Place · physics laboratory · Switzerland
CERN, Geneva
The European particle physics laboratory on the French-Swiss border, outside whose Microcosm building stands a two-metre bronze Nataraja, given by the Government of India in 2004 to mark India's long association with the laboratory.
- Function
- Science & medicine
- Confidence
- Established / referenced
- Location
- 46.233, 6.056
Worth knowing
The plaque quotes Fritjof Capra on the dance of subatomic particles as a modern version of Shiva's. Physicists' views on the analogy vary from fond to withering, but the statue is the most-photographed object on the site.
Connections (2)
- Shared sacred geographyChidambaram
A two-metre bronze Nataraja stands outside the Microcosm building at CERN, given by the Government of India in 2004 to mark a long association with the laboratory, with a plaque quoting Fritjof Capra on the dance of subatomic particles. Chidambaram is where the image belongs: the Nataraja temple of the Tamil country, whose sanctum holds empty space as the element of ether. Physicists' opinions of the analogy run from fond to withering; the statue is the most photographed object on the site.
- AnalogueRome
Rome received Indian pepper and ivory and complained about the cost; CERN received a Nataraja and put it on a plinth. Two thousand years apart, the two European institutions at the end of this network mark the change from India as a source of goods to India as a partner in an experiment — and the 2004 gift was chosen precisely to make that point.
On these journeys
Sources
Wikipedia, “CERN”. Archaeological Survey of India and State Archaeology monument records, and the standard regional literature.
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