The gift of mass

It is an interactive installation on the Higgs mechanism, the physical phenomenon according to which the elementary particles gained mass in the primordial Universe. Thanks to an interactive and multimedia installation, the public can virtually experience losing and acquiring their mass, thus being stimulated to reflect on the physical meaning of the famous Higgs boson discovered in 2012 at CERN in Geneva and for which the Nobel Prize for Physics was awarded in 2013 to two theoretical physicists, Peter Higgs and François Englert, who first suggested its existence.

Year: 2012
Credit: INFN Communications Office
Concept & scientific direction: Vincenzo Napolano, Antonella Varaschin
Multimedia: Embrio.net e Paolo Scoppola

Collisioni.infn.it is the web space of the National Institute of Nuclear Physics dedicated to cultural and scientific outreach activities aimed at the public and schools: a meeting point between physics and culture, offering resources and initiatives to bring the public and schools closer to the world of scientific research.