I Can’t Sleep - CERN | Calming Bedtime Reading for Sleep

Episode Date: July 9, 2025

Relax with this calm bedtime reading designed to ease insomnia and restless nights. Tonight’s gentle episode explores CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research, known for its groundbreaking discoveries in particle physics. You’ll learn about its history, the Large Hadron Collider, and its role in expanding our understanding of the universe, all shared in Benjamin’s steady, peaceful narration. There’s no whispering or hypnosis—just tranquil, fact-filled storytelling to quiet your thoughts and bring calm. Press play, let curiosity give way to relaxation, and drift into restful sleep. Want More? Request a Topic: https://www.icantsleeppodcast.com/request-a-topic Ad-Free Episodes: https://icantsleep.supportingcast.fm/ Shop Sleep-Friendly Products: https://www.icantsleeppodcast.com/sponsors Join the discussion on Discord: https://discord.gg/myhGhVUhn7 This content is derived from the Wikipedia article on CERN, available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike (CC BY-SA) license. Read the full article: Wikipedia - CERN. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

You're listening to a Glassbox media podcast. What if I told you that most of the modern day self-help advice you've been hearing could actually make you worse? The key to a better life isn't about feel-good gimmicks that sound catchy. The Mentally Stronger Podcast gives you access to a licensed therapist who shares science-backed tools that will actually change your life. Hi, I'm Amy Morin, psychotherapist, mental strength trainer, and international best-selling author. In each episode, we cover research-back strategies, like how to stop relying on willpower and start creating habits for lasting change. And the five mental strength-building exercises you can do from your couch. I also speak to world-class experts like Dr. Nicole Kane, who shares how to permanently heal anxiety by addressing the root cause.

With over 200 episodes in our catalog, this podcast is for you if you're ready to crush self-doubt, conquer challenges, become stronger than ever with therapist-approved strategies that can change your life. Listen to Mentally Stronger with Therapist Amy Morin, wherever you get your podcasts. Welcome to the I Can't Sleep podcast, where I help you drift off one fact at a time. I'm your host, Benjamin Boster, and today's episode is about CERN. Thanks to Julie Gibson for sponsoring today's episode. If you like to sponsor an episode, check out my website and go to the request to topic section to fill out the details there. The European Organization for Nuclear Research, known as CERN, is an intergovernmental organization that operates the largest particle physics laboratory in the world.

established in 1954 that is based in Meran, western suburb of Geneva, on the France-Switzerland border. It comprises 24 member states. Israel, admitted in 2013, is the only full member geographically out of Europe. CERN is an official United Nations General Assembly observer. The acronym CERN is also used, to refer to the laboratory. In 2023, it had 2,66666 scientific, technical, and administrative staff members and hosted about 12,370 users from institutions in more than 80 countries. In 2016, CERN generated 49 petabytes of data. CERN's main function is to provide the particle accelerators and other information.

infrastructure needed for high-energy physics research. Consequently, numerous experiments have been constructed at CERN through international collaborations. CERN is the side of the large Hadron Collider, LHC, the world's largest and highest energy particle Collider. The main site at Meran hosts a large computing facility, which is primarily used to store and analyze data from experiments, as well as simulate events. As researchers require remote access to these facilities, the lab has historically been a major wide area network hub. CERN is also the birthplace of the World Wide Web. The convention establishing CERN is a major wide network. was ratified on September 29th, 1954, by 12 countries in Western Europe.

The acronym CERN originally represented the French words for Conseil European Council for Nuclear Research Nuclear, which was a provisional council for building the laboratory, established by 12 European governments in 1952. During these early years, the Council worked at the University of Copenhagen under the direction of Niels Bohr, before moving to its present site near Geneva. The acronym was retained for the new laboratory after the Provisional Council was dissolved, even though the name change to the current Organization for the Current

Organization European for La Recheche Nuclear, European Organization for Nuclear Research in 1954. According to Lou Kowarski, a former director of CERN, when the name was changed, abbreviation could have been the awkward Oern, and Werner Heisenberg said that this could still be CERN, even if the name is not. CERN's first president was Sir Benjamin Loxpicer. Eduardo Amaldi was the General Secretary of CERN at its early stages, when operations were still provisional. And the first Director General, 1954, was Felix Blach.

