CERN European Nuclear Research Centre

Everything you’ve ever wanted to know about elementary particles and the laws of the universe, you’ll discover at CERN! From the infinitely small to the infinitely large, from particle collisions to the Higgs boson, you’ll travel far and wide between Switzerland and France.

The temple of experimental physics

This vast laboratory, which brings together physicists, engineers and computer scientists from all over the world, straddles the border between France and Switzerland, but visitors enter on the Swiss side of the border at Meyrin. CERN can be recognized from afar by the round silhouette of the Globe of Science and Innovation.

This huge complex houses exceptional tools and instruments: particle gas pedals and detectors, including the Large Hadron Collider (LCH), the world’s most powerful particle gas pedal, which runs several kilometers beneath your feet.

Whatever your scientific level or age, you’ll understand it all.

CERN’s science portal is fun for everyone, including children, thanks to its popularization of scientific terms. CERN makes science accessible through animations and games for young and old.

Science for everyone

You’re entering a temple of science here, frequented by top physicists! CERN’s science portal is open to all free of charge: interactive exhibits, science shows and films are freely accessible.

You’ll discover a world of research, experiment, understand, ask questions and find answers thanks to the members of the scientific community who accompany the various activities. With fun and educational features, you’ll love learning and doing science.

When you leave CERN, it’s highly likely that you’ll feel smarter than when you went in, and that you’ll want to try it again!

Permanent exhibitions

Discover the quantum world and the formation of the universe, understand the Big Bang, elementary particles, CERN’s tools and conduct experiments… CERN’s 2 permanent exhibitions, “Our Universe” and “Quantum World”, take you on a fun and educational scientific journey. Free admission.

Visit

In the laboratoryWorkshops

“See the invisible”, “Power of air”, “Magnetic challenge”… Each workshop allows young participants to experience and understand physics in action, with scientists bringing it down to their level. To be booked on site, subject to availability.

Science shows

Science is spectacular, and CERN offers shows to help you understand physics in a fun way. Registration and booking on site.

Guided tours

CERN scientists, engineers, students and staff show you the most interesting places in the Laboratory. To be booked on arrival.

Big bang passportCycling around the site

In the open air, a beautiful bike ride around the site that follows the path, step by step, of the collider, buried 100m beneath your feet: at each of the 10 stages, discover an exhibition platform located in front of one of CERN’s key sites. A playful mission of discovery on the trail of the universe’s creation!

GOOD TO KNOW

Nobel prizes and major discoveries: CERN drives science forward

As early as 1929, Nobel Prize-winning physicist Louis de Broglie raised the idea of a European research laboratory. The project came to fruition in 1954. CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research, was founded by 12 countries, but grew with time and success. Many of the Nobel Prizes awarded for their scientific discoveries have been awarded to researchers who passed through CERN.

Between 1989 and 1990, it was at CERN that Tim Berners-Lee, joined by Robert Cailliau, developed a new information system with a bright future ahead of it: the World Wide Web.

It was also the site of the discovery of a new elementary particle, the Higgs bozon. Its existence had been theorized, but it was only thanks to CERN’s experiments and tools that it could be observed. This particle is involved in the formation of the universe, giving mass to the gases produced by the Big Bang and to all elementary particles. This enables them to create protons and neutrons, which combine with electrons to form matter.

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