Not content with perhaps the biggest scientific discovery of the decade
CERN is home to some of the brightest minds in science and the origin of some of physics’ biggest findings—but this Tumblr serves as a reminder that particle physics is a very lonely pursuit indeed.
From the Golden Gate Bridge to an ancient Japanese bell, the physical structures around us are humming with secret sound. Artist Bill Fontana has made a career of capturing these haunting and complex soundscapes. As an artist at residence at CERN, he’s mostly recently been listening in on the world’s largest particle collider.
If simply getting a peek inside the guts of CERN isn’t cool enough, the lab’s computer security officer, Stefan Lüders, has a secret treat for the nerds among us. Just before Google Street View came to visit, he and his crew hid Lego figurines all over CERN’s Computing Center. About 20 of them—including aliens, a leprechaun, and a pharaoh—are now lurking, hidden in Google Street View.
Professor Stephen Hawking is not impressed by the discovery of the Higgs boson particle earlier this year. First, it lost him a $100 bet. Second, he would’ve been happier if a more “interesting” solution to the problem of the mass of the universe had been discovered.
Before the word wide web was a twinkle in Tim Berners Lee’s eye, CERN had developed the Grid—a world-spanning network of computing power to help drive the progress of physics.
You hear about the Higgs-Boson all the time, but do you know what it is? If the answer is no, fear not: It’s complex and confusing. Luckily, the New York Times has a beautiful, animated explainer to break it down for you in layman’s terms. [New York Times]
Analysts said it would happen. Professor Stephen Hawking said it should happen. And now it has. Peter Higgs, the man who first predicted the existence of the Higgs boson, or ‘God particle’, has been given a Nobel Prize for his efforts along with Belgian physicist Francois Englert.
Google Street View is a great way to explore parts of the world you’ve never visited. And thanks to Google’s European team, it’s now one of the easiest ways to explore a facility you’re not exactly allowed to just stroll through whenever you want. Google’s panoramic cameras were given access to CERN’s Large Hadron Collider, letting anyone poke around the gigantic machinery and the facility’s endless network of tunnels.
Previously, free rein to explore the labyrinthine laboratory that is CERN has been granted only to the lucky, or those with four degrees and an aptitude for finding theoretical particles. That changes today, however, as anyone can now explore the home of the Large Hadron Collider in Geneva, Switzerland through Google Street View. All the imagery was captured back in 2011, but it’s finally been stitched together, allowing you to wander freely around the site of the famous particle accelerator and learn a little about its experiments. Hit up Google Views to begin your personal guided tour, and let us know if you spot this Higgs fellow everyone’s so keen on finding.
Filed under: Science, Internet, Alt, Google
Source: Google Views, Google Europe Blog