CERN facts for kids
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Organisation européenne pour la recherche nucléaire
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CERN's main site in Meyrin, Switzerland, looking towards the French border
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States with full CERN membership
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| Formation | 29 September 1954 |
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| Headquarters | Meyrin, Geneva, Switzerland 46°14′03″N 6°03′10″E / 46.23417°N 6.05278°E |
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Membership
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Full members (23):
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Official languages
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English and French |
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Council President
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Eliezer Rabinovici |
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Director-General
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Fabiola Gianotti |
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Budget (2022)
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1405m CHF |
The European Organization for Nuclear Research, better known as CERN, is a huge international group. It runs the world's biggest lab for particle physics. Particle physics is the study of the tiniest building blocks of our universe.
CERN was started in 1954. It is located near Geneva, Switzerland, right on the border with France. Many countries are part of CERN, working together on amazing science projects.
CERN's main job is to provide powerful particle accelerators and other tools. These tools help scientists do high-energy physics research. Many experiments are built at CERN through teamwork from different countries.
CERN is home to the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). This is the world's largest and most powerful particle collider. The main site also has a huge computer centre. This centre stores and analyses data from experiments. It also helps simulate (create computer models of) events. Because researchers need to access these tools from far away, CERN has always been a major hub for computer networks. CERN is also famous as the place where the World Wide Web was invented!
Contents
What is CERN's History?
CERN was officially created on 29 September 1954. Twelve countries in Western Europe agreed to its formation. The name CERN originally came from French words meaning 'European Council for Nuclear Research'. This was a temporary group set up in 1952 to build the lab.
Even after the name changed in 1954 to 'European Organization for Nuclear Research', the short form CERN stuck. People thought a new abbreviation like OERN would sound strange.
CERN's first director was Felix Bloch. The lab first focused on studying atomic nuclei. But soon, it moved to higher-energy physics. This means studying how tiny subatomic particles interact with each other. That's why CERN is often called the 'European laboratory for particle physics'.
Who Were the Founding Members?
The agreement to create CERN was signed in Paris in 1953. Twelve countries were the first to join. These were Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and Yugoslavia.
What Scientific Discoveries Have Been Made at CERN?
Many important discoveries in particle physics have happened at CERN. Here are some of them:
- 1973: Scientists found neutral currents using the Gargamelle bubble chamber.
- 1983: The W and Z bosons were discovered in the UA1 and UA2 experiments.
- 1995: The first antihydrogen atoms were created.
- 2000: The Heavy Ion Programme discovered a new state of matter. This was the Quark Gluon Plasma.
- 2012: A new boson particle was found. It matched the description of the long-searched-for Higgs boson.
Some scientists who worked at CERN have won the Nobel Prize for Physics.
- In 1984, Carlo Rubbia and Simon van der Meer won for their work leading to the discovery of the W and Z bosons.
- In 1992, Georges Charpak won for inventing and improving particle detectors.
- In 2013, François Englert and Peter Higgs won for their ideas about the Higgs mechanism. This was a year after the Higgs boson was found at CERN.
How Did CERN Help Create the Internet?
CERN played a big role in developing Internet technology. This started in the early 1980s. It helped the TCP/IP system become popular in Europe.
The World Wide Web began as a project at CERN in 1989. It was started by Tim Berners-Lee. He wanted to make it easier for researchers to share information. Robert Cailliau joined him in 1990.
On 30 April 1993, CERN announced that the World Wide Web would be free for everyone to use. This decision helped the Web become the main way people use the Internet today.
More recently, CERN has become a place for developing grid computing. This is a way to link many computers together to solve big problems. CERN also hosts the CERN Internet Exchange Point (CIXP). This is one of Switzerland's main internet connection points.
What are Particle Accelerators?
CERN uses a network of machines called particle accelerators. These machines speed up tiny particles to very high energies. They then smash them together. Scientists study what happens in these collisions to learn about the universe.
What Accelerators Does CERN Use Now?
CERN has seven accelerators and two decelerators. Each machine makes the particle beams more energetic. They send them to experiments or to the next, more powerful accelerator. The decelerators slow particles down for special experiments.
Here are some of the active machines:
- The LINAC 3 and Linac4 are linear accelerators. They start the process by creating low-energy particles.
- The Proton Synchrotron Booster and Proton Synchrotron (PS) increase the energy of these particles.
- The Super Proton Synchrotron (SPS) is a circular accelerator. It's 2 kilometres wide and started working in 1976. It can speed up particles to very high energies.
- The Antiproton Decelerator (AD) and Extra Low Energy Antiproton ring (ELENA) slow down antiprotons. This helps scientists study antimatter.
