What is the image you get when you think of a scientist?

I bet it’s usually a middle-aged guy, most likely wearing a lab coat, probably glasses, and definitely not cool.

But we all know by now that TED does not promote the ‘normal,’ so, when they have somebody on to talk about the Large Hedron Collider (LHC) in Geneva, Switzerland we do not necessarily expect a guy in a lab coat.

I was still positively surprised by Brian Cox’s talk. There is a cool guy who not only makes it interesting to show what the LHC does but who also represents a new breed of scientist who seem to be in awe of creation and taken by its extent.

When I turned my back to physics after I was all done with my degree, the scientific scene was immensely more arrogant. So, listening to Brian Cox made me happy because I think that science will succeed when it develops the right amount of humility and recognizes that it itself is part of that creation and is searching for itself.

Do you want to know where the LHC actually is? Glad you asked, because here are some fascinating facts about its location. CERN, which is also the mother of the World Wide Web, is located in two countries, Switzerland and France. The Conseil européen pour la Recherche nucléaire (CERN) is located close to Geneva, Switzerland, and stretches across the Swiss-France border. So, you might cross the border between the two countries many times during the day while remaining in the CERN complex. Nowadays that has not much significance, but when I was there it was a fascinating fact, that you could go across the border without showing your papers.

So, here it is…