BIG BANG!

© Science Museum Image: Jon Burgerman

27 June 2008 - 22 September 2008

Free entry

A ground-breaking experiment‚ which could unlock some of the biggest mysteries of the universe‚ is explored in 'BIG BANG! Celebrating the World’s Largest Physics Experiment'.

The exhibition offers a preview into one of the greatest experiments ever seen‚ in a machine known as the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). Costing approximately £2.5 billion‚ the LHC is a gigantic experiment buried deep underground on the Franco-Swiss border at CERN‚ the European Particle Physics Laboratory.

The LHC‚ which represents decades of scientific research‚ will allow scientists for the first time to recreate in the laboratory the conditions of the universe as it existed less than a billionth of a second after the Big Bang. They then hope to be able to answer some fundamental questions about the world around us and make new discoveries on the nature of mass and matter.

This exhibition enables visitors to see the different stages of this unique experiment through a wide range of objects‚ video footage‚ images and interactives. Highlights include:

• a slice through the heart of the LHC – a cross section showing the pipe the beams travel through‚ the cryogenics and the dipole magnet that controls them
• a tower of 1800 CDs representing the huge amount of data produced by the LHC every hour
• Hunt the Higgs interactive game
• a chance to learn about the global grid that is revolutionising the way we use computers
• a chance to see the latest collaboration between the museum and artist, Jon Burgerman – this time bringing particle physics to life in a giant wall graphic

 

Exhibition created by

Visit the Big Bang pages on the Science Museum website.

 

This exhibition is supported by the Science and Technology Facilities Council