The Large Hadron Collider (LHC)
A major part of CERN's work today is running the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). This is a huge science project involving scientists from all over the world.
The LHC is in a tunnel 100 metres underground. This tunnel is 27 kilometres long. It used to house another accelerator called the LEP. Most of the LHC tunnel is under French farmland.
Eight main experiments are located along the LHC. These include CMS, ATLAS, and ALICE. Each experiment studies particle collisions in a different way. Building these experiments needed amazing engineering work. For example, a special crane was used to lower parts of the CMS detector. Some pieces weighed nearly 2,000 tons!
The LHC creates huge amounts of data. CERN sends this data to labs worldwide for processing. This uses a special "grid" of computers.
The LHC started circulating its first particle beams in August 2008. The first full beam circulation happened on 10 September 2008. However, it stopped 10 days later due to a faulty magnet connection. Repairs were made.
The LHC restarted on 20 November 2009. It successfully circulated two beams. On 30 March 2010, the LHC successfully collided two proton beams. This created a very high collision energy.
In July 2012, CERN scientists announced the discovery of a new sub-atomic particle. This particle was later confirmed to be the Higgs boson. In early 2013, the LHC was shut down for two years for maintenance and upgrades. It restarted in April 2015 for its second run. In 2016, it even exceeded its planned collision rate. Another two-year shutdown for upgrades began at the end of 2018.
What Accelerators are Being Built or Planned?
CERN is currently upgrading the LHC to make it even more powerful. This project is called the High Luminosity LHC (HL-LHC). It should be finished by 2026.
CERN is also looking into ideas for future accelerators. One idea is a linear electron-positron collider. Another is an even larger version of the LHC, called the Future Circular Collider.
Where is CERN Located?
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CERN's main site is in Meyrin, Switzerland. It was built right next to the French border. Over time, it has grown to cross the border. The French side is under Swiss law, and you can barely tell where the border is.
The tunnels for the SPS and LHC accelerators are mostly underground. They are hidden beneath French farmland. But there are surface sites above them. These sites have buildings for experiments or other facilities. The experiments themselves are deep underground at these sites.
Many of the roads at CERN's sites are named after famous physicists. These include Wolfgang Pauli, Richard Feynman, Albert Einstein, and Niels Bohr.
How is CERN Funded?
Member Countries and Their Contributions
CERN started with 12 members in 1954. Since then, more countries have joined. Today, CERN has 23 full member states. Israel joined in 2014, becoming the first non-European full member.
Countries contribute to CERN's budget based on their economic size (GDP). This means larger economies pay more.
| Member state | Status since | Contribution (million CHF for 2019) |
Contribution (fraction of total for 2019) |
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| Founding Members | |||
 Belgium |
29 September 1954 | 30.7 | 2.68% |
 Denmark |
29 September 1954 | 20.5 | 1.79% |
 France |
29 September 1954 | 160.3 | 14.0% |
 Germany |
29 September 1954 | 236.0 | 20.6% |
 Greece |
29 September 1954 | 12.5 | 1.09% |
 Italy |
29 September 1954 | 118.4 | 10.4% |
 Netherlands |
29 September 1954 | 51.8 | 4.53% |
 Norway |
29 September 1954 | 28.3 | 2.48% |
 Sweden |
29 September 1954 | 30.5 | 2.66% |
 Switzerland |
29 September 1954 | 47.1 | 4.12% |
 United Kingdom |
29 September 1954 | 184.0 | 16.1% |
 Yugoslavia |
29 September 1954 | 0 | 0% |
| Acceded Members | |||
 Austria |
1 June 1959 | 24.7 | 2.16% |
 Spain |
1 January 1983 | 80.7 | 7.06% |
 Portugal |
1 January 1986 | 12.5 | 1.09% |
 Finland |
1 January 1991 | 15.1 | 1.32% |
 Poland |
1 July 1991 | 31.9 | 2.79% |
 Hungary |
1 July 1992 | 7.0 | 0.609% |
 Czech Republic |
1 July 1993 | 10.9 | 0.950% |
 Slovakia |
1 July 1993 | 5.6 | 0.490% |
 Bulgaria |
11 June 1999 | 3.4 | 0.297% |
 Israel |
6 January 2014 | 19.7 | 1.73% |
 Romania |
17 July 2016 | 12.0 | 1.05% |
 Serbia |
24 March 2019 | 2.5 | 0.221% |
| Associate Members in the pre-stage to membership | |||
 Cyprus |
1 April 2016 | 1.0 | N/A |
 Slovenia |
4 July 2017 | 1.0 | N/A |
 Estonia |
1 February 2021 | 1.0 | N/A |
| Associate Members | |||
 Turkey |
6 May 2015 | 5.7 | N/A |
 Pakistan |
31 July 2015 | 1.7 | N/A |
 Ukraine |
5 October 2016 | 1.0 | N/A |
 India |
16 January 2017 | 13.8 | N/A |
 Lithuania |
8 January 2018 | 1.0 | N/A |
 Croatia |
10 October 2019 | 0.25 | N/A |
 Latvia |
2 August 2021 | N/A | |
 Brazil |
13 March 2024 | N/A | |
| Total Members, Candidates and Associates | 1,171.2 | 100.0% | |
| Maps of the history of CERN membership |
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How Does CERN Work with Other Countries?
