For Students

Exploring the outer limits of knowledge

The LHC is the most exciting science adventure of this decade; a huge international project exploring the boundaries of our knowledge and theories about the world we live in. The LHC experiments will help us understand the origins and evolution of our universe and possibly reshape how we think about the physical world. Screen shot of particle detectives home page

See a young physicist describing how the study of particle physics has affected our lives and our understanding of the universe we live in and hear how the LHC may be our window into a weird world of missing matter and quantum physics.

http://www.teachers.tv/video/23645 the fundamental building blocks of nature,
http://www.teachers.tv/video/23903 the fundamental forces of nature,
http://www.teachers.tv/video/23904 the quantum world and the hunt for the Higgs boson.  

Drive our simulator at www.particledetectives.net and learn how LHC scientists will conduct their experiments. This website includes a collection of resources for 14-16 and 16+ year old students on 'how science works' and particle physics. Your own discoveries or listen to the video clips of students questionning scientists about the LHC project and download Powerpoint presentations on LHC science.

There are simulations and pages of information on particle physics at the Lancaster Particle Physics pages. These are suitable for AS/A2 16+ students. There is a section dedicated to the LHC.

A simple game that illustrates how scientists search for new particles can be found on the Science Museum's website.

UK scientists have major roles in this project, which involves thousands of scientists and engineers from around the world working in harmony, to build and run the biggest experiment in the history of science. The project will continue for at least 15 years, so anyone considering science as a GCSE option now could be working on the LHC ... and contributing to new discoveries … in the future.

The science of the LHC is directly relevant to areas of the A-level (and equivalent) curriculum, but the project is also an example of how science works and there are many role models and career stories among the diverse community of scientists, engineers and administration staff working on the LHC.

A lot of resources on the LHC and particle physics are available and more will be produced over the life of the project. Visit the resources pages on the STFC website to download, or order, a stunning A1 poster of the ATLAS detector and an A5 fold out booklet that describes some of the big questions that researchers expect the LHC to answer. You can also download a poster describing the CMS detector (jpg 69kb) and a booklet describing the evolution of the universe (pdf 9.1mb) from the CMS area of CERN website. The ATLAS experiment has two posters available to download (or order) from the ATLAS store. Booklets, DVDs and other materials are also available.