Geneva and Frankfurt, 10 October 2012. CERN¹ is today showcasing its science at the Frankfurt Book Fair². As well as a range of books looking at the science of CERN and the LHC, the Laboratory will unveil a new interactive LHC time tunnel display and announce a collaboration with games developer Rovio to develop new educational resources for children linked to their award-winning Angry Birds³ game.

“We’re thrilled to bring particle physics to the world’s largest book fair,” said Rolf Landua, head of CERN’s Education and Outreach group. “This is the official launch of our new interactive tunnel, which we look forward to integrating into future exhibitions. But as a special treat for this book fair, you may see some birds flying through it!”

The LHC time tunnel, built especially for the book fair, takes people into the world of sub-atomic particles by using state-of-the-art motion sensors and projectors to visualise the effect of the Higgs field. Visitors can visualise protons moving inside the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) and can kick virtual particles as hard as they can to see how they collide.

The CERN stand is based around a partial reconstruction of the CERN Control Centre, complete with live LHC status updates on the screens. Popular science books about CERN are on display, as well as the first computer used by Tim Berners-Lee to develop the original World Wide Web software, and the antimatter trap used in Hollywood blockbuster “Angels & Demons”.

Events on the CERN stand:

On Friday 12 October at 13:00 Angry Birds will fly through the CERN stand as CERN Director General Rolf Heuer and Rovio’s Chief Marketing Officer, Peter Vesterbacka, announce the start of the collaboration to develop educational resources.

On Saturday 13 October from 14:30-16:00, Professor Heuer will be signing the book “LHC: the Large Hadron Collider”, published by Austrian publisher Edition Lammerhuber in cooperation with CERN and UNESCO Publishing. This book features the photography of Peter Ginter and text from Austrian writer and playwright Franzobel with an introduction from Professor Heuer.

Each day at 10:00, 12:00, 14:00 and 16:00 CERN physicists will present “Insights into the world's largest particle accelerator”, giving audiences the latest updates about research into the smallest of nature’s building blocks. These events will include live connections with the control rooms of CERN’s LHC and the experiments ATLAS and CMS. Questions from the public will be answered in German and English.

The CERN stand is B 1422 in Hall 4.2, the Hall for Expert Information, Science, Technology, and Education.

1. CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research, is the world's leading laboratory for particle physics. It has its headquarters in Geneva. At present, its Member States are: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Slovak Republic, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. Romania has the status of Candidate for Accession. Israel and Serbia are Associate Member States in the pre-stage to Membership. India, Japan, the Russian Federation, the United States of America, Turkey, the European Commission and UNESCO have Observer status.
2. The Frankfurt Book Fair, now in its 64th year, is the world’s largest book fair. Taking place each October, it is the most important marketplace for books, media, rights and licences worldwide and a meeting place for publishers, booksellers, agents, film producers and authors. Its history dates back to the 15th century, when Johannes Gutenberg first invented movable type only a few kilometres from Frankfurt. In 1949, 205 German exhibitors assembled on 18-23 September in Frankfurt's Paulskirche for the first post-War book fair. More than 7,000 exhibitors from 100 countries and nearly 300,000 visitors attended the 2011 event.
3. The Angry Birds computer games have been downloaded more than a billion times http://www.rovio.com/en/news/blog/162/1-billion-angry-birds-downloads. Angry Birds has won numerous awards including "Best Game App" and "App of the Year" at the UK Appy Awards in 2011.