Large Hadron Collider comes to Aberdeen Science Centre

The world’s largest science experiment, the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), is to come to the Aberdeen Science Centre in Scotland. The LHC exhibition will be showcased from Saturday 2nd May to Sunday 14th June.

Visitors will be see the highlights of what scientists expect to learn in the next phase of working on the world’s biggest single machine following its upgrades, which have turned the mighty beast that helped discover the elusive Higgs Boson in 2012, into a much mightier one today.

Replica walk-through area

If you come to the exhibition, you will be able to walk through a full-size replica of part of the LHC tunnel which lies 574 feet (175 metres) beneath the Franco-Swiss border near Geneva, Switzerland, at CERN.

Model of LHC Tunnel. (Image: www.stfc.ac.uk)

There will also be interactive exhibits, including a spinning-ball particle accelerator, which shows you how the 1,600 superconducting magnets inside the LHC can control and accelerate a subatomic particle.

During the original programme, the exhibition has visited seventeen different venues including the Houses of Parliament, the Scottish Parliament at Holyrood, Queen’s University Belfast, the Bristol Balloon Fiesta, and the National Assembly for Wales. It has travelled over 4,200 miles and has been seen by 600,000 visitors.

 

Not only has the LHC at CERN been upgraded, but also the ‘LHC Roadshow’, which now has new interactive exhibits and redesigned tunnel artwork.

See how LHC may answer some fundamental questions

The Aberdeen Science Centre wrote:

“The exhibition, which also features iconic and stunning science images, is a powerful way of promoting the UK particle physics programme and its benefits, to opinion formers, schools and the general public.”

“Visitors will be able to see for themselves how the LHC is used to answer fundamental questions about the building blocks of the Universe, thanks to the interactive exhibit which is being brought to Aberdeen by the UK Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC).”

Spinning ball particle accelerator demonstrating how magnets are used at the LHC. (Image: www.stfc.ac.uk)

More than twenty research groups across Britain, including over 80 men and women in Universities in Scotland, helped prepare the LHC in Switzerland.

Particle physicists Professor John Womersley, CEO of STCF, said when the exhibition was in public display in the Scottish Parliament:

“From the theoretical work undertaken by Professor Higgs at the University of Edinburgh forty years ago to the young researchers collecting their data there now and the latest innovations in electronic protection systems supplied to CERN by Scottish engineers, Scotland can be proud of its role in the incredible experiments at the LHC and the advances it makes in our understanding of the Universe.”

Demonstrating how a magnet can distort the image of a TV. (Image: www.stfc.ac.uk)

Catriona Wynne, STEM Learning Coordinator at Aberdeen Science Centre said:

“We are delighted to welcome this fantastic exhibition. It is a particularly exciting time as the LHC has restarted this month, with protons circling the machine’s 27km tunnel for the first time since 2013. This is the perfect opportunity to inspire the next generation of scientists and engineers.”

The ‘LHC Raodshow’ exhibition will be open to the general public from Monday to Friday 10am to 4pm, and on Saturday and Sunday 10am to 5pm.

Video – CERN in three minutes