Google Street View visits CERN, Higgs Boson not captured in images

CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research (yes the acronym doesn't work unless you speak French) and LHC, the Large Hadron Collider, have been in the news quite a bit in recent times. The search for, and possible discovery of, the elusive Higgs Boson, the so-called "God-particle", is a major step forward for science.

Now the Google Maps Street View team have hung up their snorkels, dusted off their hiking boots, sailed home from the Galapogos and set their sights on a bit of science.

Google has trekked through the organization where the World Wide Web originated, taking cameras along for the ride. "We’re delighted that CERN opened its doors to Google Maps Street View allowing anyone, anywhere in the world to take a peek into its laboratories, control centers and its myriad underground tunnels housing cutting-edge experiments. Street View also lets scientists working on the experiments, who may be on the other side of the world, explore the equipment they're using", says Pascale Milite of Google Street View operations.

The images are not entirely new -- the footage was actually taken back in 2011 by a team from the company's Zurich office, and it does more than just display the LHC itself. Other cutting edge experiments can be found as you browse around the interior of one of the most sophisticated labs in the world.

The project not only aims to bring a bit of science education to the masses, but Google claims it will aid those working on projects at CERN from remote locations around the world. Most of us will not fall into that category, so for the majority, it is just very cool to get a view at what we have only read about in the news.