L6 Physics does Diamond
L6 Physics students were privileged to attend one of the most important research sites in the country for an action-packed day.
The student day at Rutherford Appleton Laboratories (RAL) in Harwell included interactive events, tours covering Europe’s largest Synchrotron and RAL Space Centre, plus a bespoke Particle Physics Masterclass.
The morning kicked off with a live stream from a Yorkshire salt mine one mile below the North Sea where students learned of the extraordinary lengths scientists go to in order to detect high energy cosmic particles in their hunt for Dark Matter.
With the knowledge that only one per cent of the universe is visible to the naked eye, the students then went looking for the once elusive Higgs boson, responsible for our gravity field.
A superb opportunity to analyse real data from CERN had the L6 operating high-end software alongside RAL scientists in order to spot tell-tale signs from Large Hadron Collider tracks.
After lunch, the enormity of the Diamond Light Source Synchrotron was revealed with a technical tour of the facility, highlighting the technical complexity required to control a beam of circling protons at near the speed of light.
For students taking Economics or Business Studies there were ample opportunities to see how funding and collaboration between European scientists becomes essential for world leading research and new technologies.
Head of Science Mr Jason Morris said: “We would like to thank RAL staff for creating a thoroughly inspiring day for our students that will, no doubt, leave them thirsty to understand the workings of our universe in more detail.”
