What do fireworks and the universe have in common? Big bangs, of course.
Hence the pyrotechnic display that launched the summer festival in Geneva, Switzerland, on 30 July. CERN, the European centre for particle physics, is guest of honour on account of its 50th birthday. The fireworks told the story of the universe from its birth 13.7 billion years ago to the present day. The display began with a really big bang. Then came inflation, fundamental forces, matter, stars and, finally, planets like our own.
Inflation, with its faster-than-light expansion of space-time, was a struggle to recreate with fireworks, says…
