When particles collide, they release incredible amounts of energy. That energy is used to create new particles. Imagine smashing two apples together at high speed—not to produce apple juice, but to create bananas or oranges! These new particles exist only for a fleeting moment but are detected by enormous particle detectors. The largest of these, ATLAS, is comparable to half the size of the Notre Dame cathedral in Paris… Remarkably, the entire collider sits 100 meters underground.
CERN is also home to an antimatter factory. Antimatter is notoriously difficult to produce, as it annihilates upon contact with normal matter, releasing energy. But how does all this benefit you?
Well, CERN is where the World Wide Web was invented by Sir Tim Berners-Lee. Mr. Richardson even saw the very machine that first hosted the internet—it even had a sign saying, “Do not turn off”!
Hopefully, Mr. Richardson’s experience will inspire some of his students to dream big and maybe even work at CERN one day, continuing the quest to uncover the secrets of the universe.