CERN (Conseil Européen pour la Recherche Nucléaire) is a European research organization established in 1954 and located on the French-Swiss border. Home to over half of the particle physicists in the world, this physics superpower has 22 membership countries and over 2,500 staff members.

CERNs main function is the Large Hadron Collider. This is a particle accelerator which is a mechanism that shoots microscopic particles at each other at approximately light speed. These collisions give scientists insight on the fundamentals on how the universe works. Not only is this the largest particle accelerator ever but it is the single largest machine mankind has created.

This 9 billion dollar complex is built 575 feet underground and includes 17 miles of tunnels, 7 massive detectors, 9600 super magnets, and 4,100 miles of coiled cable surrounding the accelerator.