But the detector is more complicated than you might think. \u201cThe detector is made up of many different layers,\u201d she explains. \u201cWe often describe it as an onion.\u201d At the center, there\u2019s a tracker that tracks the particles passing through it. Then the calorimeter measures the energy that the particle loses as it travels, often by stopping the particles, and the particle-identification detectors identify particles, usually by measuring their mass.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s at the first layer, the heart of the detector, that Dr. Nellist\u2019s pixel detector, which is part of the ATLAS experiment at CERN, comes in. \u201cThe pixel detector is the very first layer that the particles pass through, the very first detecting layer, and so it has to be incredibly precise in terms of the space where we’re measuring where these particles have gone.\u201d<\/p>\n
This is one place where the absolute success of the Large Hadron Collider works against scientists\u2014the number of particles passing through the detector is extremely high, but each of these particles causes damage to the detector. \u201cWe have a friendly competition that the better the accelerator operates, the more quickly our detectors degrade. And so we have to design newer versions that can handle the increased radiation damage.\u201d It\u2019s a constant process of designing and upgrading for both robustness and sensitivity. \u201cWhat we want to do is make the most robust design that is also still operating very quickly and very precisely,\u201d she explains.<\/p>\n
She hasn\u2019t forgotten her love of English though, and she still uses her talent for language through her science communication work. She\u2019s especially known for her videos on TikTok<\/a> and Instagram<\/a>. \u201cScience communication is a way to make sure other people get to be exposed to the kind of work we’re doing and get to ask questions and not be made to feel silly about it,\u201d she explains. \u201cBecause everybody started from somewhere where they didn’t know what was going on.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI had opportunities because of my parents and that kind of thing,\u201d she continues. \u201cI want to be able to give other people the opportunity to find out what we\u2019re doing.\u201d<\/p>\n![\"Clara](\"https:\/\/media.wired.com\/photos\/6568ff7e936a2c4f6e268ea0\/master\/w_1600%2Cc_limit\/Clara_Nellist_8_web.jpg\")