On Wednesday 13 March, a group of Lower VI physics students went to the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory to tour the ISIS neutron and muon source as a part of a particle physics masterclass. We started the day off with a series of detailed lectures that introduced us to the fundamentals of particle physics while also gaining an in-depth understanding of how accelerators work. We were also incredibly privileged to learn about the revolutionary research being conducted at the large hadron collider in CERN.

During the afternoon, we toured the ISIS facility where we got to see the practical uses of the accelerator and its facilities. One of these uses was the ChipIr that is dedicated to seeing how microelectronic devices respond to the impact of neutrons. This problem is a major concern for the electronics industry and it was super interesting to see how research done at the facility is applied to real world scenarios. At the end of the tour we had a brief pop quiz where we learnt some fun facts. Did you know that for over the 40 years of running the synchrotron, the facilities had used 1 teaspoon worth of neutrons?

We also had the opportunity to act as a particle physicist programmer by using Python and data from the CERN to plot graphs to identify particles.

All round it was an amazing experience and Navya was also able to find a self driving bus that shared her name!

Navya and Prachi