“There’s a fundamental drive in humanity to understand our environment, understand the world around us … those sort of questions are the most compelling as a physicist because it’s some of the most violent, interesting, energetic areas of the universe — and you’re able to explore that 2 km underground. How cool is that?” says Nigel Smith, director of SNOLAB, which stands for Sudbury Neutrino Observatory Laboratory, located underground the Vale Creighton Mine. “Connecting the data we create to the international collaborations that are running these experiments are absolutely essential. Without the ability to access the experiments, pull the data back out to the home institute for analysis — having a solid backbone is essential, and that’s what ORION provides for us.”
Get a glimpse of what scientific research at SNOLAB entails by watching this video.
Further Reading
Find out more about SNOLAB in our 2014 Annual Snapshot.