CERN’s textile collection consists of T-shirts, hooded sweatshirts and even baby clothes, all with original scientific slogans. Find out about the science behind the slogans below.
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The person in this T-Shirt is 13.8 billion years old Like the universe, everything around us and the screen you’re looking at now, as well as you yourself, are made up of elementary particles that appeared at the time of the Big Bang 13.8 billion years ago. No wonder you feel tired sometimes! |
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This T-Shirt is made of 9 million billion billion quarks Like all the matter we know, this T-shirt is made up of atoms, which in turn are made up of a nucleus surrounded by electrons. Nuclei are made up of protons and neutrons, which contain quarks. With no measurable size, electrons and quarks are elementary particles, meaning that they do not contain any other particles. Their mass is so tiny that a huge quantity of them is needed to make just a few grams of matter. |
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This design represents the particle tracks produced at the moment of a high-energy collision in one of the detectors of the LHC accelerator. These detectors are like huge digital cameras that record several hundred million collisions per second! |
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Lagrangian of the Standard Model of particle physics This formula is the mathematical representation of the Standard Model of particle physics, the theory that describes the elementary particles and the forces that bind them together. The first line describes the forces: electricity, magnetism, the strong nuclear force and the weak nuclear force. The second line shows how these forces act on the elementary particles of matter. The last two lines describe the Higgs boson and the mechanism by which particles acquire their mass. Find out more about the Standard Model. |
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I am the best you can make out of quarks and electrons Your body is made up of cells, which themselves are formed of molecules. These molecules are made up of atoms, each comprising electrons and a nucleus of protons and neutrons. Protons and neutrons are combinations of quarks. With no measurable size, electrons and quarks are elementary particles, i.e. they are not thought to contain any other particles. |
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World Wide Web Born @ CERN In 1989, Tim Berners-Lee invented the World Wide Web (not to be confused with the internet) while working as a computer scientist at CERN. The web was designed to facilitate the exchange of information between the scientists working on CERN’s experiments, wherever in the world they happened to be. It has since become an indispensable tool for billions of internet users. |
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I love CERN And you’re not the only one! |
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I want to be a particle physicist Every year, CERN trains several hundred students from all over the world, not only in physics, but also in the fields of engineering, computer science, administration and more. Find out more about internship and employment opportunities at CERN. |
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My mother is a supernova All elements, except for the three lightest, are products of reactions between atoms that take place inside stars. When a star dies in an explosion known as a supernova, these elements are thrown into space. Some have ended up on Earth over the last four billion years of our planet’s existence. We’re all stardust! |