The laboratory was originally devoted to the study of atomic nuclei, but was soon applied to the higher energy physics, concerned mainly with a study of interactions between subatomic particles. Therefore, the laboratory operated by CERN is commonly referred to as the European Laboratory for Particle Physics, which better describes the research being performed there. In the sixth session of the CERN Council in Paris from June 29th to July 1st, 1953, the Convention establishing the organization was signed, subject to ratification by 12 states. The Convention was gradually ratified by the 12 founding member states, Belgium, Denmark, France,

the Federal Republic of Germany, Greece, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and Yugoslavia. Several important achievements in particle physics have been made through experiments at CERN. They include 1973 The Discovery of Neutral Currents in the Gargamel Bubble Chamber 1983 The discovery of WNZ bosons in the UA1 and UA2 experiments 1989

The determination of the number of light neutrino-famins at the large electron-positron collider LAP, operating on the Z-Boson peak. 1995, the first creation of anti-hydrogen atoms in the PS-210 experiment. 1995-25 to 2005 Precision measurement of the Z-Line shape, based predominantly on LAP data collected on the Z-residential. on the Z-resonance from 1990 to 1995. 1999 The discovery of direct CP violation in the NA-48 experiment.

2000 The heavy ion program discovered a new state of matter, quark-gluon plasma. 2010. The isolation of 38 atoms of anti-hydrogen. 2011 Maintaining anti-hydrogen for over 15 minutes 2012

The discovery of a boson with mass around 125 giga electron volts per C squared consistent with the long-sought Higgs boson In September 2011, CERN attracted media attention when the opera collaboration reported the detection of possibly faster than light neutrinos. Further tests show that the results were flawed due to an incorrectly connected GPS synchronization cable. In 1984, Nobel Prize for Physics was awarded to Carlo Rubia and Simone Vandemere for the developments that resulted in the discoveries of the WNZ bosons.

The 1992 Nobel Prize for Physics was awarded to CERN staff researcher Georges Chapac for his invention and development of particle detectors, in particular the multi-wire proportional chamber. The 2013 Nobel Prize for Physics was awarded to Francois Anglère and Peter Higgs for the theoretical description of the Higgs mechanism and the year after the Higgs boson was found by CERN experiments. The next computer used by British scientist Sir Tim Berners-Lee at CERN became the first web server.

This Cisco Systems router at CERN was one of the first IP routers deployed in Europe. A plaque at CERN commemorates the invention of the World Wide Web by Tate. Tim Berners-Lee and Robert Cayo. CERN pioneered the introduction of TCPIP for its internet, beginning in 1984. This played an influential role in the adoption of the TCPIP in Europe. In 1989, the World Wide Web was invented at CERN by Tim Berners-Lee. Based on the concept of hypertext, the idea was designed to facilitate information sharing,

between researchers. This stemmed from Berners-Lee earlier work at CERN on a database named Inquirer. A colleague Robert Cayo became involved in 1990. In 1995, Berners-Lee and Cayo were jointly honored by the Association for Computing Machinery for their contributions to the development of the World Wide Web. A copy of the first web page created by

Berners-Lee is still published on the World Wide Web Consortium's website as a historical document. The first website was activated in 1991. On April 30, 1993, CERN announced that the World Wide Web would be free to anyone. It became the dominant way through which most users interact with the Internet. More recently, CERN has become a facility for the development of Grimmonet. grid computing, hosting projects including the enabling grids for e-science, EG, and LHC computing grid. It also hosts the CERN Internet Exchange Point, C-I-XP, one of the two main Internet exchange points in Switzerland.

As of 2022, CERN employs 10 times more engineers and technicians than research physicists. CERN operates a network of seven accelerators and two decelerators and some additional small accelerators. Each machine in the chain increases the energy of particle beams before delivering them to experiments or to the next more powerful accelerator. The decelerators naturally decrease the energy of particle beams before delivering them to experiments or further accelerators decelerators. Before an experiment is able to use the network of accelerators, it must be approved by the various scientific committees of CERN. Currently, as of 2022, active machines are the LHC accelerator and the LNAX-3 linear accelerator, generating low-energy particle,

It provides heavy ions at 4.2 mega electron volts per Dalton for injection into the low-energy ion ring, Lear. The low-energy ring, Lear, accelerates the ions from the ion linear accelerator Linac 3, before transferring them to the proton-synchronousin. This accelerator was commissioned in 2005 after having been reconfigured from the previous low-energy antiproton ring, Lear, L-E-A-R. The Linac-A-R-Four-L-A-R-A-R-Fererates negative hydrogen ions to an energy of 160 electron volts. The ions are then injected to the proton synchrotron booster, PSB, where both electrons are then stripped from each of the hydrogen ions, and thus only the nucleus containing one proton

remains. The protons are then used in experiments for accelerated further in other CERN accelerators. Linaq 4 serves as the source of all proton beams for CERN experiments. The proton-syncretron booster increases the energy of particles generated by the proton-linear accelerator before they are transferred to the other accelerators. The 28-gge-electron proton synchrotron PS built during 1954 to 1959 and still operating as a feeder to the more powerful SPS and to many of CERN's experiments. The super proton synchrotron SPS, a circular accelerator was a diameter of two kilometers built in a tunnel, which started operation in 1976.

