Fast Computing Zone
Computers operate in binary, meaning they store data and perform calculations using only zeros and ones | Image: Christiaan Colen
From the creation of the world wide web, to mapping a billion stars with the Gaia mission, computing is changing our world. Amazing, super speedy computers are all around us – they control the satellites that orbit our Earth and explore our solar system; they model plasmas, biological proteins and crystals, creating a simulated world at our fingertips.
In this zone you’ll meet one scientist working with the government as a climate change analyst, one using computers to simulate how star systems evolve and another using computers to model how bacteria behave. There is a scientist working to make electronics smaller and higher performing and another trying to increase scientists’ understanding of the top quark, a heavy particle. You’ll also meet a scientist trying to predict the properties of particles not yet detected, but that might exist.