Students “hangout” with CMS physicists on Google+

The Compact Muon Solenoid experiment at the LHC [CMS] recently organised two virtual visits to the CMS experimental cavern, around 100 meters underground, using the Google+ Hangouts platform. Schools, universities and interested members of the public were invited to remotely connect with physicists in front of the CMS detector and in the above-ground control room, to talk about the detector, the LHC, and the physics goals of the collaboration.

Google+ Hangouts, a feature of the new social network, are multi-user video calls with up to ten participants…