an endless quest for truth, inspired by deep curiosity.
As a teenager, this visit left a deep impression on my love for science that I will never forget. It gave me the determination to push theories further, and who knows, maybe one day I will return to CERN as a researcher sharing their thirst for knowledge.