On March 1, 2024, the PtU visited the (A) Large Ion Collider Experiment (ALICE) at CERN near Geneva. The visit gave PtU staff a unique and exciting insight into the experiments on the formation of our universe. ALICE is essentially a detector that detects the collisions of heavy lead ions like a giant eye. To do this, the lead ions are accelerated in the Large Hadron Collider, or LHC for short, to almost the speed of light and the kinetic energy of a TGV. The high-energy collisions cause protons and neutrons to burst and produce even smaller particles, creating a quark-gluon plasma just like shortly after the Big Bang.

Finally, a group photo in front of the gates of the ALICE detector, which weighs around 10,000 tons and is currently undergoing maintenance, was a must.

The PtU would like to thank the CERN/ALICE team and in particular Dr. Kai Schweda and Klaus Barth for the exciting and entertaining tour of one of CERN's largest research projects to date.