Particle accelerators are the ultimate scientific tool, exploiting electric fields to accelerate particles to high energies and magnetic fields to steer and focus them. Their experimental applications have evolved immensely since Wideröe’s first accelerator in the 1920s. The past year has seen the opening of the Diamond Light Source (DLS, the UK’s largest accelerator) and the Large Hadron Collider (the world’s largest accelerator), both attracting a significant amount of media attention. With these events fixed in the public’s imagination, it would be timely to better-explain the science behind particle accelerators themselves.

This website presents what can be done with particle accelerators. It is based on the exhibit we have brought to the Royal Society for the Summer Science Exhibit 2009.

Pictures taken during the exhibit at the Royal Society.

You can also see us at the Royal Society webpage.