Question: What is the coolest thing about your work/research?

James Smallcombe answered on 20 Oct 2020:

The particle accelerators are both cool and cool.
Our accelerators are cooled with liquid helium to −269 degrees Celsius, at this point the special material they are made of (niobium) becomes super conducting, meaning we can pass enormous electrical currents through with zero resistance creating no heat.
This is important because we need to use these currents to create massive electric fields, which we then use to accelerate particles to almost the speed of light (300,000,000 meters per second).
Getting to work with these sorts of awesome machines as a normal everyday thing is the coolest part of my job.