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CERN’s Large Hadron Collider Upgrade: Inside the Future of Particle Physics

Tom Whipple travels 100 meters underground in Switzerland to CERN’s Large Hadron Collider (LHC), where the beam has been powered down to make way for an upgrade to the High-Luminosity LHC.

Inside the Large Hadron Collider upgrade

Paulo Fessia, deputy director of the upgrade project, explains what the work involves and why it matters. In one of CERN’s cavernous halls, Antti Onela reveals what the machines are used for when they are not colliding particles.

How clouds form—and what they reveal about climate

Eva Sommer, project implementation coordinator, discusses how clouds are generated from aerosol particles in a special chamber and how this research can influence climate models.

The future circular collider

The programme also explores the Future Circular Collider (FCC), widely anticipated as the next step in particle physics in Europe. The FCC will be 3.4 times the size of the LHC and will cost around £14 billion. Guy Wilkinson explains why he believes the investment is justified.

Building soil from CERN’s excavated material

What happens to the substratum removed to make way for the new tunnel? Tom visits Christiana Staudinger, a plant scientist with the OpenSkyLab project, in the field above CERN’s tunnel. There, she is building soil in an effort to replenish the world’s dwindling resources.

Programme credits

Presenter: Tom Whipple
Producers: Ella Haber, Katie Tomsett and Ed Prendeville
Editor: Ilan Goodman
Production Coordinator: Jana Bennett Holdsworth

Program website