Goodfellow
Cambridge Ltd., known internationally for metals and metals used in science
and industry, enters it fifth decade as a supplier to Geneva-based CERN, the
European Organisation for Nuclear Research, at a time when activities at CERN
are attracting worldwide attention. CERN’s £4 billion Large Hadron
Collider (LHC), the world’s most powerful particle accelerator, whirred
into life on September 10 and scientists hope to unravel some of particle physics’
biggest mysteries. Scientists believe that the collision of proton beams may
recreate conditions that existed seconds after the Big Bang and so help to identify
the Higgs boson particle, known as the ‘God’ particle, thought to
cause mass to exist.
“Goodfellow has been supplying materials to CERN for over 40 years,”
states Goodfellow Managing Director Stephen Aldersley. “In that time,
our products have been used in many different areas of research, including activation
foils used to measure high-energy hadron fluences.” Goodfellow foils have
also been used at CERN in the production of getters – columns or cartridges
containing an active metal that is sacrificed to protect some other metal in
the system against galvanic corrosion. “CERN is currently in an especially
exciting time in its history and we look forward to many more years of successful
and exciting collaboration,” says Aldersley.
According to experts, it is likely to be 2010 before scientists can say whether
they have found the ‘God’ particle – or perhaps the existence
of a fifth, sixth, or seventh secret dimension of time and space.