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You may of heard of the LHC at CERN? (or maybe not!)

Well, it is the biggest machine in the world buried deep underground and smashes particles together so scientists can see what they are made of.

The problem is that its sooo big and expensive that we can’t afford to build the next bigger one. Thats where my work comes in, I’m looking at a clever new way of getting particles to go even faster using the same sized machines. Then we can smash them together even harder!

That makes me an accelerator physicist – because I am trying to accelerate things. Good fun!

When I ‘go on experiment’ I can be there for up to 6 months. It involves getting up early and going to bed late but the thrill keeps you going.

Throughout the day me and my team get in the laser laboratory and build an experiment out of mirrors, cables, magnets, cameras and all sorts (don’t drop the mirrors!). Sometimes we turn on dangerous lasers so have to wear safety goggles, other times the magnets can be so powerful they can explode if you hit them with a screw driver, also we handle radioactive stuff so have to be very careful not to hurt ourselves.

Here is one of these huge mirrors we use (very expensive!):

Once we’re happy with it we shut the lead door of the laboratory and fire the giant laser (size of a house) from the control room!

The laser bounces off the mirrors and hits our little target (which usually gets blown up), the cameras catch the action and we look from the safety of the control room.