It was designed to deliver an energy of 300 giga electron volts and was gradually upgraded to 450 giga electron volts, as well as having its own beam lines for fixed target experiments, currently Compass and NA62, it has been operated as a proton-antiproton collider, the SPPS Collider, and for accelerating high-energy electrons and positrons, which were injected into the large electron-positron Collider, LAP. Since 2008, it has been used to inject protons and heavy ions into the large Hadron Collider, LHC. the online isotope mass separator, I-S-O-L-D-E, which is used to study unstable nuclei. The radioactive ions are produced by the impact of protons at an energy of 1.0 to 1.4 giga electron volts from the proton synchrotron booster. It was first commissioned in 1967 and was rebuilt with major upgrades in 1970.

in 1992. The antiproton decelerator, AD, which reduces the velocity of antiprotons to about 10% of the speed of light for research of antimatter. The AD machine was reconfigured from the previous antiproton collector AC machine. The extra low energy antiproton ring, Elena, which takes antiprotons from AD, and decelerates them into low energies, speeds for use in antimatter experiments.

The awake experiment, which is a proof of principal plasma wakefield accelerator, the CERN linear electron accelerator for research, clear accelerator research, and development facility. Many activities at CERN currently involve operating the large Hadron Collider, LHC, and the experiments for it. The LHC represents a large-scale worldwide scientific cooperation project. The LHC tunnel is located 100 meters underground in the region between Geneva International Airport and the nearby Jura Mountains. The majority of its length is on the French side of the border. It uses the 27-kilometer circumference circular tunnel previously occupied by the large electron-positive. Zahedron Collider, LEP, which was shut down in November 2000.

CERN's existing PS-S-X accelerator complexes are used to pre-accelerate protons and lead ions, which are then injected into the LHC. Eight experiments, CMS, Atlas, LHCB, Modal, Totem, LHCF, Phaser, and Alice, are located along the Collider. Each of them studies particle collisions from a different aspect, and with different technologies. Construction for these experiments required an extraordinary engineering effort. For example, a special crane was rented from Belgium to lower pieces of the CMS detector into its cavern, since each piece weighed nearly 2,000 tons.

The first of the approximately 5,000 magnets necessary for construction was lowered down a special shaft in March 2005. The LHC has begun to generate vast quantities of data, which CERN streams to laboratories around the world for distributed processing, making use of a specialized grid infrastructure, the LHC computing grid. In April 2005, a trial successfully streamed 600 megabits per second to seven different sites across the world. In August 2008, the initial particle beams were injected into the LHC. The first beam was circulated through the entire LHC on the 10th of September 2008, but the system failed 10 days later because of a faulty magnet connection, and it was stopped for repairs on September 19th, 2008.

The LHC resumed operation on November 20th, 2009, by successfully circulating two beams, each with an energy of 3.5 terra electron volts. The challenge for the engineers was then to line up the two beams so that they smashed into each other. This is like firing two. needles across the Atlantic and getting them to hit each other, according to Steve Myers, director for accelerators and technology. On March 30, 2010, the LHC successfully collided two

proton beams with 3.5 terra electron volts of energy per proton, resulting in a 7-terolectron volt collision energy. This was enough to start the main research program, including the search for the Higgs boson. When the 7-tero-electron-volt experiment period ended, the LHC increased to 8 terra-electron volts, 4 terra-electron volts per proton, starting March 2012, and soon began particle collisions at that energy. In July 2012, CERN scientists announced the discovery of a new subatomic particle that was later confirmed to be the Higgs boson. In March 23, In 2013, CERN announced that the measurements performed on the newly found particle allowed it to conclude that it was a Higgs boson. In early 2013, the LHC was deactivated for a two-year maintenance period,

to strengthen the electrical connections between magnets inside the accelerator and for other upgrades. On April 5th, 2015, after two years of maintenance and consolidation, the LHC restarted for a second run. The first ramp to record-breaking energy of 6.5 terra electron volts was performed on April 10th, 2015. In 2016, the design collision rate was exceeded for the first time. A second two-year period of shutdown began. at the end of 2018. As of October 2019, the construction is ongoing to upgrade the LHC's luminosity in a project called High Luminosity LHC. This project should see the LHC accelerated by 2026 to an order of magnitude higher luminosity. As part of the HL-L-HC upgrade project,

Also, other CERN accelerators and their subsystems are receiving upgrades. Among other work, the Linac 2 Linear Accelerator Injector was decommissioned and replaced by a new injector accelerator, the Linec 4. Decommissioned Accelerators. The original Linearer, Linec 1, operated 1959 to 1992. The Linac 2 linear accelerator injector Accelerated protons to 50 mega electron volts for injection into the proton synchrotron booster PSB operated 1978 to 2018.

