Sir John inspires Collider teacher
A SCIENCE teacher from Todmorden High School has received a prestigious invitation to visit the Large Hadron Collider operated by the European Organisation for Nuclear Research (Cern) in Switzerland.
Paul Murray, 32, who lives in Littleborough, won the chance to visit the iconic structure after writing a letter on the achievements of Todmorden-born physicist and Nobel Prize winner Sir John Douglas Cockcroft.
Mr Murray, who is a chemistry teacher but is re-training to be a physics and chemistry teacher, said: "The letter I wrote was about how John Cockcroft was the first person to work on the acceleration of protons.
"He was involved in trying to split the atom, which was key to Albert Einstein's work in atomic structure."
While he's visiting the site Paul hopes to find out more about the work of Cockcroft with a view to relaying the information to his students.
He said: "We're going to be looking in the underground tunnel and how the whole thing works.
"I'm going to ask the scientists where Cockcroft fits in with the whole study of atomic structure and the Hadron Collider, so I have more of an understanding of it myself.
"The older kids seem to be more excited because they know more about it.
"It's quite inspiring to know that a person from the town had such a major effect on the world of atomic structure."
Email to a friend
Print this page
Looking for...
Featured advertisers
Jobs
Search for a job
Motors
Search for a car
Property
Search for a house
Weather for Halifax
Saturday 11 February 2012
Today
Sunny spells
Temperature: -1 C to 0 C
Wind Speed: 8 mph
Wind direction: South west
Tomorrow
Cloudy
Temperature: 2 C to 5 C
Wind Speed: 9 mph
Wind direction: North west
