Artistic view of a superconducting magnet, 1990.

Artist's impresion of a superconducting magnet for LHC (Large Hadron Collider) being lowered into its cryostat. LHC is a proton-proton collider, due to be completed in the next century and housed in the LEP tunnel. LEP is the largest particle accelerator in the world. Accelerators are machines where charged particle beams are accelerated to high energies. Founded in 1954, CERN is the world's leading particle physics research laboratory, and one of Europe's first joint ventures.