THE HUNT for the Higgs Boson particle was taken up by a group of Rugby students when they visited CERN, the home of the Large Hadron Collider.
The students from Rugby High School visited the Swiss supercollider to learn how it is helping to solve some of the most fundamental mysteries, such as how the Universe began and the basic building blocks of matter.
Millie Panther said: “It was such a fantastic opportunity to visit the most famous physics experiment in the world and I’m really inspired to learn more about particle physics in my next year studying A-level.”
Kathryn Jones, who has been offered a place to study physics at Oxford next year, said: “Meeting the research scientists was a real highlight. With the more powerful machine, they are hoping to detect dark matter, which will help explain the behaviour of the galaxies and ultimately, the fate of our universe. I’d love to be involved in that sort of research at University in the not too distant future.”
Katie Cotton from year 12 added: “Within 12 hours of visiting the facility we learned that CERN had released news that they had discovered a new particle – the pentaquark. It’s so cool to think they did that when we were there.”
The visit was led by a member of the CERN community who talked from personal experience about their contribution to CERN’s research programme.
