In the tiny town of Meyrin, Switzerland, sits the largest center for particle physics research in the world. The facility is situated near Geneva on the Franco-Swiss border and operated by the European Organization for Nuclear Research, better known as CERN.
Housed within the building since 2008 is the world’s largest particle collider. Having a circumference of 27 kilometers, the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) collides proton and ion beams at the speed of light in underground tunnels, enabling physicists to further their understanding of the basic constituents of matter.