Discovery Monday: Much ado about nothing: vacuums

Most people seem to agree that an empty space has nothing in it. But what about the physicists? "Wait a minute!", they will tell you, at the Microcosm's next Discovery Monday on 5th April, for they know that even interstellar space is not as empty as it might seem...
Because particles, the tiny constituents of matter, are everywhere. Even the most sophisticated vacuum pumps cannot get rid of them all. What's more, energy is omnipresent in the Universe. Energy has the habit of turning itself into matter then disappearing, only to come back again as energy... and all this in the twinkling of an eye. Hence the term "virtual matter". A completely empty space simply does not exist.

Vacuums are of vital importance to CERN's physicists. In the accelerators, it is essential to obtain the best possible vacuum inside the tube through which the particles travel, in order to avoid interference from other, stray particles. To this end they use "getter" strips, which act like fly traps. When these strips are cooled to very low temperatures, tiny air particles are attracted to them and stick to them like flies to sticky paper. This getter technology enables the physicists to obtain an even higher vacuum than that of the solar system.
Come and discover the technological advances made at CERN and their everyday applications. Take a step into the world of the vacuum, which is not as empty as you might think. And bring your children, who will get a chance to see what happens when a marshmallow is placed in a vacuum!