The 600 mega electron volt synchrocyclotron SC, which started operation in 1957 and was shut down in 1991, was made into a public, exhibition in 2012 to 2013. The intersecting storage rings, ISR, an early collider built from 1966 to 1971, and operated until 1984. The super-proton-ant-proton-Syncroton-Syncroton S-PPS, operated 1981 to 1991. A modification of super-proton-S-Syctrotron to operate as a proton antiproton collider. The large electron positron collider, which operated 1989 to 2000, and was the largest

machine of its kind, housed in a 27-kilometer-long circular tunnel, which now houses the large Hadron Collider. The LAP pre-injector accelerator complex consisting of two accelerators, a linear accelerator called LEP Injector Lineak and a circular accelerator called electron positron accumulator. The purpose of these accelerators was to inject positron and electron beams into the CERN accelerator complex, more precisely to the proton synchrotron, to be delivered to LEP after many stages of acceleration. Operational 1987 to 2001,

After the shutdown of LEP and the completion of experiments that were directly fed by the LPI, the LPI facility was adapted to be used for the CLIC test facility 3. The low-energy anti-proton ring was commissioned in 1982. Lear assembled the first pieces of true antimatter in 1995, consisting of nine atoms of anti-hydrogen. It was closed in 1986 and superseded by the antiproton decelerator. The Lear apparatus itself was reconfigured into the low-energy ion ring, ion booster. The anti-proton accumulator built 1979 to 1980. Operations ended in 1997 and the machine was dismantled.

stored antiprotons produced by the proton synchrotron for use in other experiments and accelerators, for example the ISR, SPPS, and Lear. The latter half of its working life operated in tandem with antiproton collector to form the antiproton accumulation complex. The anti-proton collector built 1986 to 1987. Operations ended in 1997, and the machine was converted into the anti-proton decelerator, which is a successor machine for low-energy anti-proton ring. Operated in tandem was the antiproton accumulator,

and the pair formed the antiproton accumulation complex, whose purpose was to store antiprotons produced by the proton synchrotron for use in other experiments and accelerators, like the low-energy anti-proton ring and super-proton antiproton synchrotron, the compact linear collider test facility 3, which studied feasibility for the future normal conducting linear collider project. in Operation 2001 to 2016 One of its beam lines has been converted from 2017 on into the new CERN linear electron accelerator for research facility CERN, in collaboration with groups worldwide,

is investigating two main concepts for future accelerators, a linear electron-positron collider with a new acceleration concept to increase the energy, and a larger version of the LHC, a project currently named Future Circular Collider. The smaller accelerators are on the main Meran side, also known as the West Area, which was originally built in Switzerland alongside the French border,

but has been extended to span the border since 1965. The French side is under Switzerland, jurisdiction, and there's no obvious border within the site, apart from a line of marker stones. The SPS and LAP and LHC tunnels are almost entirely outside the main side, and are mostly buried into French farmland and invisible from the surface. They have surface sites at points around them, either as the location of buildings associated with experiments or other facilities needed to operate the colliders, such as cryogenic plants and access shafts. The experiments are located at the same underground level as the tunnels at these sides.

Three of these experimental sides are in France, with Atlas in Switzerland, and some of the ancillary cryogenic and access sites are in Switzerland. The largest of the experimental sites is the Prevesant site, also known as the North Area, which is the target station for non-collider experiments on the SPS Accelerator. Other sites are the ones which were used for the UA1, UA2, and the LEP experiments. The latter are used by LHC experiments. outside the LEP and LHC experiments, most are officially named and numbered after the site where they were located. For example, NA32 was an experiment looking at the production of so-called charmed particles

and located at the Prevesant North Area side. W.A. 22 used the big European bubble chamber, B.E.B.C. at the Meron-West, West. area side to examine neutrino interactions. The UA1 and UA2 experiments were considered to be in the underground area, i.e. situated underground at sites on the SPS accelerator. Most of the roads on the CERN-Méren and Prevesant sites are named after famous physicists, such as Wolfgang Paoli, who pushed for CERN's creation. Other notable names are Richard Feynman, Albert Einstein, and Bohr.