For those who had read Dan Brown’s novel Angels and Demons would have come across the story of CERN acronym for European Organisation for Nuclear Research (in French). At first glance it might have sounded fictional but do you know that there is a real organization with such name and with almost the same research focus?

Yes there is!

CERN is a European Union initiative and lies underground on the Swiss French border. Nearly 27km in circumference, it has been heralded as the one of the greatest, biggest and most ambitious science physic project ever. Not forgetting the cost as well, it is one of the most expensive experiment on earth.

CERN’s core objectives include answering pertinent questions such as Where does mass come from? What is dark matter? Does the universe contain more than the four dimensions everyone is familiar with (length, breadth, height and time) and, if it does, how many, and where are they exactly? What was the universe like just after the Big Bang? And so on.

In short, its job is to try to answer some of the most fundamental questions in science that is yet to have any concrete answer.

For more about CERN, read the story here at Engineering News.