CERN is 70!
This year marks the 70th anniversary of CERN, the European centre for particle physics. The UK has been a member state from the outset, and accelerator, nuclear and particle physicists at Liverpool perform their research at many experiments and facilities there. CERN’s exploration of fundamental physics has been remarkably successful – discovering new particles, developing new technologies, uncovering new forms and phases of matter, deepening and expanding our knowledge of fundamental particle behaviour.
CERN’s official birthday is on September 29th but it is holding events to celebrate its history, and what’s to come, throughout the year. The first public event, “Unveiling the Universe”, took place on January 30th and had a strong Liverpool connection. In the first session, panels of artists and scientists discussed their respective approaches to exploration, imagination and fundamentals. Many of these artists were involved in the three year partnership between our University, FACT (the Liverpool Foundation for Creative Technologies), Liverpool John Moores and CERN and you may have seen their works in the “Broken Symmetries” exhibition held in FACT in 2018. In the second session, speakers Gian Guidice, Nobel prizewinner David Gross, Tara Shears (who also took part in the first session), and Djuna Croon spoke about the huge progress that’s been made in particle physics over CERN’s lifetime, and what’s coming next.
You can see more details about forthcoming events at https://cern70.cern/events/, and if you’d like to catch up on the first event the recording is available on YouTube:
Arts/science summit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JNPnrfQgN8Q
70 years of discoveries at CERN: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IEKcPfJHfNU
Pictures (Copyright CERN): David Gross (cover). Below: Gian Guidice, Tara Shears, Djuna Croon.
