Microcosm is an interactive exhibition presenting the work of the CERN particle physics laboratory and its flagship accelerator, the Large Hadron Collider (LHC).
Microcosm underwent a major renovation in 2015 and now takes visitors on a journey through CERN’s key installations.
Visitors enter the exhibition through the Big Bang tunnel, where the formation of the planets is shown on the walls.
The exhibition displays many real objects, taking visitors on a journey through CERN’s key installations, from the Hydrogen bottle, source of the protons that are injected into the LHC, through the first step in the accelerator chain, the Linac, on to a model of a section of the Large Hadron Collider including elements from the superconducting magnets.
Visitors can interact with the displays to try their hand at the controls of a particle accelerator – simulating the acceleration of protons in the LHC and bringing them into collision inside the experiments.
