Inside the CERN control centre, in pictures

THE INQUIRER was lucky enough to be invited to the headquarters of the European Organisation for Nuclear Research (CERN) to see what lies behind one of the greatest technological and scientific projects on the planet.

Here, groundbreaking experiments are being conducted in the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), generating an entire petabyte of data every single second.

We also snapped a few images along the way, as you can see below.

There are four islands of computer banks at CERN for the management of the main tools in use, including the LHC, and this requires nine full time staff to be in the room every single second of the year.

A cutaway of the LHC showing the two tubes through which particles are fired in opposite directions at speeds just below that of light (299,792,458m/s) eventually meaning they can complete a 27km loop 11,000 times in a single second.

A replica model of what the LHC looks like underground. There are only eight entrace points to the tunnel, meaning staff may have to walk several kilometres to reach the fault they are trying to fix. Or they can take a bicycle.

Because the entire LHC is cooled to a temperature of 1.9 kelvin (-271C) every single piece of metal in the machine has to be built to expand and contract - the entire machine becomes 80m longer or shorter depending on its heat, so building links into the metal like this is crucial.

Not content with operating the largest machine on earth and inventing the world wide web, they've also found time to show off their wacky side with a hilarious computer mouse retirement centre in the grounds of the site in Geneva.

All types of mice have been saved, from numerous manufacturers, although it looks as though they may need to purchase a bigger home, as they're rapidly outgrowing this one.

Perhaps they could let them run free in the LHC, it's 27km long and just the right size for a mouse. They could even fire them into one another... although on second thought, perhaps not.

It's good to see that, even while looking for the answers to the origins of the universe, you can still have a laugh and mess around - although thankfully Sir Tim Berners Lee chose to spend his time dreaming up the web, not having fun. µ