A GROUP of intrepid science students from Amery Hill School in Alton spent a few days at the end of the summer term on an inspirational visit to Switzerland to investigate the fabric of the universe.

The year nine and year 10 students had the chance to visit the world’s biggest science experiment, known as the Large Hadron Collider, at CERN – the European Organisation for Nuclear Research.

As well as being the largest scientific experiment in the world, it is also the most expensive, costing around £6bn.

The Large Hadron Collider is designed to undertake experiments to provide answers to some of the most awe-inspiring physics questions such as how the Universe came to be the way it is and what happened just after the Big Bang.

Students had a guided tour around the site and were lucky enough to go 100 metres below ground to examine the compact muon solenoid detector.

Talking about the visit, teacher and trip organiser Alistair Wright said: “The highlight for many students included finding out about anti-matter and meeting the supervisor who was in charge when a weasel shut the site down in April!”

In addition to visiting the impressive Cern facility, the Amery Hill students visited the History of Science Museum, the Botanical Gardens, sampled a traditional Swiss fondue meal, and took a boat tour on Lake Geneva.