A new exhibition coming to the MOSI (Museum of Science and Industry) on 23 May is offering visitors a behind-the-scenes tour of the CERN (the European Council for Nuclear Research) particle physics laboratory in Geneva and the chance to explore the world’s niftiest ever bit of kit, the LHC (Large Hadron Collider).
“It’s wonderful news that MOSI will be the first stop in an international tour for Collider."
You know, the one that attempts to smash two particles together (like shooting two needles 10km apart at each other and hoping they collide halfway) at near the speed of light at temperatures of -270°C in a 27km speedway dug up to 175 metres underground on the Franco-Swiss border in order to frazzle us in a black hole of our own making or create God or something like that.
The one that's cost £8 billion. Yeah that one.
Prof. Peter Higgs and Prof. Stephen Hawking at the Collider exhibition
Widely considered the ‘world’s greatest experiment’ and ‘the most complicated scientific machine on the planet’ (after my boiler), the Collider exhibition, coming to the MOSI as the first stop on an international tour from London’s Science Museum, merges science with theatre, sound and art to explore the most perplexing and fascinating experiment since someone first dropped a Mento in a bottle of Diet Coke.
Brian 'Sexy-Science' Cox, Professor of Particle Physics at the University of Manchester, has a cameo role in the critically acclaimed exhibition. He said: "I'm looking forward to seeing Collider open in Manchester, not just because it's my home town and I've worked at the University for over 20 years. Manchester is where modern particle physics began when Rutherford discovered the atomic nucleus by smashing helium nuclei into gold foil, and that great intellectual adventure that continues in CERN today.
"In the exhibition I only get to be the tea boy, but I can tell you that CERN is an extraordinary place, and the exhibition team have done a great job of capturing the excitement, awe and wonder of the LHC and particle physics."
Collider exhibition
MOSI Director Jean Franczyk said: “It’s wonderful news that MOSI will be the first stop in an international tour for Collider. The Large Hadron Collider is the most exciting scientific experiment of our time and this is a chance to experience the drama of that work here in Manchester.”
The Science Museum has developed the exhibition with an award-winning creative team including Nissen Richards Studio, Olivier Award-winning playwright Michael Wynne (The Priory) and Olivier-winner video artist Finn Ross (The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time).
Through close collaboration with CERN, visitors can enjoy exclusive access to real LHC artefacts in the exhibition including a part of one of the large 15-metre magnets that steer the particle beam and elements from each of the LHC’s four giant detectors.
Collider: Step inside the world’s greatest experiment will run at the Museum of Science and Industry from 23 May–28 September 2014.
