On the 8th March 12 Chipping Norton Physics students visited the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory in Didcot. The trip was aimed at giving sixth formers a deepened understanding of the particle physics section of their A-Level studies. During the day there was a series of lectures from leading university professors and Large Hadron Collider particle physicists. This was interspersed with workshops – one of which saw Ben Nottingham discover the Higg’s Boson, or at least see the particle interaction that provided evidence for its existence!

The main highlight of the day was a tour of the Diamond Light Source by their Head of Communications – Isabelle Boscaro-Clarke. As the synchrotron was switched off students got to walk around all of the site seeing the many powerful magnets and X-Ray beam chambers.