The first Italian website dedicated exclusively to the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), the large particle accelerator located at CERN in Geneva, has been created. The site is managed by the Press Office of Italy's National Institute of Nuclear Physics (INFN) and was activated simultaneously with the completion of the first complete cycle of the particles within the accelerator's 27-km ring, after the accident that occurred last year.
The address is: http://www.infn.it/lhcitalia/
The site currently includes news, press releases, information on the apparatus, and the various experiments conducted with the LHC, as well as information on Italy's contribution to its development. The site also includes infographics, photographs, and videos of the LHC and the experiments.
LHC – Italy's important contribution
The LHC is an international scientific initiative in which Italy has played a leading role, contributing approximately 15% of the entire apparatus. More than 600 Italian physicists, coordinated by the National Institute of Nuclear Physics, are involved in this initiative. Moreover, two Italians, Guido Tonelli and Fabiola Gianotti, act as spokespersons for the two "giants" of the experiments performed with the LHC (i.e., the CMS and ATLAS experiments), and the Director of Research of CERN, Sergio Bertolucci, who is an ex-member of the INFN's Executive Council, is also from Italy.
Italian industry has also contributed to the construction of the LHC, providing extremely important and technologically advanced components, and Italy has also succeeded in ensuring a return on the investments made in the LHC.
