The European Organization for Nuclear Research commonly known as CERN is located in Geneva and using the world’s powerful equipment known as the Large Hadron Collider conduct research on particle acceleration. The 17 mile long circular path for the collider can run 11,000 laps per second, very much close to the speed of light. It cost $6.6 billion to build and took more than 10 years to complete. It has an annual budget of $1.3 billion. It started its operations in 2008 and currently undergoing $105 million upgrade. The next phase of research is planned to start in March 2015. It is expected to unravel mysteries of the universe through its research, primarily by colliding atoms.

A new director is scheduled to take over operations of CERN in January 2016 and she is working hard to recruit new member countries to reduce the financial burden on current members. Most of its members are from Europe and Israel joined the organization last year as a full member. The scientists of the CERN are looking for the building block of the universe that vanished after the big bang. The organization uses its own software to analyze data they collect.