CERN also has "observer status" with three countries:
- Japan – since 1995
- Russia – since 1993 (currently suspended)
- United States – since 1997
Other international groups are also observers:
- UNESCO – since 1954
- European Commission – since 1985
- JINR – since 2014 (currently suspended)
Many other countries have special agreements to work with CERN. These include countries from all over the world, like Argentina, Canada, China, India, and South Africa.
What is CERN's Role in Open Science?
CERN is a big supporter of the Open Science movement. This movement wants to make scientific research available to everyone. It also aims to create knowledge using open tools and methods.
CERN has policies that promote open science. Its founding agreement in 1953 said that all results should be published or made public. In 2014, CERN started an open access policy. This means all publications by CERN scientists are freely available. More recently, they added an open data policy. This policy makes scientific data from LHC experiments public after a certain time.
CERN also runs projects like SCOAP3. This project helps make scientific articles in high-energy physics open access. CERN also provides many online services. These services help researchers share their documents, data, and software. Examples include the CERN Open Data portal and Zenodo.
Can You Visit CERN?
Yes, you can! CERN has places for the public to visit and learn.
The CERN Science Gateway opened in October 2023. It has interactive exhibits, workshops, and shows. It's a great place to learn about science.
The Globe of Science and Innovation also welcomes visitors. It opened in 2005 and is used for special exhibits.
The Microcosm museum used to have an exhibition about particle physics. It closed in 2022 to make way for the new Science Gateway.
CERN also offers daily tours of some of its facilities. You can see the Synchro-cyclotron, CERN's first particle accelerator.
In 2004, a two-meter statue of Nataraja was put up at CERN. Nataraja is the dancing form of the Hindu god Shiva. India gave the statue to CERN to celebrate their long partnership. A plaque explains that Shiva's cosmic dance represents creation and destruction. It connects ancient ideas with modern physics.
What About Arts at CERN?
CERN started its Arts at CERN programme in 2011. This programme helps connect art and physics.
Since 2012, Arts at CERN has brought artists and physicists together. Artists from many different fields come to CERN. They experience how science explores big questions about our universe.
The programme includes artistic residencies. Artists can stay at CERN or work remotely. Over 200 artists from 80 countries have taken part. They work with physicists, engineers, and CERN staff. These programmes help build bridges between different cultures.
Images for kids
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CERN's main site in Meyrin, Switzerland, looking towards the French border
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CERN logo
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The 12 founding member states of CERN in 1954
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This NeXT Computer used by British scientist Sir Tim Berners-Lee at CERN became the first Web server.
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This Cisco Systems router at CERN was one of the first IP routers deployed in Europe.
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A plaque at CERN commemorating the invention of the World Wide Web by Tim Berners-Lee and Robert Cailliau
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Map of the Large Hadron Collider together with the Super Proton Synchrotron at CERN
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CMS detector for LHC
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CERN building 40 at the Meyrin site.
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Interior of office building 40 at the Meyrin site. Building 40 hosts many offices for scientists from the CMS and ATLAS collaborations.
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The Globe of Science and Innovation at CERN
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European Southern Observatory (ESO) and CERN have a cooperation agreement.
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1959 (13 members): Austria joins (1954-1990 borders)
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1961 (13 members): Spain joins and Yugoslavia leaves (1954-1990 borders)
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1969 (12 members): Spain leaves (1954-1990 borders)
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1985 (14 members): Portugal joins (1954-1990 borders)
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1991 (16 members): Poland and Finland join, and Germany has been reunified (post 1993 borders)
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1992 (17 members): Hungary joins (post 1993 borders)
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1993 (19 members): Czech Republic and Slovakia join (post 1993 borders)
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1999 (20 members): Bulgaria joins (post 1993 borders)
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Animated map showing changes in CERN membership from 1954 until 1999 (borders are as at dates of change)
See also
In Spanish: Organización Europea para la Investigación Nuclear para niños
- CERN Openlab
- Fermilab
- Joint Institute for Nuclear Research
- Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek
- Science and Technology Facilities Council
- Science and technology in Switzerland
- Science diplomacy
- Scientific Linux
- SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory
- World Wide Web
