EGEE-III / Serbia - LHC Exhibition Opens in Belgrade

An exhibition centering on CERN's LHC opened in Belgrade on 16 April. The principle venue of the month-long public outreach event is the Gallery of the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts (SASA). The event is jointly organized by SASA, the Institute of Physics Belgrade (IPB) and the Institute of Nuclear Sciences - Vinca. The principle focus of the exhibition and its satellite events will be to present the science and technology behind the Large Hadron Collider. Particular emphasis will be given to the contribution of Serbian R&D to ATLAS, CMS, and EGEE - the two giant detectors looking into the world of elementary particles, and the continent-spanning Grid infrastructure that channels and analyzes the flood of information from these detectors.

In his opening address Prof. Djordje Sijacki (IPB) compared the LHC endeavor into the realm of the very small to Columbus' voyages. Both strongly rely on cutting-edge technology of their day. Columbus followed his maps in search of India, but found a whole new world. Similarly, physicists use the Standard Model in search of the Higgs boson and supersymmetry. What they will actually find is certainly a new world of objects a billion times smaller than atoms, which are themselves a billion times smaller than us. By their nature, both of these grand adventure fuel the imagination. The role of exhibitions like the present one is to bring news of the exciting endeavor to the general public, particularly to young